Fayetteville City Council Agenda Session - July 28, 2026
Fayetteville City Council Agenda Session - July 28, 2026
The Fayetteville City Council met in an agenda session on July 28, 2026 to discuss items for the upcoming regular meeting. Topics included consent agenda purchases, code changes to support smaller housing, historic district designations, stormwater issues, and procedural updates. No votes were taken; items were prepared for formal action.
Consent Calendar
- Purchase of Peterbuilt container carrier for $202,350 from TLG Peterbilt of Northwest Arkansas via SourceWell co-op (including up to 10% freight/delivery).
- Work truck replacement for Water and Sewer Department for $55,155.32 from National Auto Fleet Group (also via SourceWell, with surcharges up to 10%).
- Hydro cedar trailer from Vermeer Mid South for $45,523 (also via SourceWell, with up to 10% contingency).
- Amendment No. 1 to agreement with Kimley Horn and Associates for additional design services for the Safe Streets and Roads for All project, $810,500. Pulled due to staff absence (Justin Bland delayed).
- Amendment No. 1 with OPW Commercial Services for additional fire hydrant painting, $47,000 (total contract $94,000). Almost 1,000 hydrants painted so far; city has about 6,000 total.
- Adoption of updated City of Fayetteville Emergency Operations Plan (presented by Chief Harden). The plan was reduced from over 300 pages to about 30 pages plus annexes. Discussion included training at National Fire Academy and multilingual communications (response to Councilmember Moore's question about cultural accessibility). Chief Harden noted quarterly regional drills.
Public Comments & Testimony
No dedicated public comment period was held; however, council members raised questions on behalf of residents during discussions.
Discussion Items
- B1: North School Avenue Structure – Update from Billy Bryant: Property owner has hired an engineer for retaining wall design, applied for grading permit. Staff may recommend tabling if no setbacks.
- B2-B4: Housing Code Amendments – Presentation by Marley on 2026 housing assessment. Key findings: rental vacancy reached all-time low in 2019; 45% of renters cost-burdened; structural mismatch in housing types. Proposed changes: (1) Amend definition of through lot; (2) Reduce minimum lot width from 18 ft to 12 ft in certain districts; (3) Allow Planning Commission to grant additional parking reductions. Council requested maps and spreadsheets showing impacted areas and percentages.
- B5: Tanglewood Branch Streamside Protection – No new updates from applicant. Staff recommendation against due to precedent concern.
- B6: Rezone 2445 North Humont Road – Applicant working on revised legal descriptions to keep floodplain in protective zoning. Deadline for submission: Monday before regular meeting.
- B7: Rezone Appeal 1845 West Weddington Drive – Stormwater presentation by Alan Pugh. Discussed drainage issues in Hamstring Creek watershed. Preliminary analysis shows opportunity to divert upstream drainage away from 1903 West Weddington. Councilmember Turk requested a holistic watershed approach. City may consider capital improvements. No legal mechanism for conditional rezoning; bills of assurance are typical.
- C1-C3: Historic Districts – Kylie Cole presented two new districts: (1) Fayetteville Black Historic District (78 parcels, focus on historic black ownership) and (2) South Fayetteville Historic District (54 parcels, working-class 20th-century neighborhood, includes Jefferson School). Both resulted from a single petition split by HDC. State Historic Preservation Office approved in early June. Council requested education on property rights within districts.
- C4: Vacation of Right-of-Way at 200 South Skyline Drive – 0.015 acres to correct property line issue caused by failed private stormwater line. Staff found no public interest concerns; no public comments received.
- C5: Resolution on Consent Agenda Procedure – Proposed by Councilmember Burner: amend rules to allow single vote approval of consent agenda (currently requires two votes). Left on new business for separate discussion.
- Walk-on: Appeal Fee Exemption – Ordinance introduced by Councilmembers Turk and Moore to waive appeal fees for appeals sponsored by a city council member. Discussion included equitable access and history of no fees for decades. Councilmember Wiederkehr suggested this does not affect developer appeal fees.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda items (except A6 pulled) will be presented for approval at the regular meeting.
- For housing code amendments, staff will provide additional maps, spreadsheets, and photos at the regular meeting.
- The Tanglewood branch amendment and Weddington rezone appeal will proceed with further applicant information.
- Historic district ordinances will be on the regular meeting for a vote; staff will prepare educational materials on property rights.
- The consent agenda procedure resolution will be discussed further.
- The appeal fee exemption walk-on will be introduced as an emergency ordinance.
- Cooling centers opened due to heat wave: Fayetteville Town Center (July 28), Rooted Church (July 29), Yvonne Richardson Center (July 30). No overnight emergency shelters beyond regular services. Mayor acknowledged breakdown in partner communication and promised long-term plan.
Meeting Transcript
We are gonna get started on this evening's agenda session. It looks like all right. So the first thing up next week at the regular meeting, we will be um recognizing some of our fire department personnel for their service. So that'll be a great way to kick off the meeting. We'll then swear in the newest um uh appointees to Fayetteville Youth Advisory Council, and Judge Stevenson will be here to do that uh oath of office. We had record applications uh for to serve on the youth council, and um it's really fun to go through those and get to talk to those kids. Um and then also we will have the sales tax and monthly financial report from Steven and the consent agenda, two sets of minutes on the consent agenda. Um the first resolution is to approve the purchase of a Peterbuilt container carry uh carrier for 202,350 from TLG Peterbilt of Northwest Arkansas. This was sourced through a source well uh co-op purchasing contract and will include freight charges and delivery fees up to 10 percent. This and the next one, two, three items are from Ross, and they are all at fleet. So if at any point you have questions, Ross is here and he can come up and answer. The second second one is a work truck replacement for the water and sewer department. This one comes through National Auto Fleet Group. It's 500, sorry, $55,155.32 cents. It's also through SourceWell Co-op and includes um and and then we're plus any applicable surcharges, freight charges, and delivery fees up to 10%. And then the third fleet item is a resolution to approve the purchase of a hydro cedar trailer from Vermeer Mid South Inc. in the amount of 45,523 dollars pursuant to, and I'm not for sure why that one frankly is even on this agenda, um, because we don't have to take that to council, but we're doing it maybe because of the contingency up to 10%. Uh pursuant to a source well co-op purchasing contract, plus any applicable taxes, surcharges, freight charges, title, licensing, and delivery fees up to 10% of the original purchase price. Okay. Looks like we don't have any questions for fleet. The next item on consent is a resolution to approve amendment number one to the professional services agreement with Kimley Horn and Associates and the amount of $810,500 for additional design services associated with the safe streets and roads for all project. I believe Justin Bland is here to speak to this per key. Yes, he's delayed. So Alan Pugh, can you mention the bring this up real quick? And Alan, while you're coming up, my question was gonna be is this for multiple streets? And could you kind of list those if there are multiples? I'm assuming. Thank you. And unfortunately, I may not know the answer to that because I've not been uh really involved in this project, but um you haven't really you haven't been in dropped involved in the um Kimley Horn safety improvements on Joyce. Okay, well then let's not I then there's no need, I don't think, for you to I mean, I think we need to wait on Justin then. Okay, so we either need to pull this item off to a different agenda or wait till he can get back. Yeah, we can do that back at the end. I don't want you to have to, that's not fair to you, Alan, but thank you for being willing. A seven, a resolution to approve amendment number one to the contract with OPW Commercial Services of Arkansas and the amount of 47,000 for additional fire hydrant painting services. Um this is something that we began doing, I think either this spring, um, just painting and repairing all the fire hydrants around town. Um Teresa. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I remember us having this conversation about what a low price this was, and so I guess I'm wondering um have they actually gone in and repainted some fire hydrants and what um has the workman um good and suitable? I'm assuming that since they're coming back up here, but I thought I'd at least ask. Yes, that is true. They were by far the lowest bid of all the bidders. Uh they have almost completed a thousand fire hydrants, done a great job. They all look good. So we asked them if they want to do another thousand for the same price, and they said they would. So that's why we're bringing this amendment for the same price. It'll make the total contract 94,000. And Tim, how many more fire hydrants are there out there that need to be repainted or or will that catch us up for for right now? No, this'll get us up to 2,000. We've got about 6,000 to paint. So thank you.
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