City Beat: More alcohol permits for downtown, C-Street events mulled by council

Cora Scott: Lifting the cap on the number of events serving alcohol promotes greater economic activity.

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Springfield City Council is considering allowing more events that include alcohol downtown and on Commercial Street.

At its meeting July 14, council held the first reading and public hearing on a measure to change the section of city code that currently limits permitted events to 12 per year. If the measure passes, there will be no limit on permitted events allowing alcohol.

Cora Scott, the city’s director of public information and civic engagement, reported the city averages about 150 events per year.

“That’s helping create a vibrancy across our community in various settings,” she said.

For the past decade, the code has allowed alcohol service at only 12 permitted events within designated, controlled zones. This includes festivals like Artsfest and the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival, Scott said.

“This ordinance now proposes to remove that cap, enabling more flexibility to support Springfield’s growing calendar of community events while ensuring community safety,” she said.

She gave the example of a Springfield community improvement district that has planned a summer concert series at Park Central Square on Saturday nights. 

City manager approval would be required for each request for alcohol service, and existing safety and oversight measures would be maintained. Alcohol could be served only in designated zones, with service restricted to 16-ounce paper, plastic or aluminum cups for no more than 12 hours per day and no longer than three days in a week.

Wine would be limited to 14% alcohol by weight with other beverages limited to 5%. All event sponsors must provide proof of liquor liability and general liability insurance and sign a hold harmless agreement with the city. They must also submit a safety plan with details on preventing minors from purchasing alcohol.

“Lifting the cap supports our greater economic activity downtown and on Commercial Street, more frequent diverse cultural events driven by community partners and a proven system that’s already working safely and responsibly,” Scott said.

Councilmember Craig Hosmer raised the question of liquor liability insurance and why nonprofits must have it – Scott said $1 million in coverage would be required – but bars do not.

“It does seem like if you’ve got a not-for-profit … that we require them to have a $1 million liability policy, but we have bars in the city of Springfield that are operating that are for-profit and don’t have any liquor liability at all,” he said.

He added that they should have liquor liability, but bars should be treated the same.

The chair of the Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District, J. Chris Ball, spoke in favor of the measure, noting only two of this summer’s new Live from Downtown concert series events, offered weekly, included liquor service because only two permits remained available.

Ball said the most valuable tool in the CID’s toolbox is activation.

“We try to have events as many places as we can because it just improves the appearance and the interactions of the patrons as they spend time downtown,” he said.

Rachel Munday, a member of the Downtown Springfield Association Board of Directors, also spoke in favor of the measure, saying the issue is about quality of place.

“It’s about creating the type of environment where a company executive wants to move their family or a college graduate wants to stay after they get their degree, and where entrepreneurs feel there is energy to build something new,” she said.

She said events like Live from Downtown are a key part of what makes the city feel alive.

“Springfield is not competing with the Springfield of 10 or 20 years ago,” she said. “We’re competing with cities like Bentonville, Fayetteville, Tulsa and Kansas City. These communities have embraced regular, well-organized outdoor events with controlled alcohol zones as part of a larger strategy to attract and retain talent.”

Young professionals want to live in a place where downtown comes alive after 5 p.m., she said, noting the issue is about quality of place. She also characterized the existing cap as arbitrary and asked council to do something she called new and cool.

A vote is scheduled on the measure for July 28.

Mercy rezoning
Council held the first readings of five separate measures to rezone an area in south Springfield to government and institutional use from planned development or single family residential designations at the request of Mercy Springfield Communities. The land encompassed in the measures totals 110 acres.

The largest plot in the group is a 47-acre parcel at 6217 S. Southwood Ave., in the area of Mercy Orthopedic Hospital, just off U.S. Route 65.

Ricky Haase of Olsson Inc., representing Mercy, told council the health system has no intentions of selling or immediate intentions of developing the property until it gets the funding sources worked out. He added he would be back in front of council with a platting proposal if Mercy does decide to develop the properties.

Hidden Gem paused
The developer of the proposed Hidden Gem Estates gated subdivision, Terri Herman of TAG Property Development LLC, confirmed to Springfield Business Journal that a council vote to approve a preliminary plat was not what she filed and not what she wanted for the subdivision, and she therefore is not going to proceed with the project.

The amendment would have provided 12 days of access via a gated road to an ancestral burial site for the Doran family, whose ancestors were among the city’s first homesteaders. The Dorans were requesting access to the cemetery, which would be within the gated subdivision, and they were also asking for permission to maintain the cemetery, among other requests.

Since the matter first arose in April, council encouraged the Doran family and the development group to work out their differences, but the parties were not able to come to an accord.

Herman said she did not want to elaborate on her plans at this time but that she would update SBJ when she has ironed out the details. It is not clear whether she intends to reintroduce the proposal for the 25-acre single-family-housing subdivision in southwest Springfield at 6115 S. Farm Road 175. In the past, she told SBJ she was willing to pull the project until the cemetery access questions were settled by a civil court process.

The measure council was considering would have dedicated public streets and easements to the city upon the applicant filing a final plat, but Herman said she would not be filing the plat in light of the changes to the project.

Other action items:

• Legal property descriptions will no longer be required in published notices of public hearings for zoning changes following a change to city code. The city had been publishing public notices in The Daily Events, which is owned by Mayor Jeff Schrag, at a flat rate, but following Schrag’s election, it has had to switch to The Springfield News-Leader, which charges by word or line of text.
• Council OK’d the purchase of property at 4455 W. Farm Road 168 for use as buffer land by the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant. The purchase price is $23,000 from sellers Jason and Aurelia Stratton.
• A capital improvements project list was approved for the city for 2025-30. Projects on the list are valued at $100,000, minimally, and have a useful life of at least six years. For 2025, 154 planned projects have an estimated cost of $279 million. They include improvements to the airport, fire stations, municipal building and grounds, parks, streets, sanitary sewers, solid waste, stormwater, neighborhoods, traffic management systems and walkability and bike infrastructure. For 2026-30, the list has 130 projects estimated at $452 million. In 2024, 19 projects were completed at a cost of $87 million.
• Council voted to waive brush disposal fees through July 26 following the catastrophic weather event of June 29.
• A vote on July 28 will determine whether the city will suspend enforcement of vehicle inspection fees for taxicabs, courtesy cars and airport limousines pending a study.