P&Z to take up The Heights rezoning issue at first meeting of year 

There will be no such thing as gently easing in to 2023 for the Springfield Planning & Zoning Commission, whose Jan. 12 meeting will include a public hearing on a contested development planned for the corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue. 

City spokesperson Cora Scott confirmed that The Heights, a mixed-use residential and commercial project proposed by developer BK&M LLC, will be on the agenda of that first meeting of the year. 

Staff from the city’s Planning & Zoning Department recommend denial of the rezoning request in a report prepared for the Dec. 15 P&Z meeting, when the hearing was to have been conducted. BK&M requested the item be pulled from that agenda. 

The Heights would require a rezoning of 2.6 acres across eight properties on the northwest corner of the intersection. Eight properties are involved, and one of the homes, a highly visible white Colonial on the corner, was already razed. BK&M developer Ralph Duda, who declined to be interviewed about the upcoming meeting, has said the company would pay to relocate the remaining seven houses instead of destroying them. 

On Tuesday, an organization calling itself the University Heights Preservation Group launched a GoFundMe fundraiser that seeks to raise $10,000 toward legal expenses to fight BK&M’s efforts. The page’s organizer is Barbara Robinson. As of 11:55 a.m., the group had raised $490. 

The page states the group represents many residents of the neighborhood, which is the location of the proposed development. 

“We hope to supplement our individual contributions in order to support the legal action to uphold deed restrictions that go with the land in the original platted area of University Heights,” the GoFundMe page states. “The deed restrictions have been in place for almost 100 years and state that only a single family or private residence can be built on the land.” 

Restrictions on the original deeds to the neighborhood properties do, in fact, limit development to residential houses of specific materials, and stipulate “nothing to be erected thereon excepting a private residence of brick, stone or stucco construction.” The language of the deed restriction was provided to Springfield Business Journal by resident Mark Fletcher. 

The city’s Planning & Development staff offered a list of conditions for their approval of the rezoning request. Among these is a plan for an internal pedestrian system connecting the front doors of each building with one another and for sidewalks to be constructed on Sunshine Street and National Avenue. 

In the recommendations, driveway approaches are required to be reduced so that there is no driveway or approach on National Avenue and no more than one driveway or approach on Sunshine Street for ingress or egress to the properties. 

The developer also must submit and receive approval of a public improvement plan to include the construction of raised concrete medians on Sunshine Street and National Avenue, a full-access driveway on University Street and traffic calming measures on University Street and/or Hampton Avenue, according to staff recommendations. 

In their report, city staff cite Springfield’s Vision 20/20 comprehensive plan, since that was the comprehensive plan in effect when the project was proposed. 

The report states that the city should encourage continuous neighborhood reinvestment by removing blighting influences with spot clearance of severely deteriorated structures. Duda has stated and provided photos indicating the corner home at 1755 S. National Ave. was deteriorating. 

The report also states that “historic or architecturally significant buildings and areas should be preserved because they express the city’s heritage and add beauty and charm to their surroundings” – an argument University Heights residents have made for the preservation of the century-old houses on the site. 

The Vision 20/20 plan identifies the Sunshine Street and National Avenue intersection as suitable for significant business and high-density housing development, but the report states the northwest quadrant, where the rezoning is sought, is not defined as being within that activity center. 

BK&M is being sued by a group of neighbors who wish to stop the planned development. The plaintiffs – Dixie Sleight, Barbara Susan Robinson, Doug and Erinn Johnson, Anna Squires, Rod and Lisa Dixon, Rebecca Gilmore, Mark Wealand and Steve Waddell, Jeani Thomson and Virginia Olson – are represented by Bryan Wade and Laura Greene of Husch Blackwell LLP. 

In a Dec. 6 letter to the city’s Department of Planning & Development, a different attorney, Lee J. Viorel III of Lowther & Johnson Attorneys at Law LLC, cited several problems with the development, including the existence of restrictive covenants barring commercial development, conflict with the city’s comprehensive plan, traffic and parking issues, water detention, sidewalks and impact on property values. The attorney said he was representing a group of 20 neighborhood residents. 

SBJ previously reported that two groups of neighborhood residents had retained counsel, but only one group has filed suit.