BK&M withdraws rezoning request

BK&M LLC has withdrawn a rezoning request from the agenda of this Thursday’s scheduled Planning & Zoning Commission, according to a representative of the city’s Department of Planning & Development.

Chris Wynn, the engineer from CJW Transportation Consultants LLC who is representing BK&M before the city, said he withdrew the application officially on Dec. 12 at the request of the developer.

BK&M had been seeking the addition of a hotel to the list of acceptable uses for a requested Office 2 rezoning classification for 2.6 acres of contested property at the northwest corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue.

Wynn said the development team, including BK&M partner Ralph Duda, believed it could be successful in obtaining P&Z approval, but City Council was a different matter.

“What Ralph Duda told me was that he’s spoken to a lot of City Council members, mainly the ones who had been on the fence, and he felt we weren’t going to get enough votes for a supermajority, regardless of what P&Z does,” he said.

A supermajority – at least six votes from the nine-member council – would have been required, following a successful petition by residents of the University Heights neighborhood.

“We decided we were wasting our time moving forward just to have it denied again,” Wynn said. “He asked me to pull the application, which I did.”

The route to a rezoning reclassification has been anything but a straight line for BK&M. The developer had sought a rezoning to Office 2 from Springfield City Council but asked that body to remand the request to P&Z on Oct. 6. Council denied the request, but then at its Oct. 20 meeting, it reversed its course and allowed it, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

What brought the change was an explanation by Duda to council that his team had been given incorrect information by city staff regarding whether the O-2 designation would allow a hotel. As it turns out, citywide rezoning set to take place in April 2026 would shift O-2 to commercial mixed use, and hotels would not be permitted, even with a conditional use permit, unless that use were stipulated in a conditional use permit before the change.

But then on Nov. 20, P&Z members cast a split 3-3 vote, requiring the measure to return to the commission one more time before advancing back to City Council. That reappearance on the P&Z agenda was to have happened this Thursday prior to the withdrawal of the measure.

Wynn said as of right now, BK&M does not have plans to reapply.

“That doesn’t mean there won’t be – it could change in a month, six months, a year,” Wynn said. “I don’t think National and Sunshine is going away.”

Wynn characterized the issue as being in limbo until Duda comes up with a new rezoning case or someone else expresses an interest in rezoning it themselves – or if someone purchases the property and opts to keep it residential, which Wynn doubts will occur.

“It is what it is,” he said.

Duda did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.