In the Ozarks, a greenway inspires change
Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a unique metropolitan region—without one dominant city. Instead, the rapidly growing Ozark Mountain area is centered on four small cities stacked north to south—Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville.
The valley is linked by Interstate 49, which provides good automobile connections, but a poor framework for quality of life. In the last 10 years, NWA has built a second transportation corridor linking the four cities and three other municipalities—the Razorback Greenway, funded by a $15 million US DOT TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant, matched by local sources.
At the same time, the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) initiated a matching Design Excellence grant program aimed at placemaking. The Waltons are heirs to Walmart, based in Bentonville, a driving force behind the region’s growth.
Design Excellence has funded 17 projects, mostly public spaces and landmark structures, which are primarily located along the greenway. The trail and the design program, both started in 2015, are transforming the built environment in NWA. They weren’t planned to be linked; it’s more destiny and a testament to the power of public space linked by greenways.
While not unique to NWA, it's a new model for regional development. “At the time, [the Razorback Greenway] was a totally crazy, ambitious idea,” says Meredith Bergstrom, senior program officer for WFF. “But it catalyzed each of the seven cities. Now they have bike-ped coordinators, a dedicated budget, and active transportation plan. It started as a recreational path. It is becoming a useful transportation corridor.”
The 37-mile trail was completed quickly. One reason it is useful: It goes through the hearts of cities, linking downtowns. Loops and side trails link other key destinations. NWA is a polycentric region, Bergstrom explains, a linear corridor where a trail makes sense as an organizing framework.
The Greenway links existing assets and impressive new public spaces that are being created through the Design Excellence Program. “It’s one thing to have amazing destinations. Another thing to think about how can people access those,” Bergstrom says. The program is focused not just on trail miles or beautiful places, but on what good design can mean for everyday lives. Key public spaces include:
The Ramble in downtown Fayetteville, designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz, is a wooded park with a series of winding pathways and a stream restoration. The Ramble is more than just a park—it’s a connective civic corridor. With widened sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, safe crossings, and trail links, this project prioritizes walking and biking—linking destinations like the public library, parks, and entertainment district. The Ramble is a popular gathering spot. The result is a downtown that’s safer, more social, and easier to navigate.
In Springdale, also downtown, Luther George Park has become a trailhead for community access. Designed by Spackman Mossop Michaels, the park includes an iconic stage for live performances, lawns for viewing and informal recreation, a playground, and dining/seating areas. Located in one of the region’s most diverse neighborhoods—working-class Springdale is the lowest income city on the corridor—the park’s transformation includes better transit connections, lighting, signage, and amenities that make it accessible for all.
The 8th Street Gateway Park in Bentonville, designed by PORT Urbanism, is set to extend the Greenway into an area historically underserved by park access. Currently under construction, the 110-acre site employs a formal design that offers a unique experience on the corridor. The design creates an elevated trail in a giant oval, with two bridges crossing a thoroughfare. Like the other parks mentioned, it will deliver community space and amenities while improving access to active transportation.
The 5-acre Railyard Park in Rogers was completed in 2021, designed by Ross Barney Architects of Chicago. On a site too narrow for development and not quite wide enough for a town square, the park integrates a flexible plaza, event space, farmers market building, water park, playground, and significant public art installations.
In addition to those mentioned above, Design Excellence projects along the trail include:
- Downtown Bentonville Infill Housing at NE 7th & A streets
- Convergence
- Quilt of Parks
- Helen Walton Children’s Enrichment Center
- Bentonville City Hall
- Thaden School
- Downtown Rogers Alleyway
- City of Springdale Municipal Complex
- TheatreSquared
The design along the Greenway, and the fact that it goes through multiple downtowns, make it a signature feature of NWA. The Greenway has been the catalyst for “trail-oriented development” which nobody anticipated 10 years ago. When the Greenway was first proposed, it raised fears of lowering property values. It has turned out to be a valued amenity that has raised demand for living near it, Bergstrom says. “Now we are thinking, where are the areas that need to be conserved along the greenway? It takes you from a dense walk, very quickly, to a mountain bike trail. What are the places that we should continue to preserve, and what makes sense for denser infill housing?”
Some cities are employing form-based coding (FBC) as a tool to create compact development that matches the character of the region, while also preserving natural areas as the rural end of the Transect. A form-based code has been adopted in Rogers, and one is in the works in Bentonville.
The Razorback Greenway is a central spine of a much larger system of bicycle trails in the region that connects urban dwellers to the beautiful hilly surroundings. It has also been a linchpin in a strategy to make the region more livable, to attract talent to the Fortune 500 companies based here. (Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, and Walmart).
Strategies have included revitalization of NWA’s small-city main streets and copious investments in art and culture.
The Greenway links them together and makes them add up to more than the sum of their parts. Other regions could explore this model.
The Congress for the New Urbanism will host CNU 34 in Northwest Arkansas next May. Attendees can witness NWA, the Greenway, and the new public spaces up close.
