University of Arkansas / March 13, 2007
Light Rail Study Wins National Award
Planning study shows how light rail development in Northwest Arkansas could maintain economic competitiveness and spur environmental sustainability.
FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. - An award-winning regional-planning project offers Northwest Arkansas a mass transit model that supports economic development and environmental sustainability.
The University of Arkansas Community Design Center with Washington University in St. Louis has won an American Institute of Architects Education Honor Award for taking on a thorny regional planning issue: light rail. Studios at both universities explored how light rail and associated transit-oriented development could ease traffic gridlock, spur downtown revitalization and check sprawl in Northwest Arkansas.
"If Northwest Arkansas is still relying on fossil fuels by 2020, that will be the death knell for further economic development. By then, business will go to those areas using renewable energy sources, because ultimately, that will be cheaper," said Stephen Luoni, director of the Community Design Center. Creative, cutting-edge businesses also factor in quality of life in their decision-making: "People want affordable downtown housing, which transit-oriented development would foster. And they're tired of sitting in traffic," he said.
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