City looks to streamline development of its property

The city of Springfield owns 732 parcels of various sizes, peppered all across the city, but only 145 are vacant, and of these, only 10 are currently shovel-ready for residential infill. 

The city’s Department of Planning and Development offered a plan yesterday to ensure infill on its available properties can happen more quickly and efficiently in the future. 

Data on the city’s property holdings was provided by Planning and Development Director Steve Childers at a Springfield City Council luncheon as he proposed a strategic housing infill program to identify opportunities to develop missing-middle housing. The city has previously defined missing-middle housing as multiunit housing types that are larger in scale than a single-family home and smaller than a mid-rise apartment building. Examples include duplexes, multiunit homes and townhomes. 

Childers outlined a plan to speed up residential infill development by establishing a streamlined process for disposition of city property. That would entail establishing an infill program committee and activating the city’s Planning and Economic Vitality departments. 

Childers said the city’s Department of Building Development Services can take one to two years from the time it receives a complaint until it abates nuisance properties and dangerous buildings. The city’s legal team can take another one to two years, issuing a special tax bill, processing litigation and pursuing a quiet title judgment through the court. At that point, the land inventory committee steps in to determine if the property is surplus, pinpoint sale terms and market value, and solicit bids for the lot. 

The new process would begin similarly but would bypass a year or more in the land inventory committee. Under the new process, two departments – Planning and Development and Economic Vitality – would receive notification of surplus property and evaluate each lot for its highest and best use before determining market value and soliciting a request for applications – a  six- to nine-month process. 

Then, a new infill program committee would score applications and award property in a process that would take one to three months. 

The program could eventually include property acquired through the city’s land bank, though the effort to establish one is currently suspended by the legislature.  

Childers said after assessment through the city’s predevelopment process, 10 lots owned by the city were deemed to be shovel-ready. They are already zoned for missing-middle housing, have the appropriate density and are ready to be permitted, he said, and they also have sewer hookups available. 

“Everything would be there. We just have to have a builder-developer that would want to play and that would want to be part of the program,” Childers said. 

Purchase considerations 
Childers said the city buys properties for specific reasons, and not just to abate dangerous or nuisance conditions.  

“When we buy property, we use that property. In our case, we use the majority of the property that we have,” he said. 

Those that require abatement require the investment of a lot of time and many steps. 

Among the properties owned by the city, some of the city’s 149 vacant lots are not developable, he said, for reasons like being located in a flood plain, presence of a sinkhole or other factors. If a sewer connection is located on the other side of the road, he said, it could cost several thousand dollars to make a connection. 

Some also have liens – up to $67,000, Childers said, but averaging about $20,000. 

He said the city handles mowing, maintenance and insurance for the properties it owns, which is an incentive to move them along to buyers. 

“We need to get them out the door and turn them into something that is profitable and that improves our neighborhoods,” he said. 

One way to speed up the process is by pre-permitting the properties, Childers said, so prospective buyers understand what can go on them. He said the city is preparing an interactive website, based on one in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located, to showcase the properties that are available. 

The website would suggest what might go on the lot, with a preference toward missing-middle housing, like duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes or houses with accessory dwelling units. Childers said a person could live in one of the units and rent out the other for an income source. 

“We’re just going to say hey, if anybody wants to develop this on that lot, then submit an application, and we can move forward, like that,” he said with a snapping motion. 

Childers mentioned another way to speed up the process, which is to work with property owners during the BDS process before it goes through the legal office. 

“If we were to be able to find a funding source, then we could approach the property owner and say, listen, you’ve already got liens on your property. Do you want to keep this property? Because the land bank would be interested in acquiring this property and wiping those liens away,” he said. “I think there can be a conversation to maybe cut some of this time down to be able to get to a quicker process where we can keep our inventory building.” 

He said the city would have the option of gifting property to a nonprofit that is willing to build housing or selling it to a for-profit buyer to recoup some costs. 

Childers said from 2013 to 2020, the city’s land inventory committee disposed of 97 lots and generated $1.2 million in real property sales. However, he said that the city spent $3.3 million in the four-year period from fiscal 2022-25 on maintaining and abating dangerous and nuisance properties. 

“We’re trying to figure out a way to move faster, turn these vacant lots into housing units and maybe find profit so that we can become more efficient, we can become more effective and we can actually be doing something that balances out a little more,” he said.