Springfield City Council passes update to driveway code

A revision to city code that passed by a 7-2 vote at last night’s Springfield City Council meeting changes requirements for driveways within the city limits, but not before a council member who is also a civil engineer raised concerns.

Councilmember Derek Lee offered an amendment to the legislation, but the amendment failed by a 5-4 vote, despite support form from Lee, Mayor Jeff Schrag, Heather Hardinger and Callie Carroll. Schrag and Lee cast the two no votes for the bill itself.

The code revision offers what the legislation calls a performance-based framework for managing driveways, access points and intersections. The written explanation of the bill states that the updates reflect national best practices for access management and that they are intended to improve safety, maintain traffic flow, reduce conflict points and protect the city’s infrastructure investment.

Lee’s chief objection, however, was that the code revision limited the ability of business owners to appeal.

Lee said his intent was to allow a hearing so people can express why they need a driveway, and P&Z can then decide.

“Through our development code, one of the things that we have talked about that a lot of small businesses communicated to us was that they wanted an appeal process,” he said. “That was something I heard over and over again.”

Lee said the new code includes fewer opportunities for appeal than the one that currently exists. The Planning & Zoning Commission reviews subdivisions and uses language that he is proposing, he said.

“The language that the city of Springfield put in was a much more robust denial of allowing people to have a review,” he said.

He said that a busy street does not allow driveways, and that doesn’t take into account certain individual situations. He offered some examples.

“The Planning & Zoning board, they took other things into consideration, while they did consider the traffic – all of that still has to be presented,” he said. “This is really about access to a board where small businesses can be heard.”

He added that his amendment would not change any of the actual criteria for driveways.

“I have said many things about driveways over the last few years,” he said. “One of the comments I’ve made is the city of Springfield will literally take a business’ last driveway and require them to take access from a neighbor – that kind of thing – where (the Missouri Department of Transportation) looks more at your last driveway and puts precedence on that.”

Chad Zickefoose, city traffic engineer, responded to some questions from council. He said driveway location and spacing affects crash risk, especially along heavily traveled arterials, expressways and busy intersections. He said the proposed language would specify that highest-risk, highest-access decisions remain at the engineer-level review rather than that of a discretionary body.

Zickefoose said the proposed legislation would protect the function and safety of major corridors and encourage shared and cross-access easements, in keeping with the city’s Forward SGF comprehensive plan.

“It also matches the goals of reducing piecemeal access decisions that degrade corridor performance and economic vitality and ensures that the access decisions consider the long-term network impacts and adjacent properties and just not individual parcels,” he said.

He added that the proposed language had been vetted over the past year by stakeholders and reviewed by professional organizations like the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

He said Lee’s proposed amendment would make city staff’s job more challenging.

He added that appeals would continue to be permitted for lower-classification roadways, like collectors and locals.

“It puts limitations on the appeals on those high-volume, high-impact roadways,” he said of the new code. “We feel that those decisions should be based on engineering reviews.”

In voicing his support for the measure, Councilmember Brandon Jenson stressed safety.

“We also recently published the 2024 crash report that indicates we are the 13th least-safe city for driving in the entire country,” he said.

He cited the Federal Highway Administration’s recommendation to reduce the density of access points through driveway closure, consolidation and relocation – the intent of the legislation.

“Federal guidance appears to tell us that we should adopt the text as staff has presented it, but that may not mean that it makes sense for our community,” he said.

Jenson noted, however, that Forward SGF identifies consolidating driveway placement and property access to improve safety.

“While I understand the desire to have an appeals process, I’m not sure that relying on the appeals process within our current code – which has resulted in the dangerous mess of access points that we currently have – is the best strategy for moving our city forward,” Jenson said.

He said that a vote in favor of the amendment prioritizes concerns of businesses over the safety risks of the community.

Lee responded that nothing in his amendment changes any criteria.

“The only thing this does is allow a board to consider all of those issues along with a unique site and say, ‘Hey, in this situation, that doesn’t make sense – this business is worth saving,’” he said. “I literally do this, so there’s been a number of occasions where the fact that we denied a driveway made it less safe.”

Councilmember Craig Hosmer said council should prioritize safety as the most important thing it can do.

“I do think that we shouldn’t jeopardize public safety for the desires of a unique situation, even if it’s a business situation,” he said.

Council’s ultimate passage of the driveway management section of code aligns it with a recently passed land development code, which emphasizes the desirability of cross-access easements between businesses, Zickefoose said.