Council continues apartment-zoning delay

At its Monday night 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 an additional 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 is not a full halt to apartment building; the delay allows developers to come forward with a planned development, which gives the city more say in the density of a proposed development.

“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.

See SBJ’s April 30 issue for more on the April 23 City Council meeting.