Thrive travels to Northwest Arkansas to study regional development model

Contributed photo by Thrive / About 30 community and government leaders who are part of the 16-county Thrive Regional Partnership from the Chattanooga area visited with leaders of the Northwest Arkansas Council in November to learn about ways that the communities in Arkansas have worked together to promote needed infrastructure and improvements in the quality of life in the growing area.
Contributed photo by Thrive / About 30 community and government leaders who are part of the 16-county Thrive Regional Partnership from the Chattanooga area visited with leaders of the Northwest Arkansas Council in November to learn about ways that the communities in Arkansas have worked together to promote needed infrastructure and improvements in the quality of life in the growing area.

Over the past three decades, the population of Northwest Arkansas has more than doubled and the census bureau projects the region will likely double its population again by 2060 as one of the fastest-growing areas in the country to surpass 1 million residents in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area.

The region was far different in 1992 when the founders of what have become three Fortune 500 companies united in 1992 to organize the Northwest Arkansas Council to work on upgrading highways, airports, workforce development, health care, and the quality of life. The council's success in pushing through a new highway bypass, promoting bike trails and boosting cultural museums and small-town attractions has also attracted to attention of Chattanooga area leaders.

Last month, a group of 30 leaders involved in the Thrive Regional Partnership in the 16-county Chattanooga region traveled to Bentonville and other nearby counties to study the Northwest Arkansas Council and what it has done to help propel the growth and appeal of the region. Connie Vaughan, the governmental relations manager for McKee Foods Corp. in Collegedale who chairs the Thrive Regional Partnership, said the trip helped local government, business and nonprofit leaders see firsthand how the regional planning and development approach has yielded growth while preserving the area's quality of life.

"Today, northwest Arkansas is the most dynamic area of the state for the way it balances the needs of the business community while connecting people to the arts and the outdoors and improving the quality of life that helps attract new people to the region," Vaughan said in an interview after returning from Arkansas. "In the Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia footprint of Thrive, we have many of the same challenges."

The Ozarks of rural Northwest Arkansas is home to Walmart, the world's biggest retailer, which operates its home office in Bentonville (population 56,734); J.B. Hunt is based in Lowell, Arkansas (population 10,177), and Tyson Foods is headquartered in Springdale (population 87,609). McKee Foods Corp, which is headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee, built a manufacturing plant in Gentry, Arkansas (population 4,000) in 1982 and has expanded the bakery to now employ more than 1,500 people.

Four decades ago, Sam Walton of Walmart, Tyson Food CEO Don Tyson and trucking provider J.B. Hunt and other business leaders, including Debbie McKee Fowler, created the nonprofit council to help develop and coordinate growth in the region.

"Mr. Walton, Mr. Tyson and Mr. Hunt as well as Debbie McKee Fowler knew if their businesses were going to be able to grow and stay in northwest Arkansas, there was a huge need for intentional regional infrastructure planning," Vaughn said. "The results of how the region's overall quality of life is evolving through that initial spark speaks for itself."

The Northwest Arkansas Council helped propel the development of a four-lane, controlled access highway connecting their communities with Interstate-49 and a regional airport was added that served not just the business needs of the area but also improved the quality of life for residents of northwest Arkansas.

Vaughn said Bella Vista highway bypass was developed with funding from both Missouri and Arkansas to ensure that Interstate 49 offers a safe, controlled access highway allowing motorists to circumvent the dangerous two-lane highway through Bella Vista, Arkansas.

More recently, the communities that comprise the council have also worked to develop and maintain a bike and hiking trail that helps residents get between the local communities for both work and recreation. Completed in 2015, the Razorback Regional Greenway spans a large portion of Northwest Arkansas, connecting the bustling hubs of Bentonville and Fayetteville.

Tennessee State Rep. Greg Vital, who represents the growing Ooltewah and Collegedale communities in the Tennessee Legislature, said Northwest Arkansas has found ways to work together to encourage growth while maintaining the natural and small-town appeal of many communities in the Ozarks and rural parts of Arkansas.

"I think Bentonville is an example of where corporate headquarters (for the world's biggest retailer Walmart) have located but there has been a commitment to maintaining the quality of life in their community," Vital said in a telephone interview. "The communities around Chattanooga like Dunlap, Dayton, South Pittsburg and Cleveland have that Mainstreet, hometown feeling and we want to find ways they can capitalize on the growth in the larger cities like Chattanooga. We need great bedroom communities to support all of the economic growth that we're having."

Although Walmart has grown into the world's biggest retailer and J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods have expanded into multi-billion-dollar businesses, the companies were far smaller three decades ago when the Northwest Arkansas Council began.

The region's growth was fostered, in part, by joint efforts of community leaders across the region, who meet regularly through the Northwest Arkansas Council which is somewhat akin to the 16-county Thrive Regional Partnership created among 16 counties in Chattanooga a decade ago.

Attending the November trip to Arkansas were members of the Thrive board of Trustees, elected officials from the 16-county footprint of Thrive and interested community and business leaders.

"Several months ago, we were approached by leaders in Marion County to help coordinate a trip to another region to gain lessons learned about jurisdictions working together for the betterment of residents' quality of life," Bridgett Massengill, president and CEO of Thrive, said in a telephone interview. "When approached, we responded that in order for Thrive to help, we must offer this to the entire tri-state region rather than just one county. As a result, the region resoundingly responded and all three states were represented in this peer-to-peer learning opportunity."

Thrive includes Hamilton, Bradley, Marion, Bledsoe, Sequatchie, Meigs, McMinn, Polk and Rhea Counties in southeast Tennessee; Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield and Murray Counties in northwest Georgia and Jackson and Dekalb counties in northeast Alabama.

Ringgold, Georgia City Councilmember Rhonda Swaney, one of those who went on the 3-day trip to Arkansas, said "having the opportunity to join key players from multiple counties and regions had multiple benefits to the city of Ringgold."

"I was able to make connections for future projects, discuss ideas, and make connections that could potentially help with future infrastructure issues that we are all facing," she said.

Massingill said the success of the Bentonville trip may lead Thrive members to make similar intercity visits to learn from other regional partnerships.

"Coming back, there was a lot of interest in us doing this again and learning from other regions across the nation and what they are going," she said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @DFlessner1.

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