Downtown Ozark remains on the drawing board

Springfield architectural firm Hagerman New Urbanism continues working toward a master plan for the redevelopment of approximately 47 acres between downtown Ozark and the Finley River and beyond, with a goal of having a clear plan approved by the Ozark Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority by May.

“The main focus is downtown and the square area,” said Bo Hagerman, director of art, architecture and urban design for Hagerman New Urbanism. “Basically from the exit off of (Highway) 65 at Jackson Street, up to the next exit, which is South Street, and then everywhere from there east to the square.”

Hagerman New Urbanism was awarded a contract with the Ozark Board of Aldermen in November for the project. Hagerman said the firm was paid $25,000 in cash for its work on the master plan, along with a $75,000 credit that can be used for a future land purchase through the Ozark LCRA.

A series of town hall meetings was held to gather public input for the master plan.

“The first meeting was vision building, talking about different possibilities. The next meeting was kind of honing in on possible design solutions,” Hagerman said. The final meeting was scheduled for March 1.

Ozark City Planner Steve Childers said he feels positive about the town hall meeting format.

“Lots of good ideas were presented,” he said. “Any project like this certainly doesn’t bring everybody out if they’re not directly affected, but the people showed up and had a chance to talk about their concerns and issues and offer their input.”

Hagerman understands the input from the town hall meetings as a common vision of a mixed use, high-density development.

“Something that would kind of feel like a new, old downtown,” he said. “To summarize what I think everybody is feeling, they want to have a new downtown that relates in sense of scale and the way it looks, to some extent, that has a similar tone to the older downtown – something that’s very walkable.”

Input from citizens has indicated a desire for high-density housing in the $300,000 to $400,000 price range, geared toward empty nesters, Hagerman said.

“(It’s for) people who want to downsize their house but don’t want to downsize their quality of life. They want more amenities outside their door,” he said. “They want the curb appeal of a big estate and the prestige of a big estate, but not the responsibility of having to mow five acres.”

It’s too early to know which buildings may be torn down, but that possibility is one concern of property owners in the area.

“We’re not to the point where we’re looking at it as individual properties yet,” Childers said. “A lot of the master plan may require the replatting of some of the properties, combining them, splitting them up, that sort of thing. We don’t even know if the roads are going to be in the places that the roads are in.”

That uncertainty prompted at least one business owner to go ahead and relocate.

On Feb. 13, Carl Hefner moved Hixson Drug from the building he’s owned since 1985 at 201 S. Third St. to a location inside Murfin’s Market, 604 E. South Ste., Ste. A.

Hefner, who purchased 88-year-old business in 1979, wasn’t planning to move but decided to relocate on his own rather than facing the possibility of eminent domain for the redevelopment.

Hefner, who served for 18 years as a member of Ozark’s school board, said that he’s not completely opposed to eminent domain when it’s used to make way for public buildings. During his tenure on the school board, he said, five schools were built, and the board used the threat of eminent domain to its advantage a few times.

“My difficulty is – and this is all across the country – is where you have the city, for the betterment of increased tax base, increased sales tax, increased whatever, they think they should condemn a piece of property and give it to a private developer and they can either build a strip center or build something that will increase the value so it basically increases the financial aspects for the city,” Hefner said.

However, he plans to hang on to the Third Street location – a 2,300-square-foot building located off the Ozark Square – for now.

“I’m going to try to lease it out, most likely,” Hefner said.

Childers said looking beyond the blighted area slated for redevelopment is vital to the area’s renaissance.

“The LCRA identified an area to designate as a blighted area. That’s the approximate 47 acres. The area that we’re planning for is a much larger area than that. We’re looking at an area that’s more the center city because any significant development we do within that 47 acres will ultimately impact and affect properties adjacent to it,” he said. “And any development that happens on those properties adjacent to the 47 acres can have a direct or indirect impact on our redevelopment area.”

While the redevelopment could alter roadways in Ozark, that also could come about as a result of planning for future growth.

“(Ozark’s) projections for 10 years are somewhere around 50,000 people. They’re looking in the next 10 years to grow from a community of 12,500 to 50,000,” Hagerman said. “If you continue to use the traffic circulation corridors you have right now of South and Jackson, they’re already congested. They’re going to be extremely congested at that point. One of the things we’ve proposed is a new corridor that moves from north to south that would be limited-access and higher speed, to relieve some of that congestion and connect the city.”

One of the conceptual drawings of a possible future Ozark indicates that a road could go through Hefner’s property off the square.

“The difficulty is the unknown as far as what’s going to happen,” Hefner said. “I’ve spend thousands of dollars maintain that building and keeping it, I felt that it fit in with the city. It’s not run down.”