City Beat: Housing Authority proposes rehab of 142-unit apartment project

Springfield City Council passed a resolution at its April 7 meeting to issue $16 million in multifamily housing revenue bonds to the city’s Housing Authority for Pinnacle on the Park LP.

The bonds would finance the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 142-unit multifamily housing project, currently called Stillwell Columns Apartments, at 525 S. Campbell Ave.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, plus capital funds and rent collected from residents, the Housing Authority has the mission of providing quality affordable housing to eligible families in the community, according to its website. It owns and operates 765 apartments for people with very low or low incomes. Low-income eligibility is below 80% of the median family income from the area, and very low income is below 50%.

Katie Anderson, CEO and executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority, said the project is the second of four planned to upgrade housing in the city, the first being the completed Keystone Family Homes upgrade. She said the proposed project, which would renovate housing units built in 1982, requires critical repairs.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson noted there is a severe housing crisis in the city, and he appreciated the focus on rehabilitation and preservation.

“We’re seeing a lot of units that are falling into disrepair throughout the city,” he said.

He also asked if the Housing Authority has talked about expanding its portfolio, and Anderson said it has.

“We intend to utilize all the ability that we have to expand, so you will see us coming forward in a later session with expansions. It’s absolutely in our plan,” she said.

Landfill expansion
Council held a first reading of a trio of bills to develop three new cells to accept waste at the Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill. Emery Sapp & Sons Inc. submitted the lowest of four bids at $23.8 million. Other bidders were Crossland Construction Co., $24.2 million; Bloomsdale Excavating, $26.8 million; and Kolb Grading, $27.5 million.

All bids came in under the engineer’s estimate of $30.5 million. Special obligation bonds in the amount of $35 million are proposed to cover the expenses, including construction costs, contingency and auxiliary professional services and related matters.

The proposed cells were permitted in the city’s 2019 landfill expansion plan. They would provide seven to nine years of disposal capacity at the planned 1,075 ton per day operating level.

The city has previously identified landfill capacity as an issue. At a City Council luncheon last week, a new report identified the shrinking life span of the 1,200-acre landfill, for which only 213 acres are approved for trash disposal. Waste volume has doubled in the last decade, according to Ashley Krug, market development coordinator for the city’s Solid Waste Division.

The three measures – to award the construction contract, to issue bonds and to execute a subsidy escrow agreement of up to $35 million with state offices and UMB Bank – are set to be voted upon on April 21.

Family cemetery dispute
A zoning measure for a proposed 25-acre gated residential subdivision, called Hidden Gem Estates, brought members of the Doran family to the council meeting with concerns about maintaining access to their ancestral cemetery, which the family has been tending for generations.

Council members, led by Derek Lee, encouraged dialogue between developers and family representatives to address the concerns.

The proposed rezoning is at 6116 S. Farm Road 175, recently annexed into the city on the southeast side and currently zoned with a Greene County suburban residence designation. The council measure would change the zoning designation to single-family residential at the request of Tag Property Development LLC.

The Doran family homesteaded the area in 1831, according to Lee Doran.

Addressing council, Dwayne Doran said the family felt disrespected after signage was removed and a chain-link fence torn down.

“We also want to make sure that we have access to it to take care of it like we have, and it’s treated correctly,” he said, noting the family found out secondhand and rather late that something was going on in the site.

The family did not attend neighborhood meetings because they were not aware of them, Doran said.

“We want to make sure that we get that respect from whoever is applying the pressure to develop – which is fine; we need to develop, but we need to take care of those that mean so much to us, as many of them are close to us.”

Missouri law holds that families have a right to visit burial grounds surrounded by private land, which would be the case with the residential development.

The Dorans also were concerned about an offer by the developer to erect a new fence, described as a wooden privacy fence – an option that was not acceptable to the family, who do not want the cemetery to be hidden and prefer a chain-link or wrought-iron option. Lee Doran said the developer has offered to provide a gate code to the family, who weed and maintain the plots monthly.

The Dorans’ concerns took city staff by surprise, since there was no record of conversations that took place between the family and the developer, according to Steve Childers, the city’s director of Planning and Development. Family member Glenn Doran noted Lee Doran’s phone number was on signage at the cemetery, and the matter could have been solved with a phone call.

Councilmember Lee suggested postponing a vote on the rezoning measure, which would otherwise be up for a vote on April 21, the next meeting of council, but after further discussion, a postponement motion was not proposed.

“I think it’s a good thing, but I think it would be better if you took some time and spoke with the neighbors or spoke with the people who own this,” Lee said.

He asked what a two-week delay would do to the project, and developer’s representative Lyndel Link of Global Link Land Surveying said he did not think a delay would be preferred by the developer.

Lee maintained that discussions are needed between the parties.

“Here’s my issue. If you haven’t spoken with them and you don’t know anything, how do you know that you can’t work with them and figure something out if you haven’t had the conversation?” Lee asked.

Link said the developer wants to accommodate the family.

“The whole thing with the cemetery, we’re going to make that a whole lot better,” he said, adding the family would have access to it at all times.

Lee said the developers need to talk to and work with the Doran family, giving them access in an appropriate place.

“If you tore their fence down, you should probably put their fence back up. There’s some things that you need to do,” Lee said. “From my viewpoint, for my vote, I think you should take care of things.”

He added that staff may have issues with the plan that the parties come up with. He said he would like the option of postponing the vote if necessary at the next meeting.

Policy manual update
Council held the first reading on proposed revisions to the city’s purchasing policy – the first overhaul of the document since 1996.

David Holtmann, director of finance for the city, said the purchasing power of $100, for example, when the manual was adopted is equivalent to more than $200 today, meaning significant changes are needed.

The measure proposes that the cap for departments’ discretionary spending, requiring no bids, now under $2,000 would be raised to $5,000.

Informal spending thresholds for department-handled purchases would be increased from $5,000 to $25,000 and would require that price quotes are solicited from vendors and informal due diligence is applied.

The threshold for informal purchases to be conducted not by departments but by the city’s Division of Purchases would be upped from $5,000 to $25,000.

The formal threshold, requiring competitive bidding, would start at $100,000 instead of the current $20,000.

By comparison, Kansas City, Missouri, requires formal bidding for purchases over $160,000, whereas smaller cities in the region have lower thresholds – Lawrence and Overland Park, Kansas, at $50,000 each and Lee’s Summit at $75,000.

Council is scheduled to vote on the move on April 21.

Other action items
• A $150,000 grant was accepted for the Department of Economic Vitality for a Missouri Strategies for Training and Apprentice Readiness grant to create and support pre-apprenticeship programs. The grant is from the state Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.

• Council OK’d the rezoning of a half-acre tract in the 1300 block of East Division Street to residential townhouse from general retail. Developer Rosales Holdings LLC intends to build affordable housing units in the form of duplexes on the property.