Neighborhoods asked to find space for ‘missing middle’

A clash of visions between developers and homeowners can create rifts in the city, and that’s one reason Springfield officials are trying a new approach to achieving greater housing density.

In a series of meetings with center city registered neighborhoods, officials are seeking input on where new housing options might be a harmonious addition alongside existing single-family homes.

The workshops focus on missing-middle housing, defined as multi-unit housing types that are larger in scale than a single-family home and smaller than a mid-rise apartment building. Examples include duplexes, multi-unit homes and townhomes. The city’s recently updated land development code provides for these options through a new mixed-residential zoning district, designated as R-MX1.

In the sessions, large maps are spread out on tables, and neighborhood residents gather around, using markers and sticky notes to identify places where missing-middle housing might be a good fit.

A May 20 meeting in the Woodland Heights neighborhood was the first of nine such planned gatherings. It was held in Doling on Atlantic, a privately owned community and event space located in the former Doling Elementary School. About three dozen residents showed up to offer their ideas.

Another meeting was held in the West Central neighborhood May 27, with future meetings set for Westside, Tom Watkins, Weller, Doling Park, Heart of the Westside, Grant Beach and Midtown, according to a news release from the city.

Justin Crichton, Springfield’s assistant director of planning and development, led the Woodland Heights session.

“The thing that I think everybody needs to keep in the front of their mind is quality of place,” Crichton said. “This is the north star of the entire Forward SGF plan, and this is the lens through which we look at everything.”

Crichton said quality of place is defined by built environment and the community’s ability to support development of complete neighborhoods – amenity-rich residential environments with commercial nodes where most needs can be met within a 15-minute walk.

Woodland Heights residents took up the challenge, and during the report part of the meeting, several groups pinpointed the same lots. A blighted church building – Glad Tidings Assembly of God at 1301 W. Atlantic Ave. – was mentioned by multiple groups, who noted the main church building is vacant and unused while the congregation meets in a new metal building in the rear of the property.

Some also highlighted properties adjacent to the BNSF railroad track as providing an opportunity for mixed commercial and residential. Commercial development was mentioned repeatedly, although it was not the intended focus of the meeting. Woodland Heights is on the other side of the tracks from Commercial Street, often viewed as a model of mixed-use success.

By allowing residents to identify areas for a gentle increase in density, city officials believe they can avoid some of the resistance seen with some high-profile developments, such as the contested corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue.

Coupled with this strategy is council’s objective, approved in December 2024, to create preapproved, neighborhood-compatible housing designs to expedite permitting for private infill housing projects, according to past reporting. The language passed in the objective says its implementation would reduce construction costs and complement existing municipal housing programs.

Diverse housing
Forward SGF, the city’s comprehensive plan, recommends diversifying housing options so that housing is attainable and accessible for multiple income levels and age ranges.

A 2023 housing study, commissioned by the city from Atlanta-based APD Urban Planning and Management at a cost of $257,000, highlighted a mismatch between available housing units in Springfield and the income levels of those who reside in them, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

There is a 14,000-unit deficit in Springfield, according to the report, and there are 1,027 vacant residential lots. A total of 97% of residential structures are occupied.

The report said homeownership is on the decline in Springfield, with a 17% drop from 2010-20 to a level of 42%. In the same period, the population of the city grew by 5%, highlighting the burgeoning population’s need for housing options. The city’s land development code offers design requirements for all residential dwellings. Requirements include windows or transparency, a front entry feature, a limited mix of materials and a limit on blank walls. Driveways and garages are limited, building heights and setbacks are prescribed and sidewalk connections are required.

“All those things are key elements to framing the street, to making it a livable, walkable neighborhood and integrating these uses that add a greater residential density into the neighborhood,” Crichton said.

Tim Rosenbury, the city’s director of quality of place initiatives, showed several possible designs created by city staff for city-owned vacant lots, currently zoned single family. The examples showed current single-family lots redesigned to include multiple dwelling units.

He showed a mid-block option with an alley behind it allowing parking spaces. The main building is a side-by-side two-bedroom duplex, and behind it are two accessory dwelling units. That takes a lot that is currently zoned for one dwelling unit and allows up to four, meaning there is an opportunity for profit for developers.

“We try to find that crossing, if you will, of project feasibility and blending it with the neighborhood, so that new buildings don’t feel like they’re sticking out like a sore thumb,” Rosenbury said.

Crichton said missing-middle housing was a part of historic neighborhoods from the time they were established.

“Planners thought they knew better and wanted to segregate everything by its specific use,” he said. “It’s a much more efficient use of the land, and it allows the city to provide more housing units for more people in the areas that have already developed.”

Opportunity for return
Susan Iwamoto attended the meeting as a developer who is interested in opportunity zone investment.

“As a developer, you’re looking for a return,” she said.

She said community co-ops could offer a chance for neighborhood residents to join opportunity zone investors to develop missing-middle housing, perhaps on lots they own. Neighborhood investors could bring two small parcels and join them together, she said, and put in a nice fourplex with adequate parking room and space for a playground or play area.

“By doing that, you don’t have it like the projects,” she said. “You don’t want to create more blight.”

Iwamoto said the conversation should include discussion of investment tools, like assemblage incentives and opportunity zones.

“This type of housing is great, but where’s the economic side of it that helps make every single person in here an investor?” she said.

Local know-how
Councilmember Monica Horton, who represents Zone 1, with multiple center city neighborhoods, was present to observe the presentation and discussion, and she said she liked the way the initiative to get resident input on the zoning map was being rolled out.

“This is a brilliant way to do it in terms of whosoever will choose to engage – and this is a great turnout,” she said.

Horton said all of the talent that the city needs is present in the room.

“We have the talent and the know-how already here amongst us,” Horton said. “I believe that it gets us closer and closer to where we want to be in terms of livability – of having the commercial amenities that we need and also the public amenities that we need to get closer to those complete neighborhoods.”

She said the city has cast a vision that has energized neighborhoods to the point that they want to bring that vision into reality.

Mary Collette, a Commercial Street business leader who unsuccessfully ran for mayor earlier this year, was also present.

Collette said with the process outlined by the city, neighbors get some input into the process.

“It would be nice to see a little bit of retail in a little node, like over by the Broadway Laundry,” she said, citing a commercial node at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Atlantic Street.