City Beat

by Paul Flemming

Councilman Bob Chancellor's first Springfield City Council meeting was marked by about an hour of resident concerns over rezoning land for Springfield Victory Mission to move into their neighborhood.

Council's first action at its May 11 meeting was to administer the oath of office to Chancellor, whom council appointed to fill the remainder of Charlie Denison's term. Among the measures for public hearing was a rezoning case at the corner of Kansas Expressway and Water Street, changing it from a heavy manufacturing district to a planned development. The change would allow the Victory Mission, now on Commercial Street, to build a new facility on the 1 1/4-acre parcel.

The rezoning ordinance, which has staff and Planning and Zoning Commission approval, will get its second reading, and possible council vote, at the May 26 council meeting.

Twelve area residents voiced opposition to the move, citing declining property values, possible increased crime and concern for neighborhood children as reasons for their concern. Cynthia Thomas, who lives in the area, told council she had signatures of 349 neighbors against the move.

Six speakers expressed support of Victory Mission and its move to the Kansas location, including the organization's board chairman, executive director and a staff member. The new facility would have 100 beds for emergency and transitional housing.

Councilman Tom Carlson noted he has lived three blocks from the Victory Mission's current location for 10 years. In that time, Carlson said, he has never experienced anything worse from mission residents than might be expected from the population at large.

The discussion took up more than half of the meeting's length. About 40 residents from the area packed council chambers for the discussion.

No one spoke during the public hearing for the ordinance that will adopt the city's fiscal 1998 budget. The proposed budget represents about a 12 percent increase, or $16.8 million more, compared to the 1997 budget. This year city spending is proposed at $154 million.

City Manager Tom Finnie said the budget emphasizes traffic improvements, public safety and neighborhood improvement. Just more than 31 percent ($48.3 million) of the proposed operating budget comes from sales and use taxes and 24.8 percent ($38.2 million) comes from charges and fees.

Those fees are set to go up under another bill before council. Charges for city services, under a policy statement enacted in 1993, should recover all of the costs associated with providing those services.

The budget and evaluation section of the city's Finance Department conducted its evaluation of those charges, and the council's finance committee made its fee recommendations based on that report.

Overall, the city report said, current charges recover about 67 percent of costs. If the new fee schedule is approved, about 73 percent of city costs will be recovered, with an estimated $79,023 additional revenue generated.

Among the increases that would occur if approved as proposed:

?A 9 percent increase in the minimum commercial and residential building inspection fees in the Building Development Services Department, from $55 to $60.

?A 9.7 percent increase in the fee for rezonings in the Planning and Development Department, from the current $565 to $620.

?An 11.1 percent increase for a major subdivision's preliminary plat from $315 to $350.

The largest percentage increase is proposed for DWI court costs in Municipal Court, jumping 69 percent from the current $62 to $90. The finance committee specifically acted on the big jump in order to get the fee up to a 50 percent recovery of costs. The charge is set to increase $30 per year through 2002 until 100 percent of costs are recovered with the fee.

Receiving first reading was a bill to spend $40,000 to aid in the relocation of residents of the Seville Hotel downtown. A group of investors recently announced their intention to renovate the property into a boutique hotel.

A letter from Tim Rosenbury, representing those investors, said between 30 and 40 households now live in the boarding house. Rosenbury asked the city to help the residents because the investors "are [[In-content Ad]]