City Council looks at north-south traffic issue

City Council on Feb. 21 considered a bill that would gather funds for a north-south corridor study to determine highway expansions between Greene and Christian counties.

Money for the study was earmarked in the recently passed federal transportation bill, but the bill requires a 20 percent local match.

That means that $50,000 of the $250,000 requested for this phase of the study would have to come from Springfield and the other jurisdictions that are members of the Ozarks Transportation Organization, which requested the study.

OTO Executive Director Dan Rudge said the study will look at four major possibilities: an extension of West Bypass to the south, an extension of Kansas Expressway south of Republic Road, widening of Campbell Avenue and an extension of National Avenue.

“There’s no question that we need all four of these corridors,” Rudge said. “The question is, which do we need to do first?”

Rudge added that Phase I of the study, which will consider the extension that would best move traffic with minimal impact on connecting and neighboring streets, would begin in April and be complete by August.

Council is expected to vote on the bill at its March 6 meeting.

Tax dollars at work

Several sales tax issues were also on the agenda.

A quarter-cent sales tax for the Spring-field-Greene County Parks Department is expected to go in front of Greene County voters Aug. 8, and council heard first reading of the city-county referendum.

The tax, to be used for upkeep of improvements made by a portion of the existing quarter-cent sales tax and for new projects, is in two parts.

The first eighth-cent would be permanent, with the remaining eighth-cent to sunset after five years. The city and the county have the option of requesting that the sunset portion of the tax be extended at the end of the five-year period.

Two other projects approved Feb. 21 will get their funding from already implemented sales taxes.

A bid was approved for Phase II of the Commercial Street streetscape project, which will continue street improvements on Commercial Street from Boonville Avenue to Robberson Avenue, as well as on Boonville Avenue from Commercial to Blaine Street.

Hunter Chase & Associates Inc. had the winning bid of about $632,000. The funds for that project will come mostly from the quarter-cent capital improvement projects sales tax.

The capital improvements tax also will help fund St. Louis Street and National Avenue intersection upgrades. Hartman & Co. Inc. had the winning bid – about $335,000 – for the project, which will add a left turn lane for traffic traveling west on St. Louis. The project is expected to begin in March and should be complete by mid-June.

Also, council voted to opt out of the state’s sales tax holiday Aug. 4–6.

Downtown Development

Progress also continues on the Heer’s Tower and College Station projects.

In a special session Feb. 17, council voted to give an extension to developer Vaughn X. Prost and Springfield Office Building LLC to secure construction financing at Heer’s building.

The extension gives the developer until Aug. 17 to acquire the money needed to complete the $20 million demolition and renovation project at the downtown landmark. The agreement also includes a provision allowing the city to begin marketing the property if a deal is not complete by April 17.

Meanwhile, council heard the first reading on the redevelopment plan for the $15 million to $17 million College Station development at its Feb. 21 meeting. The plan officially declares the downtown land blighted and abates property taxes on the development for up to 25 years. The tax abatement is in exchange for payments to the city for construction of the development’s multilevel parking deck.

In January, council approved a College Station community improvement district that charges an additional sales tax of up to 1 percent for property upkeep.

Council is expected to vote on the redevelopment plan at its March 6 meeting.[[In-content Ad]]