The Springfield-Greene County Vision 20/20 Comprehensive Plan provides the fundamental guidelines for the growth and development of the city of Springfield.
This plan covers a number of areas: growth management and future land use; neighborhoods; parks, open space and greenways; center city; community facilities; community physical image and character; and historic preservation. A transportation plan was included in the original Vision 20/20 plan, but transportation planning is now done through the Ozarks Transportation Organization, which encompasses the entire metropolitan area.
Vision 20/20 is a broad policy document that guides land use and infrastructure decisions. Because of the broad-based nature of the plan, there can be - and often are - conflicting policies that must be resolved during the decision-making process. An example is the perceived conflict between the policies to protect existing neighborhoods and to provide street connections between neighborhoods and commercial areas.
Providing street connections is intended to reduce traffic on major streets and cut travel times for neighborhood residents. This can result in reduced energy use and air pollution from auto emissions.
Residents often argue that their neighborhoods are not being protected because the connections will result in more nonresident traffic on their streets. Developers also often oppose the connections because they want to reduce neighborhood opposition to their projects, and there may be additional costs to providing the street connections. During the review of development applications, staff will recommend connections that they believe are consistent with the policy. The Planning and Zoning Commission will review the application, and will recommend to City Council whether the application conforms to the policy. Council will ultimately make the decision of balancing neighborhood, developer and citywide interests.
Citizens have input into how they want Springfield to develop through the preparation and adoption of the comprehensive plan. Development regulations are meant to reflect the goals and policies established in the comprehensive plan. Developers choose to develop in the community because their projects will provide economic returns.
Developers, however, are basing their plans on a consistent decision-making process when the application is reviewed and approved. If the decision-making process is not consistent, it adds uncertainty to the process. Uncertainty will cause some developers to decide to develop in another community, so it is important to apply policies consistently.
A consistent decision-making process is timely and fair. The application process is timely when it generally sticks to the normal schedule for review and approval. A developer can have significant costs during the review and approval process. The economic viability of the project can be impacted if the review takes much longer than planned. The approval process is fair when a developer's project must conform to the same conditions and requirements as similar projects. Staff tries to be consistent in recommending conditions for approval of an application, which are established to minimize the impact on surrounding development and public infrastructure. If a proposed development is projected to generate large amounts of traffic, there may be conditions for street improvements to accommodate the traffic. Staff tries to ensure that developers only have to provide improvements related to their projects, but that is not always possible because the increase in traffic may be enough to create the need for a significant improvement. Sometimes the city is able to partner with the developer to make the improvement because of this larger benefit, but when that isn't possible, the development may not occur because the cost to the developer is too great to be supported by the project.
The Vision 20/20 plan is not a static document. As new opportunities and challenges occur, the plan is amended. The current economic downturn creates some new challenges, and the city is planning to update the Vision 20/20 comprehensive plan through a strategic planning process that will be open to communitywide participation. It is important that as many citizens as possible participate because all interests need to be heard. The city cannot continue to be a viable community if a plan is devised that puts an extraordinary burden on any segment of the community, including developers.
Ralph Rognstad Jr. is director of Planning and Development for the city of Springfield. He may be reached at rrognstad@springfieldmo.gov.
