City beat from the Jan. 30 City Council meeting: For minutes and schedule, visit springfieldmo.gov/citycouncil
Despite concerns expressed by constituents following a public hearing on Jan. 17, Springfield City Council members voted unanimously Jan. 30 to modify the Hickory Hills Marketplace Community Improvement District to exclude 16 acres planned for a regional home-improvement store.
At the Jan. 17 council meeting, a representative from Eau Claire, Wis.-based Menards said the company, which operates 262 stores in 13 Midwest States, would bring 150 jobs to town at Hickory Hills Marketplace if it was excluded from the CID developer Paul Larino helped establish in April 2011.
Councilman Doug Burlison and Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky each said they fielded concerns from constituents that the bill to alter the CID around the former Hickory Hills school could lead other large employers to ask to be kept out of similar taxing districts.
Burlison said, however, that excluding some companies from increased levels of taxation could be a way to keep and bring jobs to town.
“I believe it does set a precedent, but I see the value of exempting increased taxation on certain businesses,” Burlison said. “I think that’s a point we missed on Commercial Street.”
Rushefsky asked Economic Development Director Mary Lilly Smith to explain for the public the difference between Larino’s district and the Commercial Street CID, established in 2008 to fund services to maintain improvements in the historic district.
Smith said the city worked with people living and working in the Commercial Street area to identify ways to fund improvements they deemed necessary to attract businesses and customers and increase property values. And in that case, a majority of residents believed a CID was the best way to maintain improvements funded through the establishment of a tax increment financing district. Smith noted that with the Hickory Hills Marketplace CID, Larino is the sole property owner. He asked the city to establish the district, and he was asking the city to change it, she said.
“I actually think Larino is taking a big chance here,” Rushefsky said, adding that he is asking smaller tenants to bear the additional sales tax that Menards won’t have to worry about.
Larino said at the Jan. 17 meeting the sales tax was a deal breaker for Menards, which is planning to build a 162,000-square-foot facility and be an anchor tenant in the Hickory Hills Marketplace.
The amendment, Smith said, also would require less money to be raised through the CID sales tax, because Larino has been working with the county to establish a Neighborhood Improvement District for road and infrastructure upgrades. Previously, the CID was anticipated to reimburse the developer for more than $6 million, but now it only plans to collect $1.9 million.
Liquor on the fairgrounds
Council also unanimously approved an amendment to a bill that would alter the lease between the city of Springfield, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board and the Agricultural and Mechanical Society of Springfield, Missouri, which is the governing board of the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds. The bill aims to allow alcohol sales at the fairgrounds, but the amendment prohibits alcohol sales during the annual Ozark Empire Fair.
At the Dec. 12 council meeting, Kent Hyde, a member the fairgrounds’ board, said several groups interested in utilizing the property have been turned away because the Park Board has a policy against selling alcohol at facilities it operates.
Representatives from Rock ’n’ Ribs and the Sertoma Chili Cook-Off told council members in December that their organizations would like to hold their growing charity fundraisers at the fairgrounds if selling alcohol to their attendees was allowed.
With several council members concerned about hurting the fair’s image as a family-friendly event, Hyde said he would not oppose altering the agreement to prohibit sales during the annual fair.
At the amendment’s public hearing, self-described longtime fair vendor Mike Fortner said allowing alcohol on the fairgrounds at any time is a bad idea because youth work at and attend other events such as tractor pulls and rodeos.
Rushefsky said before the vote she thought the amendment to the bill was a good idea.
“We don’t want to see the fair changed from a family event to a temporary beer hall,” she said.
Public comment on the amendment is being held over to the Feb. 13 meeting, when the bill itself is scheduled to be voted on.
Red-light reinstatement
Adolph Belt, the retired Missouri Highway patrolman who challenged Springfield’s red-light camera system all the way to the state Supreme Court, spoke during the Jan. 30 meeting against a bill designed to reinstate the program.
In April 2010, the high court ruled that the administrative law judging process the city was using violated the law. The proposed ordinance would funnel tickets issued by officers reviewing violations captured by the red-light cameras through the city’s municipal court. Six council members – Scott Bailes, Jerry Compton, Mayor Jim O’Neal, John Rush, Cindy Rushefsky and Robert Stephens – co-sponsored the bill. Councilman Tom Bieker, who sponsored a bill that would put the issue on the ballot during the Aug. 7 primary, called for tabling both measures until alternatives could be explored.
The move to table the bills failed by a 6-2 vote, with only Burlison and Bieker supporting the motion.
Belt said he felt the issue was divisive enough that it should go to a vote of the people. Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams said the cameras were a cost-neutral way to address a problem in the city. Excess funds generated from the system would be put back into traffic safety programs, he said.
Both the multisponsor bill and Bieker’s bill are scheduled to receive their second readings and votes at the Feb. 13 meeting.[[In-content Ad]]
