Businesses, residents oppose Broadway road closure

by Eric Olson

SBJ Reporter

eolson@sbj.net

American Bag Co. delivery drivers cross the railroad tracks at North Broadway at least 15 times a day en route to customers. They may have to find alternative delivery routes if a bill before Springfield City Council gets approved.

Council is considering closing Broadway at the rail crossing, between Commercial and Chase. A bill on its June 21 agenda, initiated by railroad operators Burlington Northern Santa Fe, requests the city apply to Missouri Department of Transportation for authorization to close the street.

American Bag Co. owner Larry Robinson said closing Broadway would be a nuisance for his employees. American Bag Co., 909 W. Commercial, is located less than a block from the rail crossing.

"My employees use it every day," Robinson said. "We make deliveries and go out that way a lot of times."

Robinson is among at least four business owners who sent letters to Springfield's Department of Planning and Development objecting Broadway's closure. While council was prepared to hear from Robinson and others including a contingent of neighbors who also object at the June 21 meeting, their comments will be reserved until at least July 6, when council meets next. Council tabled the bill following councilman Denny Whayne's motion. Whayne said he couldn't approve the bill in its current form.

BNSF's request is largely safety related, said Roger Howard, the railroad's director of government affairs.

Already 55 trains a day move through Springfield, a majority of them crossing Broadway, Howard said. But a deal in the works that has the city acquiring BNSF's south yard for Jordan Valley Park expansion would create greater pressure at the north yard's lone at-grade crossing.

"If (the south yard) goes away all that activity is going to have to move north," Howard said.

A federal mandate requiring that railroad companies eliminate 25 percent of at-grade crossings, ones that intersect with public streets, also is behind the request, Howard said.

"Any time you have an at-grade crossing there is greater risk for an accident to occur," he added, referencing the recent fatal accident at a Chestnut crossing.

According to city officials, the railroad also has expressed concern for the public due to the unmanned locomotives that move through the crossing into the BNSF switchyard underneath the Kansas Expressway bridge. Signs on either side of the Broadway tracks alert drivers: "Remote controlled locomotives operate here."

Based on data gathered in March, 2,000 cars a day drive through the rail crossing, said David Hutchison, Springfield traffic operations engineer. Hutchison said there has not been a recorded accident at that crossing in 10 years.

Realtor Kirk Heyle, a former chairman of Springfield's Traffic Advisory Board, questions the city's motives in granting such a request from a private company. Could the need to acquire BNSF property in Jordan Valley influence the city's moves on Broadway?

"They seem to be just laying out the red carpet for Burlington Northern," Heyle said. "That just doesn't make sense to me, especially when the neighborhood and population was against it. There is usually a terrible set of stumbling blocks to get in front of City Council and this seems like it is zooming through.

"Burlington Northern is a big, multibillion (dollar) company. If they want that closed, let them build a tunnel. That's what anyone else would have to do."

Heyle also has rental properties within blocks of the rail crossing, and said closure would be detrimental to his current tenants and in attracting others.

In general, feedback from area residents has been in objection to the closure, according to Christian Lentz, Springfield senior planner. A January drop-in session brought 28 area property owners a low turnout because hundreds were notified to a city-initiated meeting to gauge public opinion, Lentz said. Of those attending, 15 voiced opposition, nine were in favor and four didn't take a side, city records show.

Development worries

Fearing water runoff increased by future development, Charles Dischinger stood in front of City Council June 21 with a plea.

"I am the one going to be most adversely affected by this," Dischinger told council, speaking about a south Springfield planned development, for which council is considering rezoning 39 acres at the northwest corner of Weaver Road and Campbell Avenue. He asked that stormwater runoff issues be addressed before allowing the mixed-use office, retail and residential development to move forward.

But doing so would be out of typical government order, city officials told Dischinger and another neighbor that spoke against the rezoning proposal in fear of Ward Branch Creek runoff. Zoning issues come first and engineering second, said Marc Thornsberry, director of Springfield Public Works.

Dischinger, whose residence is on three adjacent acres, does not oppose the development even though his driveway would be rerouted. He just wants questions answered. Like how the city would handle runoff when the development calls for 80 percent impervious surface.

"It needs to be addressed now, before anything is done," Dischinger said.

Thornsberry said his department has added water quality and retention requirements for new development, which would be used in this case.

The Sandra Byrd family trust owns the land, located in the 600-block of West Weaver where it intersects South Campbell, one mile south of James River Freeway. In May, council approved designs relocating the Weaver and Campbell intersection, a $6 million project funded in a three-way partnership between the city, Greene County and MoDOT. Springfield voters approved the land's annexation in November 2002, which became effective July 2003.