Bentonville continues to grow...

BENTONVILLE -- The city continues to grow in both population and building permits, according to a report presented to the City Council on Tuesday night.

The annual development report highlighted several aspects of the city that carried on a trend building for the last several years, said Shelli Kerr, planning services manager for the city.

"Things are still trending upward," she said. "The growth is not slowing down. We don't see any real changes in that."

The city's 49,629 residents last year was a 4 percent increase from 2017, the report stated. There were 41,725 residents in 2014, according to the report.

The city continues to grow for a variety of reasons, Councilwoman Cindy Acree said. She cited low crime and low unemployment, the city being home to Walmart, a great quality of life and people looking for an opportunity.

The number of building permits issued increased for the fourth consecutive year, up 11 percent from 2017. The total valuation of all building permits was nearly $500 million, an increase of 25 percent from 2017, according to the report.

Also in 2018, the Planning, Electric, Engineering, Water, Sewer, Transportation and Wastewater departments collaborated to improve the submittal and review process for preliminary plats and large-scale developments. The process requires more information from developers earlier in the process to ensure a more comprehensive review. All planning submittals are now accepted digitally online, according to the report.

Dirk Thibodaux with Gray Rock Consulting said he likes the online system.

"It works well," he said Tuesday after he met with the Planning Commission's technical review. "It's one system that is all-encompassing."

It was a record year for multi-family developments. There were 1,032 units that began construction and 404 completed. Multi-family units made up 45 percent of all residential units completed.

Multi-family development seems to be keeping up with demand, Kerr said.

Apartment vacancy rates in Bentonville decreased from 5.4 percent in the second half of 2017 to 3.7 percent in the second half of 2018, according to Arvest Bank's biannual Skyline Report. More than 3,300 rental units have been announced or are under construction in multifamily projects in Bentonville, according to the report.

More than 2,500 rental units have been announced or are under construction in Rogers.

Single-family home construction also continued to grow last year, increasing 6 percent year-over-year to 487. The average valuation was $289,317 and average size was 2,883 square feet, according to the city's report.

Areas of growth will continue to be downtown and in the southwest part of the city, Kerr said.

"We will have to keep up," she aid. "More people means more infrastructure."

Construction began on more than 16.5 million square feet of commercial last year and 46 commercial projects were completed, an increase of 59 percent from 2017. In terms of the number of permits issued, alterations and additions to facilities made up 69 percent of all commercial building permits, according to the report.

More than 600,000 square feet have been planned in 24 new commercial projects. These projects include restaurants, offices, hotels and mini-warehouse storage facilities, according to the report.

The city also did 19,810 building inspections last year, according to the report.

NW News on 03/27/2019 from Northwest Arkansas Democratic Gazette