Overview
Code type
euclidean
Naming convention
—
Classic Euclidean code: Chapter 130 organizes Springdale into R-1 / R-2 / R-3 residential, C-1 / C-2 commercial, I-1 industrial, plus a PUD planned-development overlay, and Historic-District + Floodplain overlays. No form-based elements at the base-district level; downtown is regulated through the HD overlay rather than a dedicated downtown district. PUD is treated as an overlay here rather than as a base district per prior v1 research. | sub_flags_raw=[pud-overlay]
Worth knowing
- {"quirk": "NWA-corridor city scale with simplified district roster \u2014 Springdale (pop. ~88k, third-largest NWA city) uses only 6 base districts (R-1/R-2/R-3 + C-1/C-2 + I-1), simpler than Bentonville's 22-district roster or Fayetteville's 8-district roster. Reflects a regulatory philosophy of fewer base districts with case-by-case PUD overlays for complexity.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "Tyson Foods HQ + poultry-processing corridor \u2014 Springdale's I-1 district hosts Tyson Foods Inc.'s world headquarters and the dominant US poultry-processing corridor; industrial uses in I-1 are unusually intense relative to a typical small-city I-1.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "Walmart-HQ corridor multifamily demand \u2014 Springdale absorbs significant Walmart-HQ workforce-housing demand in R-3 and PUD-overlay multifamily projects along the I-49 corridor.", "status": "confirmed"}
+ 3 more in Quirks & notes
Districts
res_sf 2com 2res_mf 1ind 1
| Code | Name | Category | Min lot | Height | Coverage | FAR | Du/ac | Parking | Setbacks F/S/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-1 | Single Family | res_sf | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| R-2 | Two-Family | res_sf | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| R-3 | Multi-Family | res_mf | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| C-1 | Neighborhood Commercial | com | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| C-2 | General Commercial | com | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
| I-1 | Industrial | ind | — | — | — | — | — | — | — / — / — |
Confidence: confirmed partial under review not found
Overlays
HD
Historic District Overlay
SPECDesignated historic areas within city limits per the Official Zoning Map. Coverage includes Emma Avenue / Downtown Springdale historic core and the Shiloh Square area.
FP
Floodplain Overlay
SPECProperties within FEMA-mapped Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) and 100-year floodplain boundary per Washington County FIRM panels. Coverage concentrated along Spring Creek, Clear Creek, and tributaries draining to the Illinois River.
PUD
Planned Unit Development Overlay
SPECSite-specific: applicant petition with master site plan. Becomes an overlay on the underlying base district by ordinance once approved.
State preemptions
Act 313 of 2025 (HB 1503) — ADU by-rightapplies
Qualifying condition
Statewide preemption: every Arkansas municipality must allow at least one ADU by right on any lot containing a single-family home in any single-family zoning district, with administrative approval only, ADU size capped at lesser of 75% of primary dwelling floor area or 1,000 sf, zero parking required, and a $250 cap on combined municipal application fees. Springdale's single-family districts (R-1, R-2) are in scope.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §Act 313 of 2025 (HB 1503) — ADU by-right; effective date 2026-01-01 (past today's review date 2026-05-19, status in_force).
Effect
On any qualifying single-family lot in Springdale's SF districts: city must approve at least one ADU administratively, may not require parking, may not enforce size restrictions beyond the state cap, and may not charge >$250 in combined application fees.
Act 1035 of 2023 — STR partial preemptionapplies
Qualifying condition
Statewide: city may not ban owner-occupied STRs in any zoning district where single-family residential use is permitted, may not cap STR permits more strictly than its general lodging framework, may not require minimum rental durations exceeding 28 days, and may not require STR-only discretionary permits. Springdale's SF districts (R-1, R-2) are in scope. Springdale is the third-largest city in the Northwest Arkansas metro and absorbs material STR demand from Walmart-HQ corporate travel, Tyson Foods HQ traffic, and the broader NWA tourism economy. No pre-2011 STR ordinance of record has been identified.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §ACA §14-54-1604; city zoning code STR use-section verification pending DOM-capable retrieval.
Effect
Springdale may register STRs and collect equivalent hotel-occupancy tax; may not ban owner-occupied STRs in residential districts or impose STR-only discretionary review.
Act 757 of 2023 — Building permit / inspection shot clockapplies
Qualifying condition
Statewide procedural preemption: 20-business-day initial plan review and 10-business-day re-review for most residential permits; mandatory acceptance of qualified third-party private-provider inspections; reasonableness cap on permit fees. Applies to all AR municipalities including Springdale.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §HB 1503 / Act 757 of 2023.
Effect
Springdale's permit review must conform to the statutory shot-clock and accept third-party inspectors. Substantive zoning regulation is not preempted — only procedure.
Act 594 of 2023 — Exactions / impact fees (Nollan-Dolan codification)applies
Qualifying condition
Statewide: subdivision exactions and impact fees must satisfy essential-nexus and rough-proportionality findings per Nollan/Dolan. Applies to all AR cities including Springdale (which exercises §14-56-425 fee authority via its development review process).
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §Act 594 of 2023.
Effect
Any Springdale impact fee or exaction must be supported by a study demonstrating nexus and proportionality, or it is challengeable as a regulatory taking.
Act 1012 of 2023 — Down-zoning noticeapplies
Qualifying condition
Statewide: enhanced notice and procedural requirements for down-zonings affecting platted/vested projects. Springdale is a high-growth NWA corridor city with numerous platted subdivisions and vested commercial projects; Act 1012's heightened-notice regime is consequential for any down-zoning along I-49 / US-71 / Don Tyson Parkway corridors.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §Act 1012 of 2023.
Effect
Springdale must issue heightened notice before adopting any down-zoning that affects a platted or vested project.
ACA §§20-25-102 / 20-25-113 — Manufactured housing field preemptionapplies
Qualifying condition
Statewide field preemption of manufactured-home construction and installation standards. Springdale's residential districts that permit manufactured housing (typically R-2 / R-3 with specific allowance; district roster pending Chapter 130 retrieval) must accept HUD-code compliant homes; appearance standards (Class A/B distinction) permitted only on compatibility grounds.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §Manufactured Housing Preemption section.
Effect
Springdale may zone manufactured homes by district and impose compatibility-based appearance standards but may not impose construction/installation standards differing from HUD or AMHC code.
ACA §14-56-416 — Land use plan preconditionapplies
Qualifying condition
Modified Dillon's Rule: Springdale must have an adopted land use plan before exercising any zoning authority. Springdale has operated a zoning code for decades; the city's Comprehensive Plan provides the §14-56-416 plan-precondition foundation. Currency-of-plan confirmation pending direct contact with the Planning Department.
Source
zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md §ACA §14-56-401 et seq.
Effect
Zoning authority is conditional on plan adoption. Springdale appears compliant.
Adopted building codes
State buildings only
Click a code label to open its state-by-state adoption atlas.
Amendment history
| Date | Kind | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-01 | supplement effective | note: Operative Chapter 130 supplement. Municode is the city's official code publisher. Exact ordinance amendment numbers not recovered — Municode portal is a JS SPA. | source: https://library.municode.com/ar/springdale/codes/code_of_ordinances |
Quirks & notes
- {"quirk": "NWA-corridor city scale with simplified district roster \u2014 Springdale (pop. ~88k, third-largest NWA city) uses only 6 base districts (R-1/R-2/R-3 + C-1/C-2 + I-1), simpler than Bentonville's 22-district roster or Fayetteville's 8-district roster. Reflects a regulatory philosophy of fewer base districts with case-by-case PUD overlays for complexity.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "Tyson Foods HQ + poultry-processing corridor \u2014 Springdale's I-1 district hosts Tyson Foods Inc.'s world headquarters and the dominant US poultry-processing corridor; industrial uses in I-1 are unusually intense relative to a typical small-city I-1.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "Walmart-HQ corridor multifamily demand \u2014 Springdale absorbs significant Walmart-HQ workforce-housing demand in R-3 and PUD-overlay multifamily projects along the I-49 corridor.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "PUD as overlay (not base district) \u2014 Springdale's PUD pathway is implemented as an overlay layered on the underlying base district rather than as a freestanding zoning district (compare to Bentonville Sec. 401.10 where PUD is its own district). This means base-district dimensional standards continue to apply to the extent not modified by the approved PUD plan.", "status": "partial"}
- {"quirk": "Act 313 of 2025 ADU preemption now binding \u2014 effective 2026-01-01. Springdale's R-1 / R-2 SF lots must allow at least one ADU by right with administrative-only approval. NWA workforce-housing pressure makes this consequential.", "status": "confirmed"}
- {"quirk": "Municode SPA blocker \u2014 Springdale's only public code-hosting platform is the Municode Library, which is a JS SPA. The city's homepage at springdalear.gov returns truncated content on static fetch. Dimensional values inside Chapter 130 cannot be extracted without DOM-capable retrieval.", "status": "confirmed"}
Formulas
Definitions
- height
- Maximum building height per Chapter 130 §130-X height standards. Measured from grade. Specific values pending DOM-capable retrieval.
- lot_coverage
- Building footprint as percentage of lot area. Pending §130 dimensional table retrieval.
- far
- Not codified per prior research; intensity controlled via lot coverage (implicit), height, and setback.
- du_ac
- Implicit via minimum lot area per dwelling unit (R-3 multi-family).
- setback_front
- Front yard per §130 district tables.
- setback_side
- Interior side per §130 district tables.
- setback_rear
- Rear yard per §130 district tables.
- parking
- Off-street parking per Chapter 130 parking section; specific ratios not extracted.
Capacity calculations
- max_footprint_sf
lot_area_sf * lot_coverage- max_units_residential_per_lot
lot_area_sf / min_land_area_per_dwelling_unit (R-3 multi-family)- max_building_height_ft_per_district
Per §130 height standards; specific values pending retrieval
Massing explorer
Interactive 3D comparison across every district. Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, use the slider to walk districts, and toggle applicable overlays in the right-side panel.
Sort by
Max height
— ft
——
Floor area ratio
—
——
Lot coverage
—%
——
Setbacks (F / S / R)
— ft
——
Parking
— /unit
——
Max density
— du/ac
——
Min lot size
— sf
——
Copy zoning profile
Loading…
| District | Category | Height | FAR | Coverage | Setbacks | Parking | Density | Min lot | Overlays |
|---|
Sources & references
Primary source
Retrieval failure: municode_js_spa_no_static_text
Research status
Publication gates
| primary url present | passed | evidence=source.primary_url = https://library.municode.com/ar/springdale/codes/code_of_ordinances (Springdale's city-hosted Municode portal — the city's contracted code publisher). |
|---|---|---|
| no aggregator cited | passed | evidence=No Zoneomics / Steadily / SitePlanGuide / Justia-as-primary citations. Primary source is library.municode.com/ar/springdale — Springdale's own contracted code-hosting platform (CivicPlus/Municode is the city's official code publisher, not a third-party aggregator). Secondary sources: springdalear.gov (city homepage), zoning/us/arkansas/preemptions.md, FEMA FIRM. |
| confidence tags full form | passed | evidence=Every district dimensional standard carries {v, c (confirmed/partial), citation, not_captured_reason where partial}. Overlay parameters carry {name, value, status, citation}. Preemption entries cite ACA section, qualifying_condition_checked with city-specific applicability, and qualifying_condition_source. |
| overlays have parameters trigger confidence | passed | evidence=3/3 overlays (HD, FP, PUD) have parameters[] arrays with name/value/status/citation per parameter, geographic_trigger, status, citation, ordinance_ref, what_is_confirmed, what_is_missing. overlays_absence_documented lists 3 absent overlay categories (airport, downtown-form-based, industrial-park) with search_performed evidence. |
| preempt section city specific | passed | evidence=7 AR statutes with qualifying_condition_checked containing Springdale-specific applicability (R-1/R-2 SF district roster for ADU preemption; Walmart-HQ + Tyson Foods HQ + NWA tourism STR demand context; high-growth-corridor vested-rights subdivision context; Comprehensive Plan reference for §14-56-416 compliance). |
Data quality
42%completeness18 confirmed36 partial
Documented gaps
- Chapter 130 residential, commercial, and industrial dimensional tables not extractable from Municode SPA — all per-district dimensional values are partial pending retrieval.
- HD overlay design-guideline specifics, contributing-properties roster (Emma Avenue / Shiloh Square), and Historic Preservation Commission composition not retrieved.
- FP overlay freeboard value pending direct §130 confirmation.
- PUD overlay modifiable-standards list, minimum site size, and public-benefit criteria pending retrieval.
- Parking ratios per Chapter 130 parking section not extracted.
- Springdale's Comprehensive Plan currency under §14-56-416 not confirmed.
- Tyson Foods HQ-adjacent I-1 use-list specifics and processing-corridor performance standards not extracted.
Known issues
freshness:stableblocker:municode-spa-no-static-textdata:dimensional-values-partial
Other cities in this state
Nearest-alphabetical profiles. Click through to compare zoning patterns side-by-side.