How Northwest Arkansas Built A 40-Mile Trail That Connects Seven Cities

A 40-mile paved trail sounds simple until you ask the real question: how do seven cities agree on a shared vision, find the money, close the gaps, and keep improving it year after year? We sit down with Tim Conklin, Executive Director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, to unpack how the Razorback Greenway became the critical artery for biking, walking, rolling, and exploring Northwest Arkansas.

We get specific about the forces that made it possible: regional collaboration in the 2000s, a $15 million federal TIGER grant, and major matching support from the Walton Family Foundation. Tim explains how those investments helped connect Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville into a world-class trail system and why the Razorback Greenway Alliance matters for long-term maintenance, wayfinding upgrades, and future improvements like potential lighting.

Then we look forward. The Razorback Greenway corridor plan shifts the conversation from “we built a trail” to “what happens along the trail.” We talk creek corridor protection, rewilding for shade and habitat, smarter stormwater approaches, safer commuter bike networks, complete streets, and how new neighborhoods can grow around an active transportation spine without losing the open spaces that define the region. If you care about bike infrastructure, trail tourism, transportation choice, or how fast-growing communities can plan better, this one is for you.

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Transcript

Why The Greenway Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello, listener. Welcome to A New American Town, the podcast of Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Graham Cobb, thrilled to be joined by Tim Conklin, the Executive Director of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. Tim, so glad you're here this morning. I wish we were on the Greenway on bikes, but I will I will take a podcast, especially on such a warm day. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Well, thank you for the invitation to share some of the history and more importantly, what is the future of the Razorback Greenway?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Bentonville is known for being a mountain bike destination, right? And there's a lot of playing on bikes that occurs in Bentonville. But the region cycling stories are much broader and much bigger. The Razorback Greenway is the critical artery that is giving life to this culture of people on bikes living their lives. Can you give us a little bit of backstory on the Greenway, how it came to fruition and all

How Seven Cities Built A Spine

SPEAKER_00 1:09

that good stuff? Aaron Ross Powell Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Back in the 2000s, individual cities were planning their own networks, and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission was convening and collaborating with the cities, looking at how to connect the region together through an active transportation spine or backbone within Northwest Arkansas. So you had a lot of work that was being done in the city of Fayetteville and Bentonville, Rogers, and then we had gaps within the system. And so when we think about the Razorback Greenway, when it was conceived and imagined of what this could look like, it was really connecting Fayetteville to Bentonville. And the Commission, once again, at the time, pulled everybody together through a committee to really look at what it would take to coordinate and organize that trail system. During that same time, John McClarty at the Commission, and I was not there during the 2000s. I actually worked for the city of Fayeville in the early 2000s, but the idea was looking at our heritage trails, Trail of Tears, Civil War, Butterfield Coach stage, and how history could be tied into the region overall experience of a trail and that connectivity between our cities. For example, the City of Fayetteville and Mayor Dan Cooty at the time, and the City Council did bring to the voters a bond issue to do Skull Creek Trail, which is the part of the trail that goes up to Fulbright Expressway to the north. And so there were bits and pieces of the trail that were being built. And I still remember my experience in Fayetteville going out to what is called the Frisco Trail and removing railroad ties with my children at the time in the early 2000s. And so it's kind of incredible what has been achieved today. And so today we have 40 miles of trail that really is the backbone connecting our communities, our places that we all love, our parks, our city centers. And so it's something that has really caught on. And over the last decade, we've increased beyond the Greenway 400 percent of trail construction that has been completed in Northwest Arkansas. So it's truly a story about how the region has come together and a national model of delivering a regional trail system. I almost think of it as really Northwest Arkansas's first regional park where you have multiple cities together, uh working together, planning and programming that facility.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

You know, and um Northwest Arkansas is made up of dynamic cities, right, that aren't um they don't rest on their laurels. They could have just dug in their heels and been competitive. And that you know, I think mayors still want to win, right? That's what they're there for. But how hard was that to get everybody to understand that this that working together will really help everybody move faster and reach bigger things than doing this on their

The Grants And The Alliance

SPEAKER_00 4:46

own?

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Aaron Ross Powell And going back to the 2000s, and uh a really important part of that story was the role of the Walton Family Foundation in bringing funding to the table of can we look at how to leverage the work at the Commission along with uh discretionary U.S. DOT grants, which we applied for at the Commission, a $15 million Tiger grant that was awarded in 2010, and then the Foundation matching those Federal funds, but also having additional Federal funds. And so the idea of having a plan in place, but also how to fund and program that plan really brought everybody together. I'm not gonna say everybody was 100 percent in the beginning, but what you see today is is incredible. The seven cities have joined together and formed what's called the Razorback Greenway Alliance. Okay. And so under state law, they can join together and they look at how they operate and maintain the facility. And so that happened in the uh early 2020s now. And there's even more plans to look at how to improve the Greenway, potentially uh following Fayeville and Johnson's lead where they provided lighting along the greenway. And so there'll be some plans that will be developed looking at the opportunity feasibility of lighting the Greenway. And so that's really exciting. Um I was just on the trail system last night and uh just even looking at the current wayfinding system that's about 10 years old. And so uh there's a rebranding effort. Part of it's been done. Uh the other piece is currently being designed and it will be completed, but it was kind of interesting since uh the commission also worked on the wayfinding system that uh yes, it's 11 years old now. It does need some touch-ups and improvements, but it still is a world-class facility here in

Who Uses The Trail And Why

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Northwest Arkansas.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Are there estimates about usership like with demographics are using it, ages, and then just the sheer volume of people that use the Greenway? Do you have any idea?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

It varies. There's been count studies that have been completed. Um I was even surprised yesterday was the hottest day here in Northwest Arkansas. Pretty warm. Uh so I was out towards sunset, but even the number of people on the Razorback Greenway last night, it was incredible. Um, you know, I'm gonna take a guess here. It's in the I would assume it's in the thousands of users daily. Uh there's automatic count stations that Favil has. Uh Rogers has one, but it's something that is used year-round. Just on my way up from Springdale to Bennville today, I've crossed it four or five times. Right. Just and just seeing the number of people utilizing the Greenway is just incredible. It is something that's used for active transportation, uh, people are using it for recreation, uh, walking, rolling. Uh it's truly incredible.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Aaron Ross Powell Well, that uh you you um you kind of asked the question for me, but uh initially how was this asset envisioned as a quality of life initiative that people would play on for mobility and workforce? Like was there one thing or did you recognize that people would use it for a multitude of reasons?

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Aaron Ross Powell In the beginning, and so I had this perspective of working for the one of the largest cities in our region was the city of Fayeville, but I think in the in the beginning it was recreation really focused. And I think what we have learned with the development of the Razorback Regional Greenway is that it also has a transportation component to it to really offer transportation choice to the region. And so I guess to expand on your question a little, people are amazed that that $15 million Federal grant, along with the matching funds through the Foundation, that in 2015 from 2010 to 2015, there were nine federal projects, federal aid projects to connect the cities together, along with some other projects in Fayetteville and Bentonville. But that was done in five years. It's incredible taking the existing pieces and tying them together, connecting them. But what I think was really surprising, at least to me, was all of a sudden we had a 37-mile trail. Right. And how do you get to that trail from where you live or where you work or your destination? And so over the last decade, I think we've all recognized that there's a whole bunch of work that needs to be done to get to your question about recreation versus active transportation. We need to create the ability to create safe, low-stress, comfortable ways to access the Greenway. And part of our Razorback Greenway corridor plan is looking at a commuter network. And so you look at what Bentonville has done with 8th Street and through the campus. And by the way, congratulations to uh Bentonville and uh the Walmart new campus of incorporating the Greenway and the mixed juice and the restaurants and 8th Street and really creating that network. That really truly is the vision of creating these places, these destinations of employment, of our parks, as you mentioned, the Binville mountain biking mountain bike capital of the U.S. here, uh, it really plays a part of connecting all these places together. And so the idea is to not just recreation, but also active transportation. And we're seeing more and

Best Visitor Rides And Stops

SPEAKER_02 10:39

more of that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

So if I'm a visitor, uh if I'm coming to spend time and to play in Bentonville, if I'm a visitor to Bentonville, how do you see me using the greenway? I mean, how does that, I guess, elevate my experience?

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Over the last decade, it has been interesting. So I am sure that Visit Bentonville and the City of Bentonville and others up here get lots of phone calls and requests for information. We do too at the Razor or at the Regional Planning Commission. And it is interesting uh how many people are coming into this area. And so we we actually spend some time with the individuals about how experienced they are biking, what they want to see. We just held a national conference for the Congress for the New Urbanism here in May, and I had people reaching out about, well, what should I see? Where should I go? And so my response has been: well, the trail's 40 miles long, so you know if you want to ride the whole thing, can you really ride 80 miles back and forth? So typically the thing is that they're renting a staying in a hotel or an Airbnb. They want to know how to, once again, how close is the Razorback Greenway? What is the best way to access the Razorback Greenway if I'm going from the north to south, where to stay? And those calls every month or so, we have people coming from Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa, uh all over within a day's drive to experience the Razorback Greenway. And so I guess to answer your question, I uh spent some time with somebody that was coming to this national conference, and I said, well, if I was coming to Bentonville, you know, I would start at the square and go through Compton Gardens, uh, go past and look over Crystal Bridges and go see the skills course, ride about three miles, turn around, come back to the square, and then uh you definitely have to check out the new campus with integrating the Razorback Greenway into a campus with 15,000 associates and plus the mixed use and experience and experience that. And so that was my first recommendation. And then I said, and if you have more time, I would hop on the rail yard loop and see Rogers and what downtown Rogers is doing, and then Lake Atlanta and that. And so just a personal note, during COVID, since I'm not an 80-plus mile bike rider with my wife, we would actually take our bikes up to Bentonville and Rogers during COVID. We're in the Fayeville area to uh do a ride in the morning, have lunch, do another ride, and then put our bikes back on and go back south. And so I I think those trips are happening all the time here in Northwest Arkansas. People that live in Northwest Arkansas are traveling either to the south or to the north to experience this trail system because it is incredible with the 200-plus miles of shared use paved trail that we have in Northwest Arkansas. Um you you know, you can experience different parts of uh Northwest Arkansas that you have never seen before. Now I would like to add one thing, too. When the greenway first uh opened up or it was under construction, I rode the entire facility. There were parts of Springdale, Lowell, Rogers, Bentonville that I had never experienced before. And it was just incredible to uh experience some of these areas that I had no idea were in these cities, including Lake Springdale and the park and how that was integrated into the whole system. And when I think about it today, the Razorback Greenway really has connected these major destinations. You start at uh Mount Kessler Park, hundreds of acres, uh City of Fayeville, permanently protected. Uh you end up uh now with the City of Fayetteville's last bond issue, the upper and lower Ramble. Right. Beautiful downtown gathering place that used to be a parking lot, a surface parking lot for cars, and now it's for people in a destination. You leave downtown Fayeville and you end up going through Lake Fayeville, hundreds of acres of parkland, a lake. Uh you end up in Springdale, Luther George Park, and you see this beautiful architectural design pavilion, and uh you you see people out in their down, and you end up in their downtown and you see the transformation of daylighting the creek uh and all the revitalization in their downtown area, and then you go up into uh Springdale once again, along the along the creek, uh and you get up into uh Bentonville and you and and Rogers, and you see the connections over into the promenade area and the other commercial development, and the city of Rogers is really making an effort of how to connect that greenway into these employment centers and these residential centers, and then just, of course, Bentonville. You get up to Bentonville and you see the downtown square, you see the A Street Promenade, you see Crystal Bridges, uh Compton Gardens. Momentary. Momentary, thank you. I'm I'm missing uh, yes, the the these experiences that you can have. So, you know, it is truly amazing what has been created and connecting these destinations, these places. And I didn't even name all of them. Right. Uh and so you can basically within a half day or a day, or you want to take two days, uh, just experience Northwest Arkansas with this backbone, this trail system that's you know world-class again, connecting multiple cities, and then as we build out this commuter network, we grow our neighborhoods, uh, we protect our streams and creeks along the Razorback

Planning What Happens Alongside

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Greenway. About 60 percent of the greenway is in the floodplain, and so there's an opportunity for us to really look at what happens along the greenway. And so I think it's I think it's interesting. We built a trail, uh for the most part, a 12-foot trail uh connecting seven cities, which was a major accomplishment. But I think what's more important is what happens along the Razorback Greenway. And so uh we received uh funding through the Walton Family Foundation uh through their design excellence planning program to do a uh Razorback Greenway corridor plan. And so that's really exciting. We our board adopted the framework uh earlier this year, and then we're moving forward with a phase two, which is looking at three sub-area plans in the northern part, so Bentonville, Rogers, and Bella Vista. And when we say Razorback Greenway, and I talked about like maybe the first regional, true regional park connecting seven cities, we really need to look at land use and connectivity and environmental preservation along that. And that's what this framework is doing. And so Bentonville just last month had a meeting on their sub-area plan, and we're really excited to work with Johnson and Bella Vista because it is truly an asset that can be leveraged. It already is being leveraged, but one of the most important things we can do is to make sure that we are protecting the places, creating the places that we love along the Razorback Greenway.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Aaron Powell Well, I I absolutely love that you are using this investment, using this asset that's been built, but then not just stopping at the fact that people are out there playing on it. Outdoor recreation is huge in Bentonville, but you have to have uh you have to protect the vibe of the outdoor recreation area, and it sounds like y'all are thinking about that. In fact, you handed me a glimpse into this Razorback Greenway corridor plan, like the future, six initiatives or steps that are being taken.

Creeks Shade And Stormwater Solutions

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Protect and restore Creek corridors. You want to talk can we talk about all six of these?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah. And at the Commission, we developed an open space plan in 2016. We developed a regional trail plan, and then most recently we uh had the opportunity to put together an energy and environment innovation plan. And so what we're calling the green network, which is also being talked about in the Razorback Greenway Plan, is how do we protect the highest and high priority open space areas, also with active transportation. And so what you'll see on Protect Our Creek Corridors, we look for funding opportunities. And we were able to participate in a tri-region grant uh through the uh climate pollution reduction grant, and we received $36.25 million. And there are eight projects along the Razorback Greenway that will help protect and restore the creeks and also permanent protect open space, and so including in Bentonville, uh Rogers, Fayeville, uh Johnson, and so we're really excited about that. But there's more work to be done on that. Because for the most part, unless you're in one of the large parks, uh the greenway is in a 30-foot easement. And so what you see, that open space, those wetlands, those prairies, those forests, for the most part, they're not protected. And so we need to really focus on how to protect the most critical habitats, the open spaces that we love, that we experience along the Greenway. So that is one of the uh key recommendations of the Razorback Greenway Corridor Plan. And to your point, yes, we have been very successful. We built a 40-mile trail. We need to really focus on what happens along that trail.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

So that's that's number one. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Number one, and then rewilding the greenway. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

And so I'm sure uh as people go up and down the greenway, they see uh places that really don't have any vegetation or shade. And so the idea behind that is, like I mentioned yesterday, it was really warm outside. Shade is a big deal. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Shade is a big deal. And if we're really looking at creating an active transportation network, a spine with a commuter network, we need to look at how we can enhance that. And so looking at opportunities to re-wild the Greenway, where you might just have an area that's just Bermuda grass and people are just mowing it that could be transformed into something more. And you see examples of that already along the Greenway, you know, including with the reroute through the Walmart New Global Campus. There are ways to address what the condition looks like just beyond the Greenway. And so that's an initiative that we're working on.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Trevor Burrus, Jr. What about flooding? How are you guys thinking about keeping everybody dry on the Greenway?

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Trevor Burrus So one of the opportunities that was studied there was a delegation that looked at the Atlanta belt line of how they combined the active transportation infrastructure, open space, parkland, and along with stormwater management. And so a idea of what's called a sponge park or whatever, a holistic view of how a place can manage stormwater at a regional or sub-basin level is an idea. Currently there's a lot of discussion, like most individual developments have to individually address their stormwater. And so this idea is how how can we as a region work together to look at how can sub-areas be planned together? And so once again, through some other funding through the CPRG program, we have projects that are looking at that in Rogers and other places about how collectively can we manage stormwater where you're not just building a detention or retention basin that's really not adding value or creating place within Northwest Arkansas. We want to do better, we want to incorporate that together so it's an added value by combining them together that it actually creates something more along the Greenway than just, for example, standard detention pond.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, the next initiative is certainly designed to help with this rapid population growth and also the magnetism that Northwest Arkansas has for attracting visitors in its new neighborhoods along the Greenway. What

Neighborhoods Commuter Loops Complete Streets

SPEAKER_00 23:53

brought that on?

SPEAKER_02 23:54

I think over the last 11 years, we've seen development instead of turning their back on the Razorback Greenway, they brought the Greenway into their developments. So, you know, if you think of uh the town branch development here in Brentonville, yeah, with the trail going through that. You know, there is an opportunity, once again, we want to leverage this facility. It's an active transportation facility, offers transportation choice, it connects seven cities together and beyond as we move forward. And so it's really exciting to see the work uh that the communities are doing, like Bentonville with their new comprehensive plan and their new unified development code of what can that look like to grow these neighborhoods along this facility? I mean, we're probably close to $60 to $80 million of investment, if not more, on the Razorback Greenway. We should leverage that. And so this initiative, as we look at these sub-area plans, how do we how do we grow neighborhoods? How do we get more development along the Razorback Greenway? As we grow, as we grow to a million population, there are choices that we make. You know, we can spread out and consume every last square mile of land in Northwest Arkansas, but I think for the most part, people really value our open spaces, our floating, fishing, hunting, natural areas, our agricultural heritage. And you know, we have an opportunity to look at how we grow Northwest Arkansas. And so an initiative here is how do we grow Northwest Arkansas to accommodate more people living closer to the Razorback Greenway and having access to the Razorback Greenway?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Super smart development. And then complete this commuter bike network, creating urban loops that strengthen multimodal connections between neighborhoods and the greenway. That certainly helps the visitor experience when you don't have to worry about rush hour. You know, you can walk someplace and you don't have to worry about your kids having to deal with traffic.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

And you know, picking up on what uh Mayor Hines and John McCurdy and Rogers have done with the rail yard loop and connecting the neighborhoods in their activity areas in their downtown, looking at how what opportunities do we have to connect into this overall network? Once again, we're trying to create a safe, low stress, high comfort network. I look at the Razorback Greenway as a facility that I have grandchildren. When I want to have them out on a bike, what is the the one place you want them to ride their bike or learn on a strider bike or be able to get from A to B? And those are the type of facilities. So these commuter networks of really looking at how to connect those other cities into the overall network is what we're focused on. There's been a tremendous amount of work on that. Um you look at the number of grade separation that has been implemented, talking about tunnels or overpasses to allow pedestrians, bicyclists to get under some of our challenging roadways. Right. That may be five lanes, six lanes. Uh I think Bentonville just recently celebrated the tunnel that's connecting the uh campus along to the new connection on 102. Uh so the commission's really focused on that too. We just awarded funds to uh Bentonville to look at design and environmental for the Eagle Way Tunnel for NWAC. Yeah. Once again, just down the road to make that connection. So really those commuter loops, how we can connect those communities together. And then just a side note on the other piece when I started out this conversation is that it's great that we can build these trails and they're 12 feet wide for the most part, but we're not going to build a trail to everybody's front door. And we need to design our streets and our neighborhoods and our connectivity where it is safe and speeds are slower and everybody is sharing the road, and we're able to be able to access these facilities. And so at the Commission, we also developed a comprehensive safety action plan and a complete streets design guideline. And so we're really excited about that because truly we're trying to create these networks.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

And so, and not just trails. And so, for your listeners here, also for transit. Uh, to access transit, you have to have a bicycle pedestrian network to access the stops. And so as we look at bus rapid transit along the historic 71B corridor, what we can do as a region by convening and collaborating with our planning partners. Today we have 39 units of government that are members of the Commission.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

We're celebrating our 60th uh anniversary this year. We were formed in 1966. And so I think everybody can look to the past and go, maybe that design didn't work out very well for other than driving. And so that is what we're lasered focused on how do we create networks in a transportation system that works for all modes, all ages, all abilities? And that's the work that we're really trying to move forward today to offer transportation choice. Uh so if you want to walk, bike, or take transit, those networks are in place. And Graham, there's a lot of work that still has to be done.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I am sure there is. I'm sure there is. Well, the last initiative is to connect destinations and experiences, which we've touched on some. And I want to end this by saying thank you for the work that you've done and the organization has done along with all your partners. Like convening people to come together on this is a critical piece of it. And when all of this is moving in a coordinated way, you know, you can see that the visitors are having a better time and an easier time. Businesses are able to get more people in and out of the door and increase the experience that they deliver, the services they deliver. And then, of course, employers and the workforce that drives all of this are able to get to work and back home more safely, more efficiently. These are the quality of life guardrails and investments that a lot of communities aren't thinking

Next Greenways And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 30:26

about. So it's refreshing.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Probably one of the most rewarding things that happened this year, just with regard to planning greenways, the Bidden County Quorum Court approved a resolution to apply for funds for a feasibility study to build a greenway from gentry to Silem Springs. Yeah. And so the commission awarded funds for that feasibility study. And so this is not just the big urban core talking about these type of projects. It's also our smaller cities along the Highway 59 corridor. So Silem Springs, Gentry, Decatur, uh Gravit, and uh they see the value in creating these networks and they've done some great work, but they would also like to connect their communities together. And so I am so excited about that project uh moving forward and uh to think from where we were 25, 30 years ago to today talking about planting another greenway in Northwest Arkansas. That's very really exciting. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Well, truly communities connected to each other in a way that we should all be thankful for. So thank you for joining us today and for the work that you're doing. Tim, I hope to see you out on the greenway. Thank you, Graham. Appreciate it. Whether you're a visitor or you call Bittenville home, visit Bittenville is here to keep you connected to the people, the places, and the experiences in our new American town. Check the show notes for links to our website, social channels, and our newsletter.