City residents to vote on Galloway Village question

Heather Mosley | SBJ

Galloway Project Timeline

A disputed rezoning over a 4.2-acre parcel in Galloway Village traces back to 2018. Here are the series of events that led to a citywide vote on the proposed development.

Summer 2018: Elevation Enterprises presents a plan to Galloway Village neighbors for a mixed-use development on Lone Pine Avenue by Sequiota Park.
Nov. 5, 2018: City Council imposes a 270-day administrative delay in the Galloway Redevelopment Area because of concerns by area residents regarding its impact.
Aug. 5, Sept. 12 and Oct. 10, 2019: Springfield Planning & Zoning Commission fail to approve the Galloway Redevelopment Area Report.
Oct. 21, 2019: Council approves Galloway Redevelopment Area Report and directs staff to use it to guide proposed development there.
July 2020: Elevation Enterprises files an application for a change in zoning of 4.2 acres of property located in the 3500 block of South Lone Pine Avenue. Requested is a change to planned development from single-family residential, general retail and limited business.
July 16, 2020: P&Z holds a public hearing and votes to recommend council approval of the zoning change.
July 20 and 27, 2020: Council receives protest petitions, which means a two-thirds majority vote by council will be required to enact a zoning change.
Aug. 10 and 24, 2020: Public hearings are held on the council bill.
Sept. 21, 2020: Council passes the rezoning bill, Ordinance 6614.
Oct. 19, 2020: A referendum petition is filed with the City Clerk.
Nov. 16, 2020: Referendum petition is certified and submit to council for consideration.
Dec. 14, 2020: City Council votes 7-2 against repealing Ordinance 6614 and calls a special election to submit the ordinance to a public vote on Aug. 3, 2021.
May 2021: Elevation Enterprises files suit against the city to stop the election.
May 25, 2021: Trial court enters judgment enjoining the election. The decision states the referendum process outlined in the City Charter is in conflict with Missouri law and therefore void.
May 26, 2021: Galloway Village Neighborhood Association files an appeal of the trial court ruling.
June 8, 2022: GVNA wins its appeal based on the claim the power of referendum was not ripe for review until after the election.
June 27, 2022: City Council votes to call for an election over the proposed zoning change.
Nov. 8, 2022: Citywide election will decide the zoning issue.

Source: City of Springfield and Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District

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2022 Election Coverage

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­Last edited 4:29 p.m., Oct. 21, 2022

Springfield voters will be asked to determine the future of 4.2 acres in Galloway Village on Nov. 8 with Question 1.

Elevation Enterprises LLC co-owner Mitch Jenkins has a vision of building a mixed-use development, called Treadway, with an estimated 95 studio or one, two and three-bedroom apartments and ground-level businesses, all facing the century-old natural destination of Sequiota Park.

However, Galloway Village Neighborhood Association representatives prefer a vision of the park undisturbed by what they consider an “intense” four-story apartment complex and its runoff, noise and traffic.

Question 1 asks voters whether the property in the 3000 block of South Lone Pine Avenue should be rezoned to a planned development from single-family residential, general retail and a limited business district. A majority “yes” vote would allow the Elevation Enterprises project to proceed.

Rezoning impact
Speaking on behalf of the neighborhood association, President Melanie Bach said there’s a lot at stake in the election.

“We feel it’s a development that is too intense and dense to be located across from Sequiota Park,” she said. “A four-story apartment complex will dominate the landscape.”

Additionally, Bach is concerned about the removal of trees, noting 287 trees is the developer’s conservative estimate of how many trees will be cut down to make way for the development.

Jenkins said his original plan did not preserve any trees; however, neighborhood concerns led him to redraw the plan to save 100 trees.

Jenkins said he has had numerous neighborhood meetings since he introduced the plan in 2018 and has revised the Treadway plan five times to incorporate the input he received. The most recent design reduces apartments from 140 to about 95 and, maintains a 1929 stone building that most recently held a restaurant and bike rental shop.

Jenkins said the apartments at the Treadway would target a top price point at $1,000-$1,100 per month for a one-bedroom unit.

He said the apartments would not include an affordable or subsidized offering, though he is considering internally subsidizing some units.

Jenkins said increasing the housing supply ultimately leads to more affordable housing in the city.

“It’s still very advantageous if we’re thinking of inflationary pressure for more housing supply,” he said.

The neighborhood association has other concerns, however, like an increased threat of flooding in an area that is already a natural stormwater retention basin, Bach said.

“We feel like the flooding issues that we already experience would be compounded exponentially,” she said.

She said adding impervious surfaces and removing water-absorbing trees will likely result in more flooding in the park and on Lone Pine Avenue.

“There are plenty of places for housing to go up,” she said. “The problem with this is the location, and particularly the parcel itself is a challenge.”

She added that Treadway would be Jenkins’ first development, and his inexperience makes the project a further risk.

Jenkins said his plan is mindful about stormwater runoff, with boardwalks instead of impervious sidewalks to connect buildings and the addition of a larger culvert under Lone Pine Avenue. He added that a number of improvements were made a decade ago to Sequiota Park and its lake, and flooding issues have been mitigated by those changes.

He noted that thousands of acres drain toward Sequiota.

“Our 4 acres is a very minimal part of that,” he said.

Bach also raised a concern about increased traffic.

“The developer’s traffic estimate is 1,100 additional cars each day from this development alone on Lone Pine,” she said.

She said Galloway Street, which intersects with Lone Pine at the development, is in disrepair, and Lone Pine is not classified for the amount of traffic it already has, following the construction of some 300 apartments a half-mile south of the Treadway site.

“This is the tipping point for Galloway Village,” she said.

Jenkins said public improvements are planned for Galloway Road, including widening. He said Elevation Enterprises would pay for private improvements as well, with construction of a left turn lane to keep cars from stacking. He added that a raised crosswalk is planned as a calming measure for pedestrian safety.

The development climate
One of the chief arguments Jenkins is communicating through the Springfield United campaign is the idea that a referendum sends a bad message to developers. He has an endorsement from the mayor of Eastlake, Ohio, that he presents as a case study.

In Eastlake, Jenkins said, the city changed its charter in the late 1970s to require every rezoning issue to go to a public vote. He said development effectively stopped and the population decreased by 20%. The population of the town peaked in 1980 with 22,100 residents. Today, there are 17,500 residents.

Jenkins said he thought the referendum process in Springfield would likewise have a “very strong cooling effect” on development activity.

He said a growing antidevelopment sentiment in Springfield already makes projects challenging and, to some investors, undesirable. He’s seen fellow developers choose to locate projects in northwest Arkansas, Republic and Kansas City instead.

When challenged that equating a single referendum in a growing city is not the same as a mandated voting requirement for all development, Jenkins admitted Eastlake’s situation was very unusual, but added, “Where we are today is very unusual.”

Bach expressed her appreciation for the referendum process, which the neighborhood achieved by collecting more than 2,700 signatures opposing the rezoning in November 2020. She was frustrated, however, to see endorsements by the mayor and a council member.

“It’s certainly not neutral,” she said. “As far as we’re concerned, the city already had their chance to vote on this. For them to interfere with the referendum process is another picture of this slanted and tilted and biased perspective that we’ve had from the beginning.”

Journey to ballot
The referendum process and court order led to a neighborhood zoning issue becoming a citywide ballot initiative. That court order followed a pitched civic battle over the development, with Elevation’s application for a zoning change being met with protest petitions and with a Springfield City Council vote in favor of the change being followed by a referendum petition for a public vote. That vote was enjoined by a trial court judge, whose ruling was overturned by the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals.

Multiple local power brokers have thrown their influence behind the effort to pave the way for the apartment complex on 4.2 acres in the quiet, southeast Springfield neighborhood. Individuals and organizations that have stepped forward to back the rezoning question include the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, Mayor Ken McClure, Missouri State University President Clif Smart and Greater Springfield Board of Realtors CEO Jeff Kester.

The Galloway Neighborhood Association website and Facebook page do not list any endorsements for their opposition to the rezoning.