Last year, city planners identified three options to address historic preservation concerns.

The recent development code overhaul implements one of those options by adding “overlay districts” for parts of downtown. These districts sit on top of the existing zoning and include additional rules on building materials and heights.

However, officials passed over the option that would actually limit the demolition or alteration of historic buildings: creating a historic preservation ordinance and accompanying design review board.

That approach would have involved creating boundaries for a historic district, like Fayetteville and Rogers have. Inside those boundaries, decisions like additions, demolitions, new construction, signage and paint color would require approval. 

For now, the city has no plans to pursue the historic preservation ordinance option, according to Planning Director Tyler Overstreet. He said any such effort would need to be citizen-led, not initiated by the city government.

"It really does need to be something that's more of a grassroots effort. We would support it, but it would need to start with the local residents and local business or property owners," Overstreet said. "We've done the most that we can do as a city without broad-based property owner consent," he said.

While the city is not pursuing historic preservation regulations, new overlay districts applied to three parts of downtown implement rules intended to ensure new development better matches its surroundings.

The Downtown Center Overlay, which covers the square and surrounding blocks, requires projects to use certain design materials and reduces the allowed height.

Bentonville has contemplated creating historic preservation regulations multiple times over the past few decades, but the efforts eventually fizzled out.

Last year’s announcement that Walton-owned developer Blue Crane planned to demolish a block of buildings on the north side of the square triggered an online petition that garnered 691 signatures – several hundred short of its stated goal of 1,000 signatures. 

According to local historian Monte Harris, most of the existing buildings on the north side of the square were actually built in the 1980s but designed to resemble earlier structures from the 1800s, The Bentonville Bulletin reported previously.

Back in 2016, a proposed plan to demolish two older homes on West Central Avenue sparked protests, with signs reading “Stop destroying our historic homes” and “Shame on them.” Both homes were located within the Bentonville West Central Avenue Historic District.

The house at 701 W. Central Ave. was ultimately torn down, with Habitat for Humanity scrapping the home for parts. 

The house at 703 W. Central Ave., known as the McPhetridge House, was eventually moved to the Thaden School campus. The school's namesake, Louise Thaden, once lived in the home.

For now, the land where the two homes previously stood is vacant. 

While concerns about historic preservation have surfaced multiple times in recent decades, a citizen-led effort in the 1990s may have come closest to establishing formal protections.

Troy Galloway, the city’s former community and economic development director, said a group of residents leading the effort nearly succeeded.

“They got it pretty close, but at the end of the day, there just didn't seem to be enough political will to get across the finish line,” Galloway, who retired in 2017 after 20 years with the city, recalled.

The proposal faced resistance from property owners worried about restrictions on what they could do with their homes. Some of those concerns were valid, Galloway said, while others were likely overstated — but together, they were enough to stall momentum.

With ongoing redevelopment in downtown Bentonville, Galloway said he now wonders whether there is even a remaining area that would make sense for a historic preservation district.

“I think we're almost to a point, and this is purely my opinion, that there just isn't a whole lot left out there that I think could qualify,” he said. “Not that there aren't some structures out there, still – there are – but there's just not a big collection of them anymore,” he said.