At the June 3 Springfield City Council Meeting, City Manager Greg Burris reported the city is facing a lawsuit from property owners at the southwest corner of Grand Street and Campbell Avenue. The plaintiffs, who are under contract to sell property to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sought and received an injunction to prevent a referendum petition from appearing on the Aug. 6 ballot.
In February, council voted 5-4 to rezone roughly 6 acres at 444 W. Grand St. and 427–515 W. Normal St. to general retail from a residential district. Unhappy with the result, local groups opposed to Wal-Mart’s plans to build a fifth Neighborhood Market in Springfield collected signatures for a referendum petition calling on council to overturn the zoning designation or send the issue to voters. Last month, council did not reverse the zoning decision and opted to put the matter on the Aug. 6 ballot.
“The August election is off after Associate Circuit Judge Gerald McBeth granted attorneys representing Calvary Temple/Life 360 church and private (homeowners) a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction,” Burris told the council members, who also were named as defendants in the case. “The temporary restraining order gives the judge time to hold hearings and a trial, if necessary, to determine if the (plaintiffs’) arguments prevail.”
According to court filings, a hearing in the case is scheduled 10 a.m. July 19 at the Greene County Courthouse on Boonville Avenue.
Plaintiffs’ attorney John Holstein, a partner with the Polsinelli law firm’s Springfield office, said the city’s handling of the referendum petition harmed the property owners – Life 360 Church/Calvary Temple and Robert and Jennifer Buchanan – who had reached sales agreements with Wal-Mart pending the city’s rezoning.
“As the case now stands, our clients have no zoning. They can really do nothing with their properties,” Holstein said. “There is a contract, but the contract is contingent upon being able to rezone the properties to a commercial status.”
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart proposed a 41,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market on the site, a move that would give the retailer 12 stores inside city limits.
Holstein said the owners have followed the zoning process outlined in the city charter, and by sending the referendum to voters, the city is violating state law.
“We believe state statutes do not permit the referendum to be used for zoning issues,” Holstein said.
In addition, he said the zoning opponents didn’t collect enough signatures to require council action.
In the last general election in 2011, there were roughly 21,000 votes. Because the city charter calls for voter-led petitions to secure signatures from 10 percent of the regis tered voters in the last general election, Holstein said the city should have required petitioners gather roughly 2,100 signatures, some 300 more than the city clerk’s office required earlier this year.
City Attorney Dan Wichmer said he doesn’t agree with how the plaintiffs are reading the charter. Wichmer said the city is basing its count on the roughly 17,800 residents who cast votes for individual council members in November 2011. The clerk required 1,787 signatures and certified 1,808 in April.
“When we looked at the literal wording of what election you base it on, it is the city’s general election. The city only has one general election. The only general election we ever have is to elect members to office. Therefore, since general elections elect members to office, no other issues can count,” Wichmer said, adding that courts historically support the petition process moving forward unless there were material errors made.
Holstein is building the case on the total votes cast in the general election.
“The city charter doesn’t distinguish between what was voted on, only the votes cast,” Holstein said.
While Wichmer said the city is obligated to defend the charter and its ordinances, he said the courts could provide some guidance to the city through this case.
“This is more of a declaratory action to find out whether initiative and referendum can be used for zoning,” he said, noting this isn’t the first time a city zoning issue involving petitions and Wal-Mart has gone to court.
In the mid-1990s, council rejected a zoning proposal that would have allowed a Walmart Supercenter at Battlefield Road and Highway 65, and supporters of the project gathered signatures for an initiative rezoning. Wichmer said the city clerk was instructed to not put the measure on the ballot because the city charter outlines the process for zoning. Wichmer said the court determined the issue must go on the ballot, even if zoning can’t change without going through the zoning process. But in that case, voters never got a chance to weigh in because the developers moved on to the Independence Road site.
“We hope this time we get an answer,” Wichmer said.
Holstein said he hopes the zoning dispute would be resolved quickly, so the owners could sell their property.
“If this results, ultimately, in an election, we think (our clients) could win. But, if we don’t raise these issues now, they would be lost,” Holstein said.
Wichmer said the city’s next opportunity for a general election would be in November.
A hearing for the lawsuit brought by property owners at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Grand Street against the city of Springfield is set for July 19 at the Greene County Courthouse.
Swelling budgetCity Council unanimously approved a $315.85 million fiscal 2014 city budget.
Council is obligated under the city charter to approve an annual budget before the fiscal year begins July 1.
Next fiscal year’s budget is 1.8 percent larger than the $310.28 million the city is operating under through the rest of fiscal 2013. The 2012 fiscal budget was $314.78 million.
While the city’s 1 percent sales tax revenue from the Missouri Department of Revenue is down 1.5 percent through May, compared to the same period in 2012, a rise in general revenues is an anticipated. Revenues and appropriations are expected to increase 5.9 percent to nearly $77 million from $72.7 million in fiscal 2013. The special revenue fund is expected to remain nearly flat at $96.4 million. Appropriations of enterprise funds, which run on their own revenue streams, including the airport and solid waste services, will increase slightly to $80.4 million from $78.8 million, according to officials.
At the May 20 public hearing, Springfield Finance Director Mary Mannix Decker said the city was adding 17 new positions: one each in information systems, finance, planning and public works, nine in parks and four in clean water services. The budget, Decker said, includes pay raises of 1.5 percent across the board – equal to city staff wage increases last year – as well as merit increases.[[In-content Ad]]
