Committee meets, chooses consultant for city project

After going over eight proposals and interviewing five different firms, a selection committee tentatively chose Gould Evans to put together a comprehensive plan for Bella Vista.

The selection committee consists of aldermen Linda Lloyd and Brian Bahr, Economic Development Manager Travis Stephens, Community Development Services Director Chris Suneson and senior planner Jennifer Bonner.

"We are very excited about this process," Suneson said. "It is one of those interesting times in the development of the city."

It's important to bring in an outside entity to put a plan like this together, he said, because they look at the city with fresh eyes, while people who live and work in the city and see it every day may find a lot of details just become part of the scenery.

The committee met with Confluence, Gould, H3, Halff and Marvin after eliminating Garver, Crafton Tull and Vireo.

Mayor Peter Christie said that making a good selection and getting a solid company to provide the city with "thought leadership" is incredibly important.

"I need to be able to move the whole community forward," he said. "We've been getting our ducks in a row ready for this."

The city has put together some documents, including a strategic plan and a master street plan, that can help prepare the city for a comprehensive plan, he said.

The comprehensive plan, according to the request for proposals, "will be to serve as a framework for future planning documents as well as a policy guide for citizens, developers, staff and elected officials regarding future development."

Dennis Strait, principal and board member with Gould Evans, said the business is a planning and design firm. The firm, he said, has partnered with transportation and economic planning firms.

"We're bringing all those disciplines to the table," Strait said.

The firm, he said, is focused on what he refers to as "planning to build value," the idea that improvements should be seen as investment. Furthermore, he said, residents can be viewed as investors.

While Bella Vista may have challenges, Strait said, he also believes the city has a great deal of opportunity.

"We're sincere about this," he said. "You guys are well ahead of most cities. You may not feel that way in some ways, but you are. You have opportunities that most cities don't."

But it's important, he said, to spend money wisely. For example, with more than 500 miles of roads, the city has roughly $200 million worth of roads, he said. With that in mind, he said, if the city replaces its streets every half century -- which is going longer than ideal -- the city is going to be spending around $4 million on roads each year. The city, he said, may not be large enough to support the roads it has.

Associate Vice President and lead planner Graham Smith said wise spending is one of the firm's over-arching principles. It's important, he said, to invest in ways that will help boost private investment.

It's also important, he said, to get the community on board.

"We know this is a city plan," he said, "but it has to be owned by the community."

To meet that goal, he said, it's important to work on a public engagement plan, which allows the firm to meet and educate the public about what they're doing, as well as learn what the public needs and wants from their community.

Churches, he said, might be a good place to start, simply because there are many of them and they all serve as gathering places for significant portions of the population.

Once the firm has a good feel for the city and how it works, he said, it can factually work on generating a plan.

"We all bring a different point of view, we all find value in different things," he said. "We are not status quo people."

Following the interview process, the committee immediately eliminated H3 and Marvin.

Lloyd said she didn't believe they did much research on the city itself, and they talked about things that simply weren't relevant to the city.

"They talked about road connectivity and getting rid of cul de sacs," she said.

Of the remaining firms, everyone but senior planner Bonner had Gould first in line, and they were listed second for her. Her first choice was Confluence.

Alderman Bahr said he was impressed with Gould Evans largely because they demonstrated a great deal of research. One thing he noticed, he said, is they were the only firm that even mentioned the city's Back 40 trail system.

"Overall, the team was outstanding," he said. "They hit it out of the park."

Director Suneson said he liked the presentation because, not only did they demonstrate they had done research, but they managed to create a dynamic discussion, rather than simply talking over a series of slides.

"I think our next steps are to get in touch with references as well as Gould Evans to discuss contracts," he said.