| University Park | Strategy | Theme | Goals | Principals | Socio-Economic Factors | Physical Features | Strengths | Plan Highlights | Responsibility | Actions |
The University Park Neighborhood Plan represents the results of a project undertaken in Pine Bluff, Arkansas during the last half of 2004. The neighborhood lies in the northern portion of the city and is the home of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. For this reason, local citizens chose the name “University Park” for their neighborhood.
The University and the City of Pine Bluff partnered to produce the plan. The City’s Department of Community Development directed the project with assistance from the University’s Economic Research and Development Center. The basis for the plan’s proposals came from public input during neighborhood hearings.
The University Park Neighborhood Revitalization area, hereinafter referred to as the University Park Neighborhood or “The Neighborhood” surrounds the campus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, which is one of the oldest colleges in the state. Its stature as a research center in southeast Arkansas has earned it the title “The Flagship of the Delta.”
The University Park Neighborhood is one of the oldest and most established African-American neighborhoods in the city. It has benefited from concentrated housing and physical improvements over the last ten years. It has also seen new additions such as churches, new homes and a bank. It now stands ready for addtional residential and commercial development. This plan will guide that development.
The physical boundaries are Oliver Road on the north, including Golden Lion Stadium at the North of Oliver Road; West Barraque on the south, Lake Pine Bluff on the East, Willow Street on the West as far as Fluker Street then continuing back with West Pullen and West Barraque streets.
The photograph above illustrates the relationship of the neighborhood to Lake Pine Bluff and the commercial core of the city. The photograph also points out the potential of Lake Pine Bluff to be a connecting design element that will tie the neighborhood and the university to the rest of the city.
This plan continues efforts that have been ongoing in the neighborhood for years. These include both improvements to the neighborhood and to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. It also relies upon previous plans. One is the University Park Neighborhood
Revitalization Strategy that was part of the city’s 2004 Consolidated Plan. This plan made housing improvements a key redevelopment goal. The other resource was the Campus and Neighborhood Plan prepared in 1997 by EDAW and Associtates.
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Commercial uses and the University property will dominate a large portion of the University Drive corridor simply because of the heavy traffic. The most prevalent type commercial now is automotive based. Uses need to expand to include businesses that cater to the needs of neighborhood residents.
Light manufacturing and distribution uses, although few in number, still exist in the area. These uses may not be appropriate in all sections of the neighborhood. They are important, however, to the extent that they provide employment to neighborhood residents.
Education will play an increasing role in the development of the study area. The plan will feature University Drive as an “educational corridor.” Further, it will assume the image of the gateway to the City of Pine Bluff.
Aligned very closely with the educational aspect of the plan is the importance of coordinating activities and programs in the University Park Neighborhood and the University with programs and activities in other parts of the city. For example, the nature center in Regional Park brings 100,000 visitors a year to the city. The presence of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff creates an excellent opportunity for expanding the experience of these visitors through an interactive college experience.
Residential will be a major element of the plan. The single-family home will remain the dominant housing type. Other housing types will occur, however, to meet the changing needs of the neighborhood residents as their housing needs change over time.
In summary, the strategy for revitalization and redevelopment is one of synergy. Each activity undertaken by each entity involved in the neighborhood should be evaluated in terms of how it could interact with other entities.
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Consolidate commercial uses along the University Drive corridor north and south of the University itself. South of the University, the plan will emphasize neighborhood commercial. More intense commercial uses, including highway commercial and entertainment districts, should congregate north of the University.
Use Lake Pine Bluff as a visual and thematic tie to the rest of the city. Orient new University activities toward the lake.
Concentrate multi-family uses in designated assemblage areas. Improve signage along the Martha Mitchell Expressway to promote the University Park Neighborhood and the University Drive corridor.
Improve the entrances to the University Drive corridor.
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The goals of the plan are:
To improve housing, neighborhood services, employment, and health opportunities for the neighborhood residents.
To continue the “good neighbor” relationship between neighborhood residents and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
To connect the University Park Neighborhood and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff to the bigger area that includes the city of Pine Bluff and southeast Arkansas.
To provide guidance for using resources in the University Park Neighborhood in the most efficient way for the betterment of its residents, the university, other neighborhood institutions, and neighborhood businesses.
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The planning team and neighborhood residents developed the following principles to guide the plan.
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The plan will reflect citizen concerns.
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The neighborhood plan, while emphasizing the single-family home, will recognize the need for alternative, flexible developments that will permit housing choices and new investment in the neighborhood.
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The plan will seek to encourage new housing opportunities for all residents, including low-income households, students, facility and staff.
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The plan will improve the livability of the neighborhood.
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The plan will be market oriented. This is to say that the plan itself will serve to attract investors, businesses, new residents and institutions to the University Park Neighborhood.
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The plan will relate to the University in a positive way.
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The plan will recognize Lake Pine Bluff as a development/redevelopment generator and as a major design element.
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The plan will promote life-long residency in the neighborhood for those who desire it.
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The plan will be pedestrian friendly and reflect the potential for a greenway pedestrian system along Lake Pine Bluff.
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The plan will relate to other features and development generators outside the University Park Neighborhood but within the City of Pine Bluff or surrounding region.
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The plan will not introduce provisions that would create obstacles to the development of affordable housing in the neighborhood but will promote development proposals that would encourage innovation in providing both needed commercial and affordable housing.
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The plan will coordinate public improvements with needed private investment.
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The plan will stress the importance of major streets such as University Drive and Fluker as image-defining gateways and as connectors of major nodes of activity.
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The census tract containing the neighborhood has a 67 percent low to moderate-income percentage of households as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Census Definitions. The census tract also contains a 47 percent poverty rate.
This plan benefits from the information contained in two excellent research projects undertaken by the Economic Research and Development Center of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
The first of these was The University Park Neighborhood Research Project: Part One, Residential Needs Assessment prepared in June 2004. It was followed in October 2004 by Part Two, Neighborhood Business Assessment.
These studies create a detailed image of a neighborhood of nearly 5,000 people served by more than 70 businesses. If the neighborhood were a city within itself, there would no doubt be a better match between the needs of the residents and the existing businesses.
As the situation currently exists, there are notable mismatches such as the lack of either a full service grocery store or pharmacy. The residential study indicates that a large percentage of the population in the neighborhood felt that it was very important to have these commercial facilities.
Some reasons given for the fact that additional businesses are have not located in the neighborhood include vandalism, health insurance costs, financing and lack of business activity. These are all urban problems that can be addressed through public and private efforts from within the community.
Another striking fact addressed by the two reports is the fact that approximately one-third of the neighborhood residents of working age are unemployed. This is more crucial in light of the fact that job creation among the local businesses has been on the rise.
Neighborhood businesses report having trouble filling job openings with area residents due to lack of job skills or a poor work ethic.
There are several facts contained in the reports that offer an apparent bright side to the prospects for improved economic activity in the neighborhood. The first is that nearly half (48) percent of the existing businesses have been in the neighborhood for 20 years or more. The second is that 66 percent of the businesses are owneroperated.
Finally, 72 percent of the businesses responding to the studies report that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their premises.
The two studies provide considerable useful information in developing an action plan and their perusal is highly recommended.
Overall, the data suggest that, in order for this neighborhood plan to become effective, considerable coordination must occur between the needs of the residents and the needs of the businesses.
This is particularly true in terms of job skills and educational programs that will allow neighborhood residents to participate more fully in economic development. It is also particularly true concerning the need to coordinate housing needs, the continued growth of the University, and the needs of both existing and potential business investors.
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The University Park Neighborhood includes and area of slightly more than 1,000 acres in the northern portion of Pine Bluff. Almost a quarter of this area comprises the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff campus and it associated activities.
The neighborhood lies between Lake Pine Bluff on the east and Townsend Park on the west. Lake Pine Bluff is an impoundment of the Arkansas Game and Fish Department and is maintained, exclusively as a fishing lake.
There are two public schools in the neighborhood, in addition to the University. These are Townsend Park Elementary and Dollarway Middle School. There are also four cemeteries and a number of churches.
The parks, schools, cemeteries and lake-frontage create a considerable amount of green space in the area. Additionally, there numerous vacant parcels from which structures have been removed or which have never been developed.
The topography of the area is flat. This situation, along with the existence of several drainage features that flow into Lake Pine Bluff, have created a number of drainage problems over the years.
Other than some flood prone area and some ravines created by erosion, the topography does not pose problems with development in the neighborhood.
Public and private utilities are available to the neighborhood. Some are quite old or were inadequate in original construction. There have been a number of improvements to the utility system over the last ten to fifteen years.
The two main streets serving the neighborhood are University Drive (US Highway 79) and the Martha Mitchell Expressway (US Highway 65B.) University Drive bisects the neighborhood from north to south. It is a 48 foot, four-lane facility with average traffic counts exceeding 7,000 per day. It impedes both pedstrian and vehicular traffic.
Of the local city streets, Spruce Street is the primary north-south collector street and Fluker is the primary east-west street. Reeker is also an important east-west street. Other streets are generally narrow and most do not provide a connection to the east. This adds to the traffic congestion during major events at the University.
Other than the major streets that have been improved in recent years, few of the remaining streets have sidewalks. This impedes pedestrian circulation which was a need identified during public hearings associated with this plan.
The housing stock in the neighborhood is generally sound. Many substandard units were removed or rehabilitated through code enforcement and neighborhood revitalization efforts. Improvements include new units as well as rehabilitation. Housing Improvements have and will continue to drive the efforts behind this plan.
Other physical features guiding the plan include:
- The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
- Lake Pine Bluff
- Public schools and churches in the neighborhood
- Existing cemeteries
- University Drive
- Golden Lion Stadium
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The University Park Neighborhood has a number of strengths that provide a basis for revitalization. They include the following as identified in public hearings, personal interviews, surveys and observations made during the planning process.
The neighborhood has established and committed leaders, churches and institutions.
The neighborhood has seen major public reinvestments over past two decades totaling $108,808,000.
The neighborhood continues to benefit from the positive impact of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff campus on-going programs and physical improvements
The neighborhood benefits from internal and surrounding public facilities (i.e. schools, parks, playgrounds and lake amenities.
The neighborhood has benefited from improvements to water, sewer and streets.
New church and subdivision construction will provide momentum for further development.
The neighborhood easily possesses a large enough population base to support new commercial development.
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The plan identifies 14 separate, yet contiguous, possible land redevelopment projects of small scale located primarily along University Drive south of the campus. These involve roughly 60 acres and impact approximately 150 individual properties.
- Single- family detached housing provided as lot-by-lot housing rehabilitation through existing efforts underway by City of Pine Bluff Economic and Community Development Department and in accord with on-going rehabilitation programs
- Senior housing projects at various locations encompassing a faith-based life care center (incorporating assisted living, independent living, and congregate housing)
- A replat for single family detached housing for market rate housing west of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (currently in advance planning stages – (between Willow and Magnolia Streets north of Whiteside Drive).
- New proposed mix-use ‘planned unit development” housing complex immediately south of the campus aimed at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff faculty and new neighborhood households
- Student based housing to meet the projected long-term increase in campus enrollment within future multi-family zoned areas
- New re-platted single family residential attached and detached housing in key areas concentrated near proposed commercial convenience stores and related retail facilities
- Land use provisions set forth in the previously prepared Master Plan for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (EDAW 1996).
- Provisions of Pine Bluff’s overall comprehensive plan.
- A pedestrian loop trail around Lake Pine Bluff linking the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, downtown Pine Bluff and the Regional Park, thus providing a continuous public open space system.
- A lakeside restaurant and dining facilities to provide a catalyst for shoreline redevelopment.
- Shoreline improvements along lake inlets and a proposed abutting public park for the creation of a small lake impoundment. This will serve as a focal point for adjoining parcels and an enticement for surrounding private re-investment.
- A proposed partnership between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the City of Pine Bluff in acquiring shoreline property and jointly constructing a public outdoor amphitheater which will serve as a community wide gathering space.
- A continuing education center complex located adjacent to the outdoor amphitheater.
- A combined senior citizen center and medical clinic (and possible other community service functions) serving University Park residents as well as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
- Creation of public park lands as an extension of open space around Lake Pine Bluff
- Expansion of commercial retail areas and creation of adequate land parcels available for commercial redevelopment to entice private commercial developers.
- Relocating incompatible commercial land uses (entertainment establishments) away from residential areas to a location north of McFadden Road
- The establishment of an expanded job training facility for the non-employed and under employed resident workforce.
- Appropriate gateway and professionally designed entrance signage at US Highway 65 and University Drive south of the neighborhood as well as north of the campus on University Drive to announce the University’s location.
- Development of a divided highway (Arkansas Highway 79) along the edge of university campus and widening of existing rights-of way to no less than 80’ to undertake traffic and landscaping improvements.
- Elimination of pedestrian overpass linking campus to gym and installation of vehicular traffic calming devises to slow traffic.
- location of a new outdoor tract north of the new stadium to allow opportunity for shared dressing facilities
- Establishment of an “ecumenical council of local churches” to consider the collective sponsoring and undertaking of housing needs for area and neighborhood residents.
- Construction of a cultural museum for African Americans in conjunction with and in proximity to the continuing education center.
Actual development designs will depend upon the objectives of private developers or, to a large degree, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Final design may vary greatly from the sub-area sketches.
The overall plan map has been adopted by the Pine Bluff Planning Commission and will be the controlling land use plan for development within the neighborhood. This control will not apply to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff as it is a state agency outside the jurisdiction of a municipal planning commission. The faculty and staff of the University took part in the development of the neighborhood plan, however, and the provisions of the plan are consistent with long term development goals of the University.
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The following entities should share the responsibility for undertaking both the recommendations outlined above and the implementation of the final corridor plans for the two study areas.
- Property owners
- Tenants
- Neighborhood groups
- Planning Commission
- City Council
- City Staff
- Other agencies: state, county and non-profit
The full responsibility for effectuating change in the University Park Neighborhood cannot rest solely upon the City of Pine Bluff.
Not only are resources limited, but also the demands of the city limit the attention that can be given to one area.
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Realizing the provisions of the University Park Neighborhood Plan will require a broad-based effort of a number of institutions, departments, agencies and individuals. It is also important to realize that physical improvements alone cannot achieve the plans revitalization goals. Those must be matched with programs that improve the neighborhood economy and the self-reliance of its residents.
For example, the Pine Bluff Weed and Seed Program has been active in addressing drug problems and developing the potential of neighborhood residents. The program also maintains records on problems and concerns facing the neighborhood.
Likewise, the Jefferson County Workforce Alliance has developed a Detailed Job Opportunities Plan. It addresses the situation described herein in which neighborhood businesses cannot fill job openings with neighborhood residents.
The University Park Neighborhood Plan originated with a planning and strategy meeting of a team including individuals from the Pine Bluff Community Development Department, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff ’s Economic Research and Development Center, and the consultants. The team established the broad objectives of the plan and the general strategy for undertaking the project in a timely manner.
Prior establishing any proposals, and while the consultants assembled base data, the Community Development Department hosted a public hearing at the Family Community Development Corporation building, located centrally in the University Park Neighborhood. This hearing occurred on August 26, 2004. This hearing produced a wide range of proposals and community concerns that were instrumental in guiding the development of the plan.
Upon receiving preliminary plan proposals from the consultants, the Community Development Department hosted another public hearing in the neighborhoodon October 14, 2004.
Comments from the second hearing impacted the final revisions to the plan. The consultants and the Community Development staff also worked in coordination with professionals from the Southeast Arkansas Regional Planning Commission to produce the final plan document.
On November 30, a final public hearing was held in the Pine Bluff City Hall to present the completed plan document to the Pine Bluff Planning Commission. Following this meeting, the Planning Commission adopted the plan and forwarded it to the Pine Bluff City Council for certification. On December 6, 2004, the Pine Bluff City Council officially adopted, by Resolution 2743, the University Park Neighborhood Plan.
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