City Beat: Council OKs dense, mixed-use development on north side

Springfield City Council voted June 23 to approve the rezoning of 104 acres of property in the 3200-3400 blocks of North Vernon Road to a planned development from its current single-family housing designation.

Hulston Investments Inc. and Laura Hawkins-Morris et al. proposed the rezoning to make way for Hulston Subdivision, which fits the mixed residential place type specified in the Forward SGF strategic plan for the area.

Plans for the development include single-family homes on minimum lot sizes of 4,000 square feet, garden apartments with eight to 20 units, six-plex multifamily buildings with garages and stacked duplexes, and cottage housing that has small, freestanding single-family buildings, according to the staff report. The development plans also include a commercial area.

The plan would yield a density of 9.75 dwelling units per acre in a development abutting existing single-family residential neighborhoods, where city code requires a maximum density of seven dwelling units per acre but where neighbors previously told council lots are sized at 10,000-18,000 square feet  The proposed development, which would maintain natural areas, including a sinkhole, is designed to include 721 dwelling units: 219 regular single-family homes, 84 small-format single-family homes, 298 apartments and 120 mixed-residential units ranging from duplexes to six-plexes.

Council passed the measure 8-1, with Councilmember Craig Hosmer opposing it. There was no discussion at the meeting. A public hearing was held June 9, during which members of the development community and neighborhood residents offered feedback on the proposed development.

A successful protest petition was filed by 30.8% of the residents who live within 185 feet of the proposed development, and that meant a six-vote margin, rather than a simple majority, was required for its passage. Residents had previously expressed concerns about the commercial portion of the development and its density compared to the single-family residential neighborhood abutting it, as well as traffic and other issues.

After the vote, some two dozen members of the audience left the meeting. Several of them had spoken out against the proposed development at the public hearing, but there is typically no opportunity for input with a second reading and vote.

Cemetery fracas continues
The ongoing dispute between developers of the proposed Hidden Gem Estates gated subdivision and a family whose ancestral cemetery is on its grounds was prolonged for another two weeks.

Council passed an amendment, proposed by Councilmember Derek Lee, that would allow the Doran family access to their family burial site. The Doran family settled the area in 1831, and some of those early settlers are buried in the cemetery.

The measure council was considering was to accept the dedication of public streets and easements to the city upon the applicant filing and recording a final plat for the development. Passage of Lee’s amendment, which attempts to provide access for the family to visit the cemetery, means a public hearing must be held prior to a scheduled vote at the July 14 council meeting.

The amendment would require access to the cemetery not to the general public, but to the Doran family, who would get a code for the main gate on specified holidays.

It was a fractious issue, with five of the nine members of council – Lee, Mayor Jeff Schrag and members Hosmer, Heather Hardinger and Callie Carroll – voting for Lee’s amendment.

Two members, Bruce Adib-Yazdi, who sponsored the original bill, and Abe McGull, voted no, and two members, Brandon Jenson and Monica Horton, abstained from voting.

Jenson said prior to the vote that if the amendment did not pass, he would propose one of his own: to disallow a gate on the Ruby Court roadway that accesses the cemetery. Whether a gate is to be allowed is something that is council’s call under city code, according to Jenson and City Attorney Jordan Paul.

Jenson had some harsh words for developer Terri Herman, a real estate agent who owns TAG Property Development LLC with Gary Herman of Herman Custom Critical Homes.

“Why would we approve a gate for this project – for Ruby Court specifically – knowing that it is not a requirement of our code and actually is a variance from our requirements as noted?” Jenson said.

He said the developer has chosen to do the minimum required under state law – essentially nothing, he said – to allow the family access to their ancestral graves.

“I cannot imagine standing up in front of this body, this community or this family and stating that you own their heritage and can maintain it better,” he said. “While it may be legally true, is the developer so committed to their vision and their profit that they would trod on the lives of Springfieldians who have come before them?”

Hosmer said that under Missouri law, the Doran family is entitled to reasonable access. Deciding on whether to allow the gate or to allow it with conditions is the proper role of council, Hosmer said.

“This is exactly where the city has to be because we have to be the ones to make the decisions of what conditions do we allow that gate that excludes not only the Doran family but other public citizens in the city of Springfield,” he said.

Hosmer said council can allow the gate with reasonable conditions. He added that those conditions should include access to their cemetery, which is surrounded on all sides by the developer’s private property.

Councilmember McGull, an attorney, expressed the view that council should not get involved in what is a civil matter, and furthermore, he said the issue is not yet a problem, as the Doran family has had continued access to the cemetery.

“We’re now trying to dictate times and dates and all of this by the city,” McGull said. “This is a private matter. This is not the city’s business to get involved in this. I can’t see why we continue to stick our nose and meddle ourselves in this.”

In an interview after the meeting, Terri Herman was asked for her reaction to Jenson’s criticism.

“It was incredibly harsh,” she said. “He hasn’t been out there to see it, and he also hasn’t been subject to what they have put us through.”

Herman said she is willing to pull the project until the issue of cemetery access is settled civilly. 

She added that interest rates are going down and there is high interest in the subdivision.

“That’s what we’ve promised everyone, is safety, security and privacy,” she said. “We can’t really progress without that.”

Hidden Gem is proposed as a 25-acre subdivision at 6116 S. Farm Road 175, a parcel recently annexed into the city on its southeast corner.

The cemetery dispute was first brought to council on April 7, when members urged the parties to get together and work the issue out on their own.

Business tax issue settled
Businesses must pay their personal property taxes as a requirement for occupational licenses following council’s approval of a resolution first proposed by Hosmer and former Mayor Ken McClure in March.

The council action amends the chapter of Springfield city code that covers business and occupational licenses. It now says, “An application for an occupational license shall include a receipt showing payment of all personal property taxes due Greene County for property held in the name of the applicant for the previous calendar year.” The code specifies that an occupational license may not be issued until personal property taxes are paid.

A business personal property tax is levied on tangible personal property used in a business operation and can include items like furniture, fixtures, machinery, equipment, tools and supplies.

Hosmer has said he and McClure were asked to propose the legislation by Greene County Collector Allen Icet and Assessor Brent Johnson. Money from personal property taxes primarily goes toward schools, according to Hosmer, but also to libraries and services for people with developmental disabilities.

In March, council forwarded the matter to council’s Plans and Policies Committee for further review. Hosmer objected at the time and said when his bills go to committee, they often don’t come back. 

Greene County Assessor Johnson told council in March that there are 11,000 business licenses in Springfield, but only about 4,000 businesses submitted personal property taxes at the start of the year as required. 

At the June 23 meeting, Hosmer said the committee to which the measure was referred has met only twice in the last seven months. A council rule invoked by Hosmer allows members to reintroduce measures relegated to committees after inaction.

“Going through committee is a good idea if committees meet,” he said. 

The vote in favor of the measure was 6-1, with Lee voting against it and Jenson and Horton abstaining. Joining Hosmer in supporting the bill were McGull, Adib-Yazdi, Carroll, Hardinger and Schrag. 

At the June 9 council meeting, when the resurrected bill had its first reading and public hearing, Hosmer had said he would continue to bring the issue back from committee until it is voted on, because that is his prerogative as a council member. 

Other action items

• Council approved the city’s annual applications for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to include $1.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds and $1 million in Home Investment Partnership Program funds. The CDBG allocation would cover city programs, like planning and neighborhood conservation and a commercial loan program, as well funding for various programs offered by local social service agencies, including Good Samaritan Boys Ranch, Child Advocacy Center Inc., The Kitchen Inc., Foster Adopt Connect Inc., Ozarks Food Harvest and more. Home funds would be used for loans for housing rehabilitation, new infill construction and downpayment assistance for low-income people and families.
• The city’s portion of funding for a flooring project and automated exit lane at the Springfield-Branson National Airport was approved at $665,000, to come from the Capital Improvement Fund. The total project cost is $4.3 million.
• Retained earnings from the Clean Water Fund in the amount of $1.9 million were appropriated for design of the Northwest Wastewater Treatment Plant facility improvement project.
• In a series of measures crafted around agreements with union and non-union city workers, council approved across-the-board raises of 22% for firefighters and 13.5% for law enforcement officers in an effort to bring their salaries to the top third among comparable cities, with 2.5% top-step merit increases to eligible employees.
• The city’s hotel and motel tax funds for 2025-26 were appropriated to Visit Springfield, Missouri, at 47%, or $4.4 million, and the Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission Inc. and Springfield Regional Arts Council Inc. at 4.5% each, or $340,000 apiece.
• Council will vote July 14 on a bill that would eliminate the requirement of including a legal property description in public notices as a cost-saving measure.
• A low bid for a sidewalk project on Mount Vernon Street and Miller Avenue was accepted from J.D. Wallace Contracting LLC at $786,000. The bid was well below the city engineer’s estimated project cost of $1.2 million. The two other bids received for the project exceeded the estimate at $1.3 million from Radmacher Brothers Excavating Co. Inc. and $1.2 million from KCI Construction Co.