City Council approves changes to Reserve at Medical Mile project

Springfield City Council amended a bill regarding multifamily development The Reserve at Medical Mile at a special meeting today.

The amendment offers six changes to the proposed development at 3302 S. Maryland Ave., a 7.6-acre parcel bordered by National Avenue on the east with Walnut Lawn Street on its southern border. On the north is the Mercy Smith Glynn Callaway medical building.

The amendment, which passed 8-1 with Councilmember Craig Hosmer voting no, codifies changes introduced at the April 6 council meeting. They are as follows:
• Reducing the number of units to 182 from 198
• Reducing the number of stories to three from four
• Shifting the building location farther to the east
• Removing one of the access points to the property on Maryland Avenue
• Facilitating neighborhood backyard access from Kings Avenue and adding 10, 6-foot-wide double-leaf gates for this purpose
• Adding trees along the detention rim on Walnut Lawn Street

Residents of the adjoining High Meadow East neighborhood spoke out against the development, proposed by Bibi Oaks LLC, at the April 6 council meeting. They were primarily concerned about the high-density development abutting their single-family residential neighborhood.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson took note of their concerns, stating at the April 6 meeting, “It doesn’t really seem to take any reference or any deference to the development on the other side of Maryland Avenue. We go straight from one- and two-story single-family homes to boom, you’ve got a 60-foot, straight-up-and-down wall with no physical transition, nothing that helps with easing between those two.”

A public hearing on the amendment is scheduled for the next City Council meeting on May 4. A council vote is also scheduled for the same meeting.

Hosmer expressed concern about the process, noting, “We do special things for developers all the time.”

Councilmember Bruce Adib-Yazdi said the amendment merely cleans up a mistake from the council meeting, when documentation was provided.

“What we’re doing is accelerating this for a two-week period,” Hosmer said.

He said that shortens the time the neighborhood would need to prepare a protest petition, and moving up the vote accelerates that process.

“Again, I just think the optics are very bad,” Hosmer said. “We look like we’re doing everything we can to assist the developer.”

Hosmer added, “Maybe we should let the process work like it normally does instead of changing the process.”