Public input informing the planning document that will guide the city's land use and infrastructure policies for the next two decades identified neighborhood revitalization as a key to enhancing quality of life in Hot Springs.
Eighty-five percent of participants in Envision Hot Springs, the interactive workshops and online opinion surveys that helped shape HS2040: Forward Hot Springs Comprehensive Plan, ranked neighborhood revitalization as a top priority. American Community Service Census data collected in 2017 brought the need into sharp focus, revealing the extent of capital and human flight from neighborhoods south of downtown.
The 2017 count showed the Gateway and Langston Gardens neighborhoods near the intersection of Malvern and Grand Avenue no longer met occupancy thresholds for Community Development Block Grant infrastructure funding, which became the priority of the city's CDBG program after it pivoted from housing rehabilitation in 2014.
The number of occupied homes in the historic neighborhoods decreased by more than 50% compared to 2000 Census levels, contributing to one-fifth of Garland County's more than 50,000 housing units being vacant.
"While downtown began a renaissance of its own following the Majestic Hotel fire, surrounding residential neighborhoods continued to languish and in some instances to decline more dramatically," said the planning and development department's request for adoption of the 2040 plan by the Hot Springs Board of Directors.
The board awarded Design Workshop a $274,870 contract in June 2019 to develop the 2040 plan. The board adopted the plan Tuesday night, replacing the 2030 planning document that was adopted in 2010.
Under the regime of former City Manager David Frasher, the city stepped up enforcement of the property maintenance code and made greater use of its condemnation authority to address what he called the "ring of blight" orbiting downtown. But the planning department's request form acknowledged the limitations of more rigorous code enforcement.
"Without investment, that's really not going to change," Planning and Development Director Kathy Sellman said Thursday. "Those areas need to be recognized and used as places for people to live good lives. Right now we're just trying to convince property owners what they have is worth maintaining."
The 2040 plan recommended making the neighborhoods more attractive to newcomers and investment through retail development and improved streetscapes that promote biking, walking and greater access to basic services. But only the western area of the Gateway Neighborhood is in one of three local census tracts the governor nominated as an opportunity zone, low-to-moderate income areas to which the federal tax code has attempted to steer investment.
Tax liabilities proceeding from the sale of real estate, stocks or other assets can be deferred or avoided by investing the profits in an opportunity zone. Profits derived from the sale of an opportunity fund investment are exempt from capital gains taxes if the investment is held for at least 10 years.
At the center of the three qualifying tracts is downtown, an area that attracted considerable investment prior to the tax provision's implementation. More than $80 million had been invested there since the Majestic Hotel fire in February 2014, The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce said in 2018 when celebrating the 100th new business to open in the Thermal Basin Fire District after the Majestic fire.
Most of the Gateway District and all of the Four Corners neighborhood, two areas the 2040 plan identified as investment opportunities, were excluded from nomination.
The plan said migration away from the city's center came at the expense of the neighborhoods, but making them more accessible to biking and walking could draw new and younger residents.
"Like many cities, Hot Springs has developed over time away from the Central Business District to newer suburbs," the plan said. "This has been detrimental to the once-thriving in-town neighborhoods."
"These neighborhoods have collectively been instrumental to Hot Springs development as a special place to live and visit, and a collaborative effort to revitalize them can improve the quality of life and tourist experience of Hot Springs. They can once again be a center of life, culture, entertainment and prosperity, which will benefit everyone who lives here."
While downtown and downtown adjacent living has become unaffordable in other areas of the country, urban living remains an affordable option in Hot Springs. The proximity of the city's older, historic neighborhoods to downtown makes them attractive places to live, Sellman said.
"We have to have a city that works from the inside all the way out," she said. "It appears there's some areas between the edge of the city and the heart of the city downtown that aren't operating to their fullest potential. We have a leg up on a lot of other cities, because we do have neighborhoods nearby that are affordable.
"The location of these neighborhoods is primo. You can walk to the things downtown. Those are absolutely great locations. We just need people to recognize the benefits these existing neighborhoods have and start thinking of them as a place where they can have a great life. A neighborhood in the county isn't the only place where you can be happy, have good schools and be a near a good job."
The planning department told the board its adoption of the 2040 document doesn't bind it or future boards to any of the plan's recommendations.
"It's important to note that actually implementing the plan will come through numerous budget, policy and program decisions of Hot Springs Board of Directors," the planning department said in its request form. "While the plan presents an array of future options, it is only a menu from which future individual decisions may be made."
In addition to neighborhood revitalization, downtown development and protecting the natural environment were the top planning priorities identified during the public-input phase. Employment opportunities and limited transportation options ranked as the least attractive aspects of the city.
A draft of the 112-page plan is on the city's website. Video summaries are also online.
"I think that's a good starting point for people," Sellman said of the videos narrated by city employees. "It gives somebody a three or four minute peek into what's in the plan. Even though we're finished with the formal participation part of it, it's something we'll be looking at every couple of years with the planning commission to take a look at how we've done."