Setting the standard : Design standards intended to enhance quality, eliminate inconsistencies
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Kalene Griffith, president of the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau, was on business in Mansfield, Texas, last month and was impressed with what she saw.
"That community is so well put together," Griffith said. "You could tell Mansfield has development standards in place. You could see it in every building there. It was a very classy and organized community. The colors and designs all went together, but without everything looking the same."
Come May 20, the city of Bentonville may have a similar set of commercial design standards, as the Bentonville Planning Commission is scheduled to review an ordinance drawn up by a committee of city leaders, planners, architects and others. Planning commissioners here have been asking for a list of enforceable commercial design standards for years, but to this point, the historic downtown area is the only section of town that has had such requirements in place. So through the biggest development boom in Bentonville's history, the city, without any real authority, has been hoping developers would comply with requests.
"In some cases, we've had to ask developers to do things that really weren't required by ordinance, " commissioner Buddy Vernetti said at a meeting earlier this year. "We've been fortunate so many developers understood our vision, but it's always better to have that kind of thing written down to fall back on. But this town grew so quickly, it's one of those things we just hadn't taken care of yet."
For the past couple of months, a committee has been working to draw up a set of design standards intended to improve the overall quality of commercial development with surrounding land uses and enhance pedestrian safety and walkability. The thought is that such standards will create better flow and consistency with development across the city, while being flexible enough to allow each project to infuse its own ideas. Committee members include City Council members Rod Sanders and Chris Sootier, planning commissioners Joe Thompson and Lisa Bohn, Janet Atwood of the Board of Adjustments, local architect Harrison French, and Griffith of the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The proposed commercial-design-standards ordinance would require new development to incorporate more brick, architectural concrete panels, textured concrete block, natural stone, architectural steel or stone panels into their exterior designs. Such exterior materials as wood, masonite, aluminum, steel siding, sheet metal, stucco and vinyl would be ruled out, other than for trimming purposes.
The ordinance goes on to address everything from color, compatibility and scale to wall articulation and facades. For example, commercial buildings would be required to utilize primarily muted, neutral or earth-tone colors. This regulation, however, is not intended to prohibit brighter colors from use in specifically approved architectural detailing. For larger structures, varying wall articulations would be required in order to avoid long, interrupted or blank walls.
Quite a bit of attention is paid to compatibility and size standards. All commercial structures would have to be designed in a manner that's compatible with other structures in the surrounding vicinity. The exterior design - including roof style, color, materials, architectural form and detailing - must be consistent with all buildings in a common commercial development. The height and scale of new buildings, as well as building setbacks and lot sizes, would be required to fit in with those of existing structures.
Developers would be required to incorporate no fewer than three architectural details - including canopies, awnings, recesses, peaked roof forms, arches, display windows, accent materials, tile, moldings and more. Projects would also be encouraged to include patio seating, pedestrian plazas with benches, mini parks, public art, water features, clock towers or any combination of such amenities.
Still, the committee and city planners believe the ordinance has been written in such a way that developers and investors are encouraged and able to bring their unique concepts. Being able to consider each project individually, yet adhere to a basic set of standards, is intended to raise the quality of development while also protecting against monotonous design, according to Bentonville planning services manager Shelli Rushing.
"This will give us standards across the board for the community," Griffith said. "It will be easier for the planning staff and commission to give guidance when developers first come in. They'll be able to go through the standards and be ready to take the next step. This is going to benefit everyone involved."
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