City remapping, rezoning planned as part of Forward SGF comprehensive plan 

Remapping of the city of Springfield could mean a change in zoning classification for about 30% of property owners, who are scheduled to receive a letter with their new zoning designation in mid-October. 

The remapping is an initiative of Forward SGF, the city’s comprehensive plan, to bring about better alignment between the city’s zoning map and its development code. Springfield City Council revised its zoning code in March, when Chris Brewster of consulting group Multistudio said a code that was last updated in 1995 could become disjointed and hard to work with. 

Brewster reported at the time that a purpose of the code shift was to prepare the city for more infill. An example of this is the city’s current missing-middle housing initiative. 

The city currently has 25 zoning designations on the books. That number is being reduced to 14. A news release from the city stated the purpose of the remapping is to consolidate zoning districts with similar uses to achieve clearer, more specific development standards. 

Some zoning designations will remain the same with remapping. These are residential single-family (R-SF), manufactured home community (R-MHC), center city (CC), heavy manufacturing (HM), Commercial Street District (COM) and government and institutional (GI).  

In other instances, existing zoning designations will be combined. An example is the new commercial mixed-use 1 (C-MX1) designation, which will encompass former office 1 (O1) and office 2 (O2), limited business (LB) and specialized West College Street and Grant Avenue Parkway corridor designations for mixed-use sub-area (WC-1) and downtown/mixed-use (GAP A, B, C and E). 

Plans call for planned developments, conditional use permits, urban conservation districts and conditional overlay districts to be unchanged with the remapping, as those designations represent agreements worked out with neighborhood residents and the city for specific situations. The underlying zoning designation would change if it is part of the planned updates, but there would be no change in the agreed-upon requirements for the parcels. 

Senior Planner Hanna Knopf said every property owner in the city limits will receive a letter in the mail to let them know if their zoning district will remain the same or change. 

“The permitted land uses will remain largely the same,” Knopf said. 

Plans call for the letters to include a QR code to link to an interactive zoning map, as well as a schedule of meetings to discuss remapping, with contact information for Planning and Development staff. 

Meetings are planned for all four council zones and for a citywide meeting, each set for 4:30-6 p.m. at the following locations: 

• Zone 1: Oct 28, Library Station, 2535 N. Kansas Expressway
• Zone 2: Oct 30, Pittman Elementary, 2934 E. Bennett St.
• Zone 3: Nov. 10, Library Center, 4653 S. Campbell Ave.
• Zone 4: Nov. 5, Kickapoo High School, 3710 S. Jefferson Ave.
• Citywide: Nov. 13, Elections Center, 1126 N. Boonville Ave.

Additionally, a joint public hearing between City Council and the Planning & Zoning Commission is being planned for the first quarter of 2026 with a date to be announced. A council vote on remapping and rezoning would follow at a subsequent meeting. 

Questions can also be submitted via email at forwardSGF@springfieldmo.gov or by phone at 417-864-1031, Knopf said. 

Missing middle 
At its weekly lunch meeting yesterday, council was updated on remapping and on efforts to establish missing-middle housing in the city. 

Starting in May, the city held workshops in nine of its center city registered neighborhoods and asked residents to find locations where they might welcome what was described as a missing-middle approach to achieving greater housing density. About 200 residents participated, according to a news release from the city. 

Missing middle was defined as multiunit housing types that are larger in scale than a single-family home and smaller than a midrise apartment building. Examples are duplexes, multiunit homes and townhomes. 

According to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, residents were asked to identify specific lots where missing-middle housing might be a good fit.  

In the meetings, 4,569 sites were identified as appropriate for missing-middle housing, and 3,775 of those are currently zoned single-family residential, city officials say. 

The series of workshops was singled out by the American Planning Association Missouri Chapter in mid-September, winning distinction as the Outstanding Public Outreach, Program, Project, Tool, Community Initiative. 

Those who attended the workshops, along with the general public, have been invited to attend an open house Oct. 2 at Cox North Hospital’s Fountain Room to hear the results of the workshops. 

The city’s new land development code has created a zoning designation for mixed-use residential zoning, R-MX1. 

Council responds 
Council also heard a presentation on the remapping and rezoning process – a big undertaking for city staff. 

“If I seem a little nervous, it’s because we’re rezoning the entire city. It’s a daunting task,” said Justin Crighton, Springfield’s assistant director of Planning and Development. 

Council members had a number of questions. 

Monica Horton pointed out there is a 14,000-unit housing shortage in the city, and she drilled down on what that means. The city is about 9,000 units short for housing for people with incomes comprising 30% or less of area median income. The rest of the shortage is for people earning 120% and above of area median income. Between those two ends, she said, there is a surplus of housing. 

Horton said the city needs to attack those two extremes while also getting vacant lots up to their highest and best uses. Development now is focused on the upper end, she said. 

“We have to address where the real shortage is, and that is the 9,000 units at 30% and below AMI,” she said. “That’s where you’re going to put also a dent in our shortage.” 

Councilmember Derek Lee said the city needs some options for homeownership, in keeping with feedback from neighborhoods. That may mean city-owned property should be sold only with an assurance that it will be owner-occupied instead of rentals, he said. 

Steve Childers, the city’s director of Planning and Development, said a challenge with creating more units but also having homeownership is that a lot may be capable of accommodating four units, but to have it be owner-occupied, it would have to have a single-family house. 

“So we’re trading homeownership for more units. It’s a normal challenge across the United States, is that how do we do that? How do we fill in that gap?” he said. 

Horton said the key is conversion – converting single-family homes to homeownership from rentals by way of Restore SGF, Springfield Community Land Trust and other mechanisms. 

“I realize that you all have adopted a goal of 50% homeownership by 2030,” she said. “I mean, I don’t know if that’s too much of a grandiose type of goal, but we do have the foundation to be able to convert the surplus that we have of single-family from rental to homeownership.” 

Alana Owen, principal planner, said neighborhoods always want increased homeownership across the city. 

“However, we did talk about, this is quality housing for people, and not everybody wants or can own a home as well, and so we have to be looking at options for all people that want to reside in our neighborhoods,” she said. 

Realistically, Owen said, homeownership isn’t always an option. 

“Being able to provide these additional units is one tool to increase quality housing in our neighborhoods. It’s not the only thing,” she said. 

There was support in all of the neighborhoods for missing-middle housing among teams working on neighborhood maps, she said. While all property owners were not present, sometimes they were. 

“In many cases, there were property owners there that said voluntarily, ‘I want my property to be included in this for rezoning, because I personally want my property to have this opportunity,’” she said. 

Councilmember Craig Hosmer suggested the city and the private sector work together on a pilot for missing-middle housing. 

“I think that would encourage more investment than anything else, because they see something work and see projects that are actually working and getting people in housing,” he said. “I think that’s a way the city can be a big partner.” 

Property owner feedback 
When property owners get their letters, there is a chance they will object to their new designation, particularly in cases where mixed zoning for a property is streamlined into a single designation. 

Childers said if a property owner disagrees with the transition, there will be time to weigh in to suggest a change before the council vote. That exact timeline has not been set, and there would have to be a careful timeline to cut off those discussions. 

Assistant City Attorney Laura Vales added that the remapping process is not intended to serve as free rezoning, and the procedure by which property owners can suggest a change from the standard shift in zoning designation is not currently outlined in the draft of the property owner letter. 

Mayor Jeff Schrag asked how property owners will know the option to weigh in on the zoning designation change is there. Childers said they could call and explain their position, or council could opt to put that information in the letter. 

Horton said the process should certainly be included in the letter and highlighted or underlined to make sure it stands out. 

Vales said the intent now is for the entire remapping to come forward as a single council bill including multiple parcels and a simple majority vote would result in passage. For those with a valid protest petition – possible for property owners within 185 feet of a rezoning – parcels would be peeled off into a second bill with a six-vote threshold of the nine-member council required for passage. 

Planning and Development official Crighton said messaging can be complicated. 

“This was a pretty tricky letter to draft. We’re telling everybody that we’re doing something to their property that they’re probably not super sure about,” he said. 

While staff wanted to keep the letter focused, Crighton said, it probably would be a good idea to highlight processes for any objections. 

Other recourse for property owners is available through appeal after the measure’s passage, officials say.