Holly Street Pedestrian Access

Fayetteville Strong, in collaboration with Trailblazers and community residents, will install their first tactical urbanism project on Holly Street today from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Located in a densely populated and high-equity-need area near campus, West Holly Street sees a lot of pedestrian and cycling traffic, thanks to its proximity to Razorback Transit stops, Harp’s grocery and the Oak Plaza shopping center, which contains several retail shops and restaurants. Yet West Holly Street has no sidewalk on either side of the road. 

The goal of this temporary project is to slow traffic and create a protected walking space in the short term. In the long term, the goal is to demonstrate to the City of Fayetteville the need to install a more permanent solution, such as a sidewalk. 

According to the Tactical Urbanist’s Guide, tactical urbanism is also known as DIY Urbanism, Planning-by-Doing or Urban Prototyping. It refers to a city, organizational and/or citizen-led approach to neighborhood building using short-term, low-cost and scalable interventions to advance street safety, public spaces and more.   

Using paint and “armadillos,” or small, lightweight lane separators, volunteers will be installing temporary safety improvements for people walking and cycling on West Holly Street. Improvements include crosswalks, curb bump-outs, a 5-foot-wide protected pedestrian zone, super sharrows and a mural. 

The street will be painted and armadillos installed on Saturday, October 14th from 9 AM until 5 PM. Volunteers are welcome to join us! Please register here: https://uark.givepulse.com/event/400071-Holly-Street-Tactical-Urbanism-Project

In order to encourage and enable residents to participate in improving their built environment, the City of Fayetteville has developed a community-led tactical urbanism permit application. By working with City staff, using tactical urbanism techniques and gathering information on a project’s successes and failures, residents can take an active role in improving the built environment in their own neighborhoods, according to the City’s website. 

Fayetteville Strong, the lead organization in this project, is a group for residents of Fayetteville and the broader NWA area who want to bring the concepts of Strong Towns to life here. In a nutshell, making our “Favorite-ville” more walkable, bikeable and equitable. Their goals are: 

1. Increasing mass transit services, 

1. Increasing safe walking and biking infrastructure, 

1. Making most of Fayetteville a walkable/human-centered city and 

1. Making most of Fayetteville's residential streets slower and safer for people.  

Fayetteville Strong strives to achieve those goals without displacing current residents.