Council considers first 100-lot subdivision since 2008

A rezoning of some 37 acres adjacent to Hickory Hills Country Club could pave the way for development of Springfield’s first 100-lot subdivision since the Great Recession.

A proposal for the second phase of the Hickory Hills subdivision landed on City Council’s desk last night to the excitement of city staff members.

“That’s a significant indicator of an uptick in our economy,” Springfield Planning and Development Director Mary Lilly Smith told council members.

Property owner Hickory Land Co., comprising a handful of investors including managing member Jim Hutcheson, is asking the city to rezone part of the group’s 75-acre planned development. Currently undeveloped land, Hutcheson said this morning the investor owners would extend the 44-lot first phase of Hickory Hills.

The rezoning request seeks to move about 30 acres to single-family residential land and 7-8 acres to general retail. The plans before council are not associated with Hickory Hills Country Club, but the property is adjacent to the golf course and extends north to Chestnut Expressway, east of U.S. Highway 65.

With council approval, Hutcheson said the ownership group expects a groundbreaking in the fall.

“We want to get the project shovel-ready,” he said, noting the owners have not yet received bids for streets and utilities.

He declined to disclose the estimated development cost, and said Anderson Engineering Inc. is on board to handle land work in the next few months.

“If bids come in where we are hopeful, we’ll go ahead,” said Hutcheson, owner of Jim Hutcheson Realtors. “If not, we’re in no hurry. We thought we needed to have this engineered and be ready to go, whether it’s this year or in two years. We still have some inventory to sell in Phase I.”

Hutcheson said about half of the first-phase lots are still available and are listed for $130,000-$180,000 for three-quarters of an acre to over an acre apiece.

He said each lot in Phase II would be about a third of an acre, and the retail portion fronting Chestnut Expressway would be carved out in three commercial lots.

The Hickory Hills subdivision was one of 11 zoning cases before council last night.

“That’s an uptick, too,” Smith added.

Mayor Bob Stephens said he’d been awaiting more residential development plans.

“Some of the construction we were seeing was only government and institutions,” Stephens said. “Now, we’re seeing residential. It’s not going to be too long before we’re out of this.”[[In-content Ad]]