New Tactical Urbanism Guide Helps Cities do Community-Led Placemaking

This summer, the city of Fayetteville, AR took the remarkable step of actually encouraging its residents to construct and lead tactical urbanism projects. While tactical urbanism activities like pop-up bike lanes and homemade curb bump-outs typically face uphill battles in terms of permitting and many are outright illegal, Fayetteville has taken the opposite approach.

As the Fayetteville Flyer reported in July, "Officials [...] announced the creation of a new permit process to encourage residents to experiment with traffic and bike safety theories that could lead to permanent infrastructure improvements." Several projects have already taken place in Fayetteville and more are in the works. You can read a report on one of their projects—a temporary roundabout—here.

In addition to this permit process, Fayetteville also produced a tactical urbanism guide to community-led placemaking projects. And much of it applies far beyond the Arkansas town.

The guide begins with an introduction to tactical urbanism basics, offers advice for planning and applying for a permit, and walks you through how to install a successful project.

View and download the whole guide.

Check back on Thursday for our podcast interview with Chris Brown, the City of Fayetteville engineer who's been leading this effort.