Policy Papers
The details matter... The platform is the short version. These papers are where I work out how an idea would actually change our code, and who ends up paying for it. I'm a process nerd, so expect more of them. Have a question, an idea, or think of something I missed? Let me know.
03
Trust & Civic Engagement
Data Governance & Disruptive Tech Zoning
Proactive rules to protect your privacy and your neighborhood from changing technologies
Council’s unanimous vote to ban public funding for license plate readers was a necessary first step, but vendors are shifting from selling hardware to selling data as a service, so equipment bans alone won’t keep pace. This proposal sets clear rules for how the city acquires and retains data, how it discloses its use of AI, and how zoning handles new logistics and tech infrastructure, whatever technology comes next.
Key proposals
- A warrant-equivalent standard: if police would need a warrant to track someone, the city can’t buy the same digital history from a data broker or hold standing access to private cameras.
- A public registry of the automated decision systems the city uses, with a Council memo at procurement and a semiannual review open to public comment.
- A 72-hour default purge for passive sensor data, including metadata and on-device AI summaries, and no licensing city data to train commercial models.
- Objective zoning standards for data centers, battery storage, dark stores, and delivery hubs, covering noise, water, fire safety, active storefronts, and idling.
Read the full paper (PDF)
04
Local Economic Development
Keeping Fayetteville Local
Enabling small business, local character, and the next generation of good jobs
Rising rents, high interest rates, and rules written for big standardized buildings squeeze the local places that make Fayetteville itself. The City can’t set interest rates or regulate private leases, but it does control what is legal to build, how fast it says yes, and where public dollars go. This proposal uses those three levers, all by ordinance or budget vote, within Arkansas law, and without new debt.
Key proposals
- Make it easy to open small: smaller bays and market stalls by right, no site-wide redesign to reuse older buildings, life-safety matching grants, and a published permit clock.
- Help local businesses last: free lease counsel, first priority for loans to buy the building, and succession help, backed by a loan-loss reserve with a nonprofit community lender.
- Meet at the curb: match facade investment with sidewalk and streetscape upgrades, and break City contracts into lots small local firms can bid on.
- Build the workforce: by-right lab and flex space near the UA’s new chip fab, protected industrial land, and apprenticeship and local-hire goals on City capital projects.
Read the full paper (PDF)
06
Housing Choice & Affordability
Housing Stability & Eviction Diversion
A pragmatic, municipal-led approach to renter navigation and economic retention
A car breaks down, two shifts are missed, and by the 6th a 3-day notice is on the door. The tenant will have the rent next payday, but the legal clock is already running. Arkansas law preempts rent control and most lease regulation, but Fayetteville still controls its own budget. This proposal funds an eviction navigation program that protects due process, lowers landlord risk, and costs less than the homelessness it prevents. An $80,000 clinic contract breaks even by keeping six households out of the shelter system.
Key proposals
- An eviction navigation clinic, run by an independent legal aid provider, timed to the 5-day window tenants have to answer an unlawful detainer suit, with evening hours at the library and community centers on transit routes.
- Shallow subsidies that make a deal more profitable than an eviction: a micro-grant bridge fund paid directly to landlords, pre-filing mediation, and a “graceful exit” deposit for the next lease when a tenancy can’t be saved.
- Forgivable repair loans from CDBG or HOME funds for older, unsubsidized rentals, in exchange for a 5-to-10-year cap on rent increases.
- Open eviction filing data on the city portal, court-date text reminders, and a public scorecard for the program.
Read the full paper (PDF)
Housing Displacement Impact Fee
Replacing the homes that redevelopment removes
When redevelopment replaces older homes and apartments with new, higher-priced housing, the people who lived there have to move, and the developer who removed the homes doesn’t pay to replace them. The cost lands on displaced households, on employers who lose workers, and on taxpayers who fund the safety net. This proposal charges a one-time fee for each bedroom a project removes and spends the money on affordable housing in the same part of town.
Key proposals
- A per-bedroom fee on demolitions and conversions, higher for affordable bedrooms, with a 5-year lookback so a building can’t be emptied early to dodge it.
- A dedicated fund spent in the same census tract or within a set transit distance, and spent within seven years as Arkansas law requires.
- A fee study that sets the amounts from real replacement, relocation, and lost-productivity costs, on the legal footing of the state impact fee law.
- A plan for student housing, the biggest source of redevelopment pressure: size the need, inventory 150% to 200% of the land it takes, and write rules that steer it to those sites.
Read the full paper (PDF)
07
Sustainability & Green Space
Activating the Enduring Green Network
A market-driven strategy for urban nature preservation and smart density
City Plan 2040 maps an Enduring Green Network of stream corridors, steep Ozark hillsides, and forests, but the map has no legal force. This proposal gives it a purpose through a voluntary Transfer of Development Rights program: developers pay EGN landowners to protect their land permanently, and in return build more homes in growth centers the city has already chosen. No tax dollars go to buying land.
Key proposals
- EGN land becomes a voluntary “sending zone,” with more credits per acre for high-value land such as steep forest and headwater wetlands.
- Growth centers become “receiving zones” where credits unlock extra height, reduced parking minimums, or missing-middle housing.
- An EGN escrow fund and annual reverse auction serve as a backup market, and a 5% stewardship fee pays for long-term land care.
Read the full paper (PDF)
Strengthening Tree Preservation Standards
Encouraging efficient land use and growing a healthier urban forest
Updates to the tree rules in Fayetteville’s Unified Development Code, with a focus on making sure required trees actually survive. Yard tree requirements scale with lot size, large existing trees get new protections, and missing-middle housing stays practical to build.
Key proposals
- Require enough uncompacted soil for trees to establish roots, not just packing them in red clay and hoping for the best.
- Scale yard tree requirements to lot size, with credits for preserving large, healthy trees.
- Extend survival bonds to 5 years with a 24-month interim inspection, funded by a dedicated inspection fee.
- Protect mature trees on existing lots through a 7-day notice period, preservation grants, and professional support for homeowners.
Read the full paper (PDF)
