Small towns on the edge of growing metros face a paradox: population arrives before infrastructure, tax base, or planning capacity can keep pace. In this webinar, moderated by Groundwork Executive Director Duke McLarty, Mayor Nathan See of Pea Ridge and Audra Butler of Communities Unlimited share how proactive planning, community engagement, housing preservation, and regional collaboration can help small towns navigate growth while maintaining quality of life.
Growth Doesn’t Wait
One of the clearest themes from both speakers is that towns that wait to plan until growth arrives are already behind. Mayor See saw Pea Ridge through periods of rapid expansion as the city grew more than 100% in population between 2000 and 2010. When the city completed an open space master plan with the Urban Land Institute, it went from having one park to four, with parcels already earmarked for future open space. When a new sewer basin recently unlocked the eastern side of town for 1,500 to 2,000 new homes, the city was ready. Mayor See suggested that towns develop master plans and review them annually, as they can evolve based on where growth occurs. As Mayor See put it, “it’s easier to be proactive than to be reactive” to growth.
Audra Butler echoed this from the rural development side. Communities Unlimited works across seven states, and Butler explained that rural communities often don't have the resources to get things wrong. Every engagement starts with a housing needs assessment to understand what a community actually needs before identifying the right tools and resources.
Speed to Market Matters
Mayor See made the connection between permitting timelines and housing costs plain: every day a project sits in review is a day the developer is paying interest, and that cost ends up in the price of the finished home. Pea Ridge invested early in a dedicated planning director, an additional inspector, and an online portal as tools for getting to yes faster.
At the same time, speed without community trust creates its own problems. See holds an open-agenda meeting on the first Friday of every month as a standing invitation for residents to raise concerns. That consistent engagement has surfaced priorities, including a growing conversation in Pea Ridge about public transit. It also builds the goodwill that makes it possible to move quickly when a project comes forward.
Don't Overlook What you Already Have
Before chasing new development, both speakers pushed communities to take care of existing housing stock. As Butler highlighted, “we’re losing housing stock faster than we could ever build new housing.” Deteriorating homes are one of the first signals that stop investors and visible investment in existing neighborhoods can change that.
Small wins matter. In Dumas, Arkansas, Communities Unlimited helped bring a part-time code enforcement position nearly full-time and set up an online system so residents could flag neglected properties. The result was that people felt heard, which made the code enforcer's job easier and helped restore confidence in the neighborhood.
The same principle applies to new housing. Duke McLarty added that towns should "make what you want the easy thing to do. If you want townhomes or something different, make that the easier thing from a regulation standpoint." For towns wanting to attract businesses and services, Mayor See’s advice was to focus on housing first: “start with the houses and the commercial will follow.”
Be Open to Building Differently
Conventional approaches to housing production aren't keeping up with demand, and both speakers pointed to creative models worth watching. Communities Unlimited partnered with Pine Bluff's We Center to build modular homes in a shop setting. The model addresses workforce development and housing supply simultaneously, targeting households at or below 80% of area median income and creating a path to homeownership in a community where it has historically been out of reach.
In Pea Ridge, Mayor See traveled to Phoenix to explore Xtrata Homes which are structures built from a foam-based material that can withstand 250 mph winds and are fire resistant. The city would like to bring the first such home to Arkansas, with the local high school participating in workforce development by building accessory dwelling units alongside the project. The lesson: when existing tools aren't enough, go looking for new ones.
Treat Opposition as Information
Anti-growth sentiment is real, and both speakers suggested using opposition as information. Butler's approach is to start by listening because embedded in most opposition is a genuine fear about losing something people value, and that fear deserves a direct response. "Usually there is something within the anti-growth conversation that you can learn from," she said. Invite the people who are most impacted by the challenges and focus on the root cause of the concern rather than the surface level objection.
Mayor See shared an example of a couple who strongly opposed an apartment complex in their neighborhood that came around after it was built as their property values held, and their son ended up moving into one of the units. As he put it, “it’s better to embrace it rather than fight it, because [growth] is going to happen at the end of the day. But you have to think about how to make it better.”
The Importance of Regionalizing
Both speakers closed with the same idea: the challenges facing small towns are too large to solve in isolation. Butler drew a pointed comparison that communities have long regionalized water and wastewater infrastructure, sharing costs that no single town could carry alone. The same logic should apply to housing. Pooling resources across municipalities could unlock more competitive grant applications and more shared capacity.
Mayor See pointed to Benton County's monthly mayors' call as a practical model other counties can follow. Towns that are a few years ahead in their growth share what worked and what didn't with towns just starting to feel the pressure. When it comes to development, he encouraged towns to leverage partnerships with neighboring towns and take pieces of what worked in other places. He stated, “we are only successful by the relationships we have."
The towns that navigate peripheral growth well aren't always the ones that move fastest or build the most. They're the ones that invest early in understanding what they need, build trust with residents, take care of what they already have, stay open to new approaches, and find ways to share the load with their neighbors. Growth is coming. The question is whether you've done the work to shape it.
