Commissioners approve urban residential rezoning for Auburn Heights development

Last edited 12:47 p.m., June 2, 2026 [Editor's note: More information has been added.]

The Greene County Commission on June 1 unanimously approved a rezoning to make way for the Auburn Meadows subdivision in the Willard area. 

The vote rezones the property to an urban residential zoning district from suburban residential. The result was in keeping with the staff recommendation for the property and despite two separate votes by the Greene County Planning Board not to recommend it. 

The change to an urban residential district near the intersection of State Highways AB and EE will allow a minimum lot size of 6,000 square feet in the rezoned area, while a suburban residential district has a minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet. 

A large contingent of people who live near the proposed development turned out for the commission meeting and at two separate Planning Board meetings to express opposition based on road use, infrastructure, flooding, sinkholes, school population and other factors. 

Developer Derek Lee, operating as Willard80 LLC, originally proposed a 600-home development on 93 acres in unincorporated Greene County, but he revised his rezoning request to cover an area of 36 lots on 14.3 acres. It was the revised proposal that was ultimately approved by the commission June 1. The property, located north of the Springfield-Branson National Airport, also includes a detention basin. 

Lee is an engineer and the owner of Lee Engineering & Associates LLC as well as a member of the Springfield City Council. 

In his remarks to the commission, Lee said the lots in the area proposed for rezoning would be sized similarly to adjoining developed lots. He said his intention is not to build 6,000-square-foot lots. Rather, he would like to build lots in the 9,000-square-foot range with the possibility of one or two in the 8,000-square-foot range. 

He said the subdivision is “just a subdivision,” with single-family homes, driveways and lawns, and that it would look very similar to existing lots. 

He said the urban residential zoning does not allow developments that have been mentioned in rumors about the development, like a trailer park, apartment buildings or a data center. 

“I haven’t asked for a lot of the things that have been portrayed,” he said. 

Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon said the commission must make its decisions based on Missouri revised statutes and with consistency to other decisions it has made in the county. 

“We cannot legally just go off of how many folks are for or against,” he said. 

He added that doing otherwise could result in a lawsuit that county residents would have to pay for, and that’s a tightrope the commission has to follow. 

“We want to make sure that we follow the law,” Dixon said. 

Commissioner John Russell said the development makes sense and is in the same character as houses in the surrounding area. He added that the zoning designation is the question that had to be decided by the June 1 vote, and many of the specific concerns would be addressed in the next part of the process.