Projects planning hits lull
Posted on Saturday, November 15, 2008
Since 2005, the number of development plans submitted to municipal offices has plummeted, giving local planning departments a chance to catch up but also forcing cities to monitor their staffs’ size.
With the close of 2008 less than two months away, the year is looking to have the fewest large-scale development plans submitted since the population boon, planning directors in the region’s four largest cities said.
For now, the directors said their offices are busy revising ordinances, looking at long-term projects, and getting to a list of things they were too busy to address during the years of mass building and 60- to 80-hour workweeks.
“We had so much going on before, it was so hard to keep up with,” said Patsy Christie, Springdale’s planning and community development director. “Now, we have more time to spend with each project.”
Rogers’ Planning Director Candy Anderson said she preferred the busier times.
“I liked it in the heyday when you’d go to the bathroom and come back, and five people wanted to know where you were,” she said.
Anderson said at times you have to be “creative” to fill your days during these tough economic times but said it was important to keep busy.
Anderson and other planning officials said their offices aren’t considering layoffs but are doing other things to mind their staffto-work ratio.
The departments’ transition to slower times is a normal part of the business cycle, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“There’s time to catch up on lots of work, but at some point you have to evaluate the cost effectiveness,” she said, adding it’s hard to “right size” offices that deal with issues such as planning during times of fluctuation.
The amount of large-scale development plans — required documents showing the layout of the development and types of buildings and landscaping — dropped about 55 percent in Springdale, 38 percent in Bentonville and about 20 percent in Rogers between 2005 and 2007. Fayetteville had 40 large-scale development plans during 2005 and 41 in 2007. The city peaked during those years in 2006 with 47 large-scale development plans.
Fayetteville planning director Jeremy Pate said his office hasn’t approved overtime in the past two years.
“If we lost someone right now, we’d definitely scramble to replace them,” he said.
Bentonville Mayor Bob Mc-Caslin said the city “reinvented” its code enforcement group in order to increase efficiency. As the number of building inspections and permits decreased, the city reassigned building inspectors to conduct code enforcement duties with specific areas of the city they were responsible for.
Two positions have been lost through attrition, he said.
“So far, we’re winning,” Mc-Caslin said. “But anything could happen. I’d like to say we’re operating our city in a way taxpayers deserve. Should our revenues ever diminish to the point where we couldn’t supply those services, we’d have to make some tough decisions.”
Rogers, too, has eliminated two positions through attrition, Mayor Steve Womack said.
“I’m hoping we don’t have to do anymore,” he said of job elimination. “I’m hopeful the economic conditions under which we operate right now will show some improvement. But we’re not going to have people twiddling their thumbs, either.”
Employees are staying busy in Fayetteville and Springdale through large building projects and added responsibilities.
Fayetteville inspectors are overseeing construction on three major apartment complexes, said Steve Cattaneo, the city’s building and safety director.
“Although the number of inspections are down by about 20 percent, we’re looking at some pretty big buildings,” he said, estimating the three projects have 1, 200 units that need to be reviewed. In December, a private engineering firm will hand over the remainder of Springdale’s $ 105 million 2003 bond program to the city’s planning department. Six of the 18 bond projects still are under construction. It’ll take at least a year before those projects are complete, Christie said. “I’m anticipating by the time that we’re all caught up, [the economy ] will be moving forward,” she said. Businesses leaders nationwide likely are wondering whether they need as many people to complete their tasks, Deck said. That’s what happens during an economic slowdown. “And really, no one is immune to that,” she said. “Business cycles have happened forever and ever. It is typical.”
To contact this reporter: aotoole@arkansasonline. com
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