49-unit senior living facility planned in east Springfield

The developer of a planned 49-unit senior living facility said at last night’s Springfield City Council meeting he had to scale back plans to appease residents near the corner of East Catalpa Street and Ingram Mill Road.

But the flexibility must have worked. While several neighbors expressed concerns at the initial neighborhood meeting held in August, no one stood opposed to the plans at last night’s public hearing.

Through the proposal, developer Stu Stenger requested council approve a bill that would rezone 5.3 acres just west of U.S. Highway 65 to low-density multifamily residential from a single-family residential district. During the bill’s public hearing, Stenger said he had originally hoped to build a 96-unit facility comprising three, three-story apartment buildings at the east Springfield location.

“That was not well accepted. So, we took their concerns and went back to the drawing board,” Stenger said at last night’s meeting. “This is where we ended up. I think this is a great example of how your system is set up to have the neighborhood meetings, listen to concerns and then come up with a compromise.”

Springfield Planning and Development Director Ralph Rognstad said city staff recommends the rezoning be approved, and at the Nov. 14 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, the commission voted unanimously to recommend council’s approval.

“We believe this is a good development for this area with it being next to 65. We don’t believe there is really a market there to build single family. The traffic has gotten more intense along there and we don’t think that would occur,” Rognstad said.

After the meeting, Stenger said should council approve the rezoning at the Jan. 13 meeting, construction would likely begin in March. He said the single-story apartment complex would be built in phases. He declined to estimate the cost of the total build, but said it would be a multimillion-dollar project.

“We’d build it a couple of buildings at a time, so hopefully we’d have something to lease in the fall,” Stenger said, adding the property is currently home to a residence and a dilapidated barn.