Plan for city’s 5th brewery meets resistance

Last edited 1:45 p.m., April 4, 2017

Two vacant buildings in the Rountree neighborhood pegged for a microbrewery met some resistance at last night’s Springfield City Council meeting.

Council members held a first reading on two bills that would grant a conditional use permit allowing Tie & Timber Co. to open at 1451 E. Cherry St. Mary Lilly Smith, director of planning and development, presented the ordinances, saying a brewery would be in compliance with the Rountree Area Neighborhood Plan, as well as the Rountree Urban Conservation District. Microbreweries are restricted to production of 10,000 barrels a year. If plans for Tie & Timber are approved, Springfield would become home to five breweries. The owners of the company did not speak at the meeting. A Missouri secretary of state filing lists the organizer as Denver resident Curtis Marshall.

Rountree Neighborhood Association Chairwoman Laurel Bryant attended the meeting in support of the development at a vacant Kokomo Tans building and an abandoned Ozarks Area Community Action Corp. Head Start property.

“There is some crime on the railroad track,” Bryant said. “I feel that with the use of these buildings, perhaps we’ll have less crime in that area.”

Council members Craig Hosmer and Kristi Fulnecky expressed concerns over residential homes being too close to the proposed project.

“As you go farther south on Pickwick, those are predominately residential homes. I don’t know why the neighborhood would want to have that change in the urban conservation district,” Hosmer said. “I’ve lived in Rountree my whole life. It seems it’s not a good change for the neighborhood.”

Springfield resident Allen Kemper, who’s seeking election today against incumbent Councilwoman Jan Fisk for General Seat A, was opposed to the plans at last night’s meeting.

Known for his street preaching downtown on the weekends, Kemper has opposed alcohol proposals in the past, including those to allow events and festivals to serve alcohol on public property.

“It may damage my momentum — if I have any — for becoming a council member, but it is the love of God that behooves me to try to say I don’t believe this is right,” Kemper said last night. “Please reconsider and let’s make a family-friendly place of this land.”

Plans for the microbrewery were first introduced to Bryant and other members of the Rountree Neighborhood Association through a Facebook survey created by the owners.

“It had positive and negative feedback,” Bryant said. “I was very impressed with how they personally contacted each person with concerns about the project.”

Development plans for the brewery will be voted on April 11.