Future Forward: Meet a Regional Planner
Meet Nicole Gibbs, a Regional Planner from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission (NWARPC)
Meet Nicole Gibbs, a Regional Planner from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission (NWARPC)
I grew up in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona and lived a decade in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Northwest Arkansas in 2016.
I received a Master of Science in Planning and Graduate Certification in Heritage Conservation from the University of Arizona.
I have been in the field since 2016. I received my professional accreditation (American Institute of Certified Planners, AICP) in 2019.
Like many in the field – in a roundabout way. I studied art (sculpture) during my undergrad, and my honors thesis work was, unbeknownst to me at the time, centered in urban planning. That led me to research graduate programs for the profession.
This spring, I had the privilege of helping to coordinate a regional coalition to develop an EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG), Implementation Program application.
Planning Partners in Northwest Arkansas (city staff, environmental and active transportation NGO’s, and others) teamed up to assemble a $36.25 million proposal that pairs the restoration and preservation of natural cores and corridors with active transportation networks to implement an NWA Regional Green Network.
Ultimately, our regional coalition partnered with Metroplan in Little Rock and the City of Fort Smith to maximize the benefit statewide (the three metro areas represent over 50% of the state’s population) and to enhance the application’s competitiveness.
The Tri-Region Coalition partnered with over 50 communities, agencies, and organizations across the three regions to develop projects and programs included in the application.
We believe our proposal is competitive in this program, but even if it is not awarded, I consider the effort to be groundbreaking and the partnerships built through the process, along with the support and enthusiasm for the work, to be a catalyst for future innovative efforts!
A planner is a public servant. I don’t hear people using this term as much anymore, but I truly believe planners have a heart for serving and building communities.
Planning is a continual and ongoing process focused on the public interest and the specific needs of each community. In my practice this means coordinating diverse and often disparate values and weaving them together to move the community forward.
Many places inspire me but in the interest of time I’ll highlight two cities for different reasons.
First, through a Walton Family Foundation grant, NWARPC had the opportunity to send a regional delegation to the CNU Conference in Charlotte, NC in May 2023. The group was able to experience the richness of the urban environment and discuss tools the community partners have used to progress affordable housing services, high-capacity transit systems (bus and light rail), active transportation, and land use patterns into a thriving and pulsing community. While that community was open about past shortfalls and challenges still in front of them, they are solidly in the process of building community.
Second, as I mentioned above, I lived in Tucson, Arizona for about ten years prior to moving to NWA. That community, I believe, will always be a special place for me. Given time and space, its authentic and vibrant flavors seep into your soul. I think these types of places – the ones that surprise you and are able to maintain their authenticity – are most inspiring to me. I think one of the big challenges for Northwest Arkansas, like all growing metros, is to maintain its particular flavor as it grows.
Time. Or lack thereof.
There are many projects, actually. In late May, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission (NWARPC) will award $15 million of federal transportation grants to projects of regional significance to improve mobility in NWA. Member communities apply for these annual NWARPC Funding Programs for improvements to roads (complete streets), active transportation facilities, and carbon reduction projects.
We are working on our 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) update, the metro-area’s “25-year Plan”, which provides a long-range, comprehensive look at the region’s mobility needs based on existing and anticipated growth. We will be working closely with our planning partners to develop three growth scenarios to better understand how land use and development patterns can impact mobility choices throughout the region as we grow to over 1 million residents over the next 25 years! – growth scenarios akin to 1) dispersed suburban development; 2) polycentric/nodal development; and 3) compact urban form.
We are also developing a Transit Alternatives Study to evaluate possibilities for high-capacity public transportation in the region. Our agency also regularly coordinates with local transit agencies, Ozark Regional Transit (ORT) and Razorback Transit on public transportation projects in the region.
NWARPC was awarded a FHWA Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Planning Grant and we are coordinating with communities to develop an NWA Complete Streets Design Guide and other deliverables to address road safety (reducing fatal and serious injury crashes) and planning for all modes of transportation.
The Commission continues to coordinate and support enhancements to the Razorback Greenway spine such as the extension of the Greenway into Bella Vista (Mercy Way project), lighting the Greenway in Johnson, and constructing a tunnel under Highway 264 in Lowell.
NWARPC received funding through the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to provide regional-specific planning on the development of the Energy & Environment Innovation (EEI) Plan. We worked with regional partners and the public to develop the NWA EEI Priority Action Plan (PAP), which enabled the region to be eligible to apply for the CPRG Implementation Grant described earlier. Over the next year, we will be developing the next phase of the EEI planning work, the regional Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP).
We also regularly support communities with their “on-the-ground” planning capacity, including developing ordinances and long-range plans, typically for the smaller communities that have less, or no, planning staff.
Along with our transportation programming, which is a federally mandated process, the bulk of our work at the moment seems to be grounded in ensuring the region is enabled to access and compete well for the historic levels of federal funding grant opportunities available.
Collaboration is one of the best aspects of working in Regional Planning. NWA is projected to nearly double to over one million residents by 2050, and as it is a polycentric region (without a single core City), there are many unique challenges we can best overcome by working alongside each other, learning from each other, and sharing best practices.
Planning trends come and go, and yet, communities remain. Planning is a process centered on generating opportunities for citizen choice (residential choice, mobility choice, equitable access to essential services, etc.). When we fail to approach planning intentionally; fail to understand it as an incremental process; fail to address it comprehensively – we limit choice and opportunity.