Council to weigh options of repeal or referendum for The Reserve at Medical Mile

A referendum petition that aims to stop the development of an apartment building in south Springfield has been deemed sufficient.

Arlene Chriswell, a resident of the High Meadow East neighborhood adjoining the proposed development, The Reserve at Medical Mile, notified Springfield Business Journal that she had received a letter June 13 from Springfield City Clerk Anita Cotter confirming the verification of the petition.

Cotter provided SBJ with a copy of the letter, mailed June 11. Following a review by the clerk’s office, the letter certified 1,510 valid signatures from approximately 1,928 signatures submitted. Because the petition contained the requisite number of signatures of qualified electors under the city charter, the letter said, the petition is certified sufficient. As previously reported in Springfield Business Journal, 1,499 qualified signatures were required. That equates to at least 10% of the total number of voters in the last general municipal election, held in April.

Council now has two options: It can repeal the zoning change – planned development 395, passed as Council Bill 2026-082, also known as General Ordinance 7002 – that forms the basis of the petition. Alternatively, council can put the measure on an upcoming ballot, allowing voters to decide whether to uphold the zoning measure or to overturn it.

An agenda for the next council meeting, June 22, was not yet posted at the time this story was published, but Cotter told SBJ that it would include three items related to the referendum: the city clerk’s certification of the referendum petition, a proposed ordinance to repeal General Ordinance 7002 and an ordinance to send the issue to an election.

The council bill in question, passed May 4, rezoned 7.6 acres at 3302 S. Maryland Ave. to an updated planned development from a previous version. The developer is Bibi Oaks LLC.

As previously reported in SBJ, the project is a 182-unit apartment building that ranges from three to fourstories high and abuts a single-family residential neighborhood to its west. On its east is the commercially and institutionally developed area of the Medical Mile on National Avenue. 

The project proposal includes revisions by the developer from a higher-density four-story development with 198 units. 

Residents of the High Meadow East neighborhood raised concerns about a lack of transition between the multifamily and single-family parcels. Council voted 7-2 to approve a rezoning, with Councilmembers Brandon Jenson and Craig Hosmer opposed.

SBJ reached out to developer Nathan Reynolds with Bibi Oaks LLC via phone through a number logged on a publicly available database and will update this story if any response is received.