NWARPC is focusing on the following departments and programs: Regional Planning, GIS and Mapping, Regional Data development and distribution, Stormwater management and Transportation.

Planning Assistance – Regional Planning can be defined as a branch of land use planning meant to efficiently deal with placement of land use activities, infrastructure and settlement growth across an area larger than an individual city or town. Northwest Arkansas as a region is a perfect example of such a case. Traditionally, NWARPC is maintaining an assistance program designed to help member governments in the process of planning and with local development issues, as well as advising on a wider range in other local governmental affairs. Please visit our Planning Assistance section for more details.

GIS and Mapping – Geospatial information plays a very important role in land use planning in general. NWARPC has been serving as a regional “to go” place for cities and towns in the region that don’t have GIS or mapping departments and also as the data development and dissemination of digital geographic datasets, as well as producing hard copy maps for its members. Please visit our GIS and Mapping section for more details about this department or the Regional Maps section for a list of available PDF maps developed by NWARPC.

Regional Data – This program has been traditionally developed for gathering and analyzing regional building permits in order to predict urban and demographic growth in the region. Our staff is working closely with the US Census Bureau and other organizations in the area for developing accurate and up-to- date demographic information. Please visit our Regional Data section for more details and links of interest.

Stormwater– Stormwater management is a very important issue in Northwest Arkansas. Cities and towns in the region have teamed up for the EPA’s Phase II storm water management in order to provide storm water pollution prevention planning strategies for the entire region. The storm water group meets at NWARPC on a regular basis. Please visit our Stormwater section for more details and links of interest about this topic.

Transportation -Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As the MPO, NWARPC conducts transportation planning in NW Arkansas especially with regard to projects that utilize federal funds. NWARPC works with local elected officials, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) and local citizens to develop short range and long range transportation plans that incorporate multiple modes of transportation. Please visit our Transportation section for more details and links of interest.