City files response to Cooper Estates resident lawsuit over East Division development

The city of Springfield has lodged a response to a lawsuit filed by residents of a neighborhood that would abut a proposed northeast Springfield development.

The Cooper Estates Property Owners Association filed a lawsuit against the city of Springfield in April to seek an injunction to halt a 510-unit planned development on 48 acres at 3830 E. Division St.

The residents maintain in the petition that Springfield City Council approval is not aligned with the Forward SGF comprehensive plan, which does not permit large multistory apartment buildings in the residential traditional place type. Plans by developer East Division Development LLC include a mix of houses, duplexes, townhomes and 10 three-story apartment buildings, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

On May 18, the city of Springfield filed its answer to the property owners’ petition. As is typical for civil cases, the filing provides a paragraph-by-paragraph response to the original complaint, in some instances admitting statements and in others spelling out differences. As one example, in its 15th paragraph, the original complaint says the property was annexed into the city in 2025 and was zoned for low-density residential development, and the city’s response admits that the annexation occurred but denies the characterization of its zoning classification.

The plaintiffs cite Missouri law as saying zoning decisions “shall be made in accordance with a comprehensive plan.” The city’s response admits that the quoted language appears in the Revised Statutes of Missouri, but it denies that the term “comprehensive plan” as used in the statute refers to the Forward SGF comprehensive plan.

The Cooper Estates neighbors’ complaint quotes Forward SGF as designating the target property as a “residential neighborhood: traditional” place type and says it defines the place type as “post-war residential neighborhoods that contain predominately single-family detached dwellings with uniform setbacks, building designs and parcel sizes.” The city’s response maintains that the quoted material is incomplete.

The city’s response also denies the claims in the paragraphs that follow. Included in the denial are claims that Forward SGF allows only limited, low-intensity multifamily uses, like duplexes and triplexes, within a “residential neighborhood: traditional” place type; that large multistory apartment buildings are not permitted in the place type by Forward SGF; and that neighborhoods – including Cooper Estates – that surround the proposed development are similarly designed under the place type and contain no comparable multistory apartment structures of any kind.

The city also denies a claim that the proposed apartment buildings are “substantially greater in height, mass and density than any residential structure in Cooper Estates or the immediately adjacent neighborhoods.”

The city also denies multiple limitations of the developer’s traffic study claimed by the plaintiff group.

While Springfield’s counsel, Christopher Hoeman, admits a list of factors that the city’s land development code requires to be considered with rezoning applications – among them consistency with the comprehensive plan, compatibility with surrounding uses, traffic impact and public input – it denies the allegation that it did not adequately evaluate or apply these factors prior to greenlighting the development.

The Cooper Estates residents’ lawsuit seeks declaratory judgments stating that City Council’s approval of the development violates state law and the city’s own land development code – the former because it does not conform with the comprehensive plan and the latter because required zoning factors were not evaluated, were misapplied or were unsupported by evidence. It asks that the ordinance permitting the development be declared unlawful. It also seeks a declaratory judgment.

The suit also seeks an injunction to prevent the development.

Online information through the Missouri Courts website does not list any upcoming hearings in the case.

The attorney for the Cooper Estates resident group is Bryan Fisher of Neale & Newman LLP.