Council continues apartment-zoning delay

At its April 23 meeting, Springfield City Council approved, by a vote of 6-2, a 120-day extension of the delay.

Originally passed in September for 120 days and extended for another 120 days in December, the delay was created to allow a volunteer task force to examine the city’s multifamily zoning regulations, to see if they allow for too much density.

Ralph Rognstad, the city’s planning and development director, said the task force is meeting every other week and will prepare a report and list of recommendations for council.

Councilmen Doug Burlison and Dan Chiles voted against the extension. Burlison said he doesn’t understand the need for the delay.

“I realize a task force is in the process of doing work, but I think what the regular citizen is wondering is why we have to cease approval of new projects while this work is going on,” Burlison said at the meeting.

Mayor Tom Carlson said the delay was not a full halt to apartment building; the delay allows developers to build on land already zoned for multifamily use and to come forward with planned developments, which give the city more say in the density of a proposal.

“It’s a misconception that apartment building has been stopped,” Carlson said. “(Developers) just had to be more specific, so that people in the neighborhood knew what they were getting and didn’t buy a pig in a poke.”

He also noted that the current zoning process is creating situations where developers’ multifamily housing plans meet zoning requirements but draw strong opposition from neighbors.

“In my view, it was an unnecessary expense to the developers to come forward with something that they didn’t have a chance to get passed,” Carlson said.

Chiles, however, wondered if council really had the ability to fix the situation. He said he worried that the real issue was market forces.

Also on the agenda:

• Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the state. The agreement says the state will provide $1.9 million toward construction of the $5.9 million downtown crime lab in the old L.E. Cox building on Tampa Street.

While the state budget for the coming year has not yet been finalized, City Manager Bob Cumley said it will have to be approved before the legislative session ends May 11. This agreement allows construction on the crime lab to begin as soon as the budget is passed.

• Council also approved a resolution expressing gratitude to Isesaki, Springfield’s sister city in Japan. Isesaki donated nearly $17,000 to Springfield to help fund restoration work in the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden in Nathanael Greene Park, which was damaged by the January ice storm.

About 60 percent of the garden’s canopy trees were destroyed in the storm; the first new tree was replanted in the garden April 17.

• Councilman Gary Deaver was chosen to serve as the city’s mayor pro tem. He replaces Ralph Manley, who has served in the position since 2003.