Strategic growth: Annexation plan weighs costs and benefits of additions

The city of Springfield has released a draft of its comprehensive plan for the next two decades. Titled Forward SGF, the 250-page document outlines a wide-ranging vision for the city and includes 10 main goals, which Springfield Business Journal is unpacking in this series. This is the sixth installment. Catch up on coverage at SBJ.net/ForwardSGF.

As a planning document, Forward SGF outlines a number of visions for the city of Springfield, from neighborhood revitalization to corridor improvements to regional planning and partnerships.

But a city’s 20-year vision would not be complete without a growth and annexation plan, and the Forward SGF draft offers that. The plan is scheduled to be introduced before City Council on Nov. 14, and a vote is anticipated Nov. 28.

The plan calls for managed growth and the development of infrastructure to support existing community needs.

In the introduction to the section on growth and annexation, the document reads, “Sustainable growth should strive to balance the demand for new development, quality expectations, and environmental, community and fiscal resources, while supporting a desirable mix of uses.”

It notes the strategy will serve as a guide to maximize short- and long-term public investment related decision making to support planned growth, but it urges a measured approach.

“Evaluating future decisions should be made with caution not to exchange short-term growth for long-term stability,” the document reads.

The plan calls for the city to work with surrounding municipal and county governments, utility providers, regional planning agencies, business and environmental groups, and other stakeholders.

Randall Whitman, Springfield’s principal planner, said it’s necessary to take a cautious approach.

“We’re very cautious of the fact that we do have to think about the logistics of providing services, not just from a police car or a fire truck getting to a property,” he said. “We have to look at it on a case-by-case basis.”

But Whitman said the city does intend to pursue annexations, particularly voluntary annexations of areas of high strategic or economic value.

“Our plan does talk about doing that. That’s one of the first things we plan to do once it’s adopted,” he said.

Voluntary agreement
There are areas where the city has provided sewer service, and to take advantage of it, the property owner at the time had to sign an agreement for perpetual consent for annexation to the city, Whitman said, adding the policy began in the late 1990s.

Annexation consent is conveyed with the land, Whitman said, so if a 20-acre parcel was under such an agreement and it was divided and sold as 20 single-acre lots, all buyers have consented to annexation with their purchase.

“We could go out and pursue voluntary annexation on those properties and expand the city limits in those areas,” Whitman said.

Sewer access is one of the biggest factors to development, he noted.

“You can’t develop a Buc-ee’s on a septic tank,” he said.

The city’s right to annex property doesn’t mean annexation is a foregone conclusion, he noted. For areas not currently in the city, fire coverage is provided by a rural fire district, like Brookline, Ebenezer or Willard. The city must consider its ability to provide timely and efficient safety services before deciding to annex.

“Some places have great fire coverage, especially the city’s west side,” Whitman said. “On the east side, that’s not so much the case. It would be challenging to get to those peripheral properties from some of our existing stations.”

Strategic value is another consideration that goes into annexation decisions, Whitman said.

“Economic development is a big factor,” he said. “We want to create jobs and have the ability to influence the type of development that occurs.”

He noted that annexation also may need to be undertaken to reach some parcels that are not contiguous.

“If it’s a large parcel that has development potential that can create jobs and revenue and we can’t get to it, well, we can get to it if we annex another piece to get to that strategic property,” he said. “All of those things have to be weighed when we consider any annexation.”

Compact and contiguous
The guiding principle for annexation is that land to be added should be compact and contiguous, as outlined in a section of Missouri Revised Code last updated in 2018. The law requires that land to be annexed must be contiguous. Parts of the current map of Springfield show the second box is checked – all parts of the city are connected – but the first is questionable.

That’s because some parts of the map are the result of flagpole annexation. An example is found in the southern part of the city, where for a little less than a mile the boundary is drawn to encompass the width of U.S. Route 65 from the James River southward to the point where the Evans Road/Millwood Drive interchange begins.

Another flagpole annexation is found to the west of the city, where the city’s boundaries hug tightly to West Bypass for a little over a mile to the area surrounding the Springfield Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“We recognize that’s not the best way to grow a city,” Whitman acknowledged. “We can’t provide the best services that way.”

At a council luncheon a year ago, members examined the map of Springfield with special attention to the four zone boundaries, which are studied after each census. Council decided to wait until the possible approval of the comprehensive plan before adjusting boundaries.

Brendan Griesemer, assistant director of planning and development, noted at the time, “The comprehensive plan is supposed to recommend an annexation strategy, and annexation could change populations in all four districts. … We’re just in a holding pattern.”

Councilperson Craig Hosmer pointed to the flagpole annexation areas, particularly in Zone 3 to the southwest, and asked, “How is that compact and contiguous?”

Mayor Ken McClure noted during the meeting that voluntary annexation could ramp up the population very quickly.

Broad benefit
Whitman said with annexation, it’s important to think of what would benefit both the current and future residents of Springfield.

“We want to meet the needs of future residents without compromising the needs of current residents,” he said. “Philosophically, if you look at our annexation plan, there’s a big focus on taking care of what we have in the city. There are a lot of things we need to work on, and our resources are stretched thin.”

Springfield encompasses 84 square miles, he said, and being able to thoroughly care for the area within its boundaries is one reason voluntary annexation agreements have not yet been pursued of late.

He added that Springfield wants to be mindful of the county and other municipalities.

“We want to provide something beneficial to property owners and also benefit the existing city,” he said. “We also want to be good neighbors and good stewards of the services we offer. We don’t do this haphazardly; it takes a lot of analysis and a lot of study. A bad history with one property owner is going to compromise future annexation efforts, and we don’t want that.”

The Forward SGF plan prioritizes maximizing benefits to residents and businesses. It also aims to capitalize on development and redevelopment opportunities in urban areas, to outline a plan for infrastructure investments, to balance infrastructure maintenance while targeting areas for service and to prioritize transportation.