Review Due On Lobbying Effort, Riverfront

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 9:16 AM CST

A year-end review of the city’s lobbying efforts and a progress report on a riverfront opportunity analysis are in store when the Fort Smith Board of Directors meets for a special study session Thursday evening.

According to a memo from Deputy City Administrator Ray Gosack, two representatives from Watts Partners, the city’s Washington lobbying agency, will report on current lobbying activity and plan future efforts in Washington, D.C.

The lobbyists will be seeking clear direction on funding priorities for the coming year.

Federal budget requests will likely be due in February, and requests for the next highway authorization bill will likely be due some time in 2010.

“It’s important for the board to reaffirm that the existing priorities are still current,” Gosack wrote.

Although the order can be rearranged and new priorities added, he cautioned against sending “confusing signals” to the congressional delegation or making wholesale changes that could undo efforts on several multi-year initiatives.

The top five previously established funding priorities are:

• Interstate 49 between Interstate 40 and U.S. 71 South.

• Industrial site improvements at Chaffee Crossing.

• May Branch flood control project.

• Wet-weather sanitary sewer system improvements.

• U.S. Marshals Museum.

Also Thursday, property owner Bennie Westphal and consultant John Castro with the Dallas-area firm Cushman & Wakefield will report on progress in the yearlong analysis of riverfront development opportunities.

Westphal, whose family owned an 80-acre tract along the riverfront and adjacent to the property they donated for the future U.S. Marshals Museum, approached the city in January seeking a private-public partnership to help pay for the analysis.

He envisioned a development that would include a minor league baseball park, a concert and hockey arena, restaurants, retailers, a hotel, a pair of condo and office towers, a park and a wedding chapel.

In early February, directors agreed to contribute a third of the cost of the analysis, about $62,000. The city entered into a contract with the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, which in turn contracted with Castro for the study. Westphal was a third party to the latter contract.

Castro said in January that the opportunity analysis would help define what the property could be and would also identify the kinds of things needed to create jobs, attract people and meet the “live-work-play” ideal of mixed-use development.

Directors ranked riverfront and economic development at the top of their budgeting priority list in January, followed closely by quality of place. In October, they prioritized a number of quality-of-place initiatives, putting a $20 million riverfront sports venue high on the list. However, they put off a decision about funding sources in the face of tough economic conditions.

On Dec. 1 the board passed a no-frills budget that allowed no funding for quality of place.

The special study session is 6 p.m. Thursday at Elm Grove Community Center, 1901 N. Greenwood Ave.

Source:swtimes.com/