Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario

Text by Deane Madsen
Conventional city planning does little to favor urban agriculture, but a 2013 study by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC) titled “Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario” aims to change that. Fayetteville is Arkansas’ third-largest city, and although it expects sustained growth over the next 15 years, it already faces child hunger rates that are nearly double the national average. The study proposes that by integrating agricultural production into the city’s fabric as it expands, Fayetteville could reduce that hunger rate while encouraging backyard gardens to expand into a local food ecology.

Focusing on a scale somewhere between a windowbox garden and a vast Midwestern wheat field, “Food City Scenario” proposes that zoning for midsize food-production facilities be factored into Fayetteville’s current City Plan 2030 strategy. By encouraging Development-Supported Agriculture (DSA) and Gardened Right-of-Way streets, which feature fruit and nut trees planted in front yards and along sidewalks, sites for urban harvesting would become as ubiquitous as traffic infrastructure and would provide easier access to food for the populace.

UACDC recognizes the need for funding to support its concepts and proposes a toolkit of 22 urban interventions that could stimulate both agricultural and financial production, including DSA and restaurant farms—where the farm-to-table eatery concept exists on a single lot. Instead of relying on grocery store produce, residents could forage in landscaped woodlands and would formulate what the study calls “growing guilds” to manage them. These and other strategies in “Food City Scenario” are scalable and potentially replicable in other cities, but would start at home by enabling Fayetteville to plan a more resource-efficient community.

This article appeared in the May 2016 issue of ARCHITECT magazine.

--Project Credits
Project: Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario, Fayetteville, Ark.
Client: City of Fayetteville—Matthew Petty (alderman and community organizer)
Architect: University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC), Fayetteville, Ark. . Stephen Luoni, Assoc. aIA (director); Jeffrey Huber, AIA (assistant director); Cory Amos, Meredith Hendricks, David Jimenez, Allison Lee Thurmond Quinlan, AIA, Matt S. Hoffman, Assoc. AIA, Tanzil Idmam Shafique, Assoc. AIA (project designers); Linda Komlos (administrative analyst)
UACDC Students: Jonathan Elmore, Jacob Larison, Kimberly Murray, Ryne Pruitt, Richard Adam Stowe, Patrick Templelton, Leniqueca Welcome, Geronimo Debeza-Rodriquez , Jacob Drew Short, Timothy Patterson, Rachel Raben, Sarah Evans Jones, Paul Mosley
University of Arkansas Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAEG) and Office for Sustainability: Marty Matlock (executive director)
BAEG Students: Nick Stoddart, Ben Putman, Lori Silva, Aaron Thomason, Barb Lombardi, John Beyers, Katie Whitbeck, Paige Heller, Jaime Gile, Nick Lombardo, Mike Crouse
University of Arkansas Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Ruben Morawicki
University of Arkansas School of Law and Masters of Law Program in Agricultural and Food Law: Susan Schneider
Size: 35,000 acres
Cost: Withheld

2014 ARCHITECT Magazine P/A Awards: Honorable Mention
Fayetteville, Ark., faces conflicting food fortunes. On one hand, the state is impressively productive (second in chicken production, third in turkey and catfish, and home to food giants Tyson Foods and Walmart). “Fayetteville is in one of the state’s most prosperous regions,” juror Sasa Radulovic said, “but it also has the highest rate of childhood hunger in the U.S.” As a way to reconcile this disparity, the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC) came up with Fayetteville 2030, a set of planning guidelines that would introduce urban agriculture at scales that benefit local communities. The plan would complement the city’s growth projections by including a food-production program into yet-to-be developed land, merging agriculture with infrastructure, transportation, and housing. Strategies would include community gardens, composting networks, greenhouses, aquaculture facilities, and edible parks. Unlike the larger-scale industrial food production that ships food out of Arkansas, Fayetteville 2030 would distribute crops locally through exchanges, hubs, and markets. UACDC conceived the plan in such a way that it would meet other municipal objectives, too, including economic development, energy conservation, and resilience. —John Gendall