Studies geared toward redevelopment of College Street corridor

The city of Springfield is taking a two-pronged approach to studying redevelopment of a section of the Route 66/College Street corridor extending west from Grant Avenue. 

Two teams plan to do site studies, with Eocene Environmental Group Inc. focusing on environmental contamination and community planning and Loggia Preservation doing both archival and field research into the route.

West Des Moines, Iowa-based Eocene led a community meeting June 22 at the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library to kick off planning for the project, which is within the West Central Neighborhood Alliance area. Eocene’s study culminates at Kansas Expressway.

The next day, June 23, Southfield, Michigan-based Loggia gave a presentation at Resurrection Church to kick off a historical survey of the same section of the Mother Road, but extending farther west to Scenic Avenue/Chestnut Expressway. 

According to a news release from the city, the brownfields study will leverage $99,000 in Environmental Protection Agency grant resources to identify underutilized and potentially contaminated sites while aligning land use, transportation, housing and infrastructure investments that are in keeping with the Forward SGF comprehensive plan.

Brownfield sites in the corridor include bulk oil stations, auto salvage and recycling yards, auto repair shops, a hazardous waste area and railways, the release states.

It adds that past assessments revealed heavy contamination of petroleum, heavy metals and PAHs – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a group of more than 100 different chemical compounds formed by the incomplete burning of organic materials like coal, oil, gas, wood and garbage, classified as carcinogens. 

“We are incredibly grateful to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for this vital Brownfields Grant investment in our community,” said Amanda Ohlensehlen, director of Economic Vitality and Workforce for the city of Springfield, in the news release. “These funds will help us turn underused and potentially contaminated properties into catalysts for new housing, business development and job creation.”

Ohlensehlen said the revitalization effort is more than a cleanup.

“It’s an opportunity to reinvigorate key areas of our city and strengthen the local economy,” she said in the release.

The historical survey costs $30,000 and is being paid for from 2024 carryover funds in the city budget. Researchers outlined a plan to photograph all resources, a term they use to describe buildings and their support structures and sites like parks or vacant lots. College Street, an alignment of Route 66, includes commercial buildings used by travelers during the route’s prime.

Brownfields assessment
Ben Curtis, environmental project manager for Eocene, said a brownfield site is defined by the EPA as a property where redevelopment or reuse could be complicated by the potential presence of one or more hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants. Further assessment could review that there is no contamination, but the perception of contamination can prevent development efforts, he explained.

“Without investigation, you don’t know,” he said.

Curtis said a lot of brownfield sites have good bones.

“As long as we can get them to a place that’s safe for public health and the environment, it’s a win-win,” he said.

He said that since 1995, the EPA has offered roughly $2.9 billion in brownfield grants, leveraging more than $42 billion for cleanup and redevelopment and creating more than 220,000 jobs.

For every $1 invested, $19 is leveraged, Curtis said, with 10 new jobs generated for every $100,000 of EPA funding. After cleanup, tax revenue increases by two to seven times the public investment with a property value increase of 5%-15% near redevelopment sites.

Brownfields investment lowers the municipal lift for extending new infrastructure and can unlock land previously considered unbuildable, Curtis said.

Curtis said community-driven planning will guide the redevelopment strategy for the College Street targeted area.

“We’re going to be in the community as much as we can to learn about what you guys think is right for the corridor and what matches your vision for the future,” he said. 

He added that the goal is to reach the highest potential for catalyst redevelopment in the target area, with a focus on advancing multimodal activity, like biking, and on integrating and preserving historic character while expanding housing through infill. Incorporating green infrastructure in corridor design is also a focus.

Curtis added that the plan would need to be grounded in market realities to be workable for the city.

One member of the public inquired about West Meadows, a park area located just north of the Birthplace of Route 66 Roadside Park at 1200 W. College St. A sign posted on a chain-link fence at the site labels it an EPA-funded environmental cleanup site and touts, “Future Jordan Valley West Meadows Project.” The area has a small length of trail that ends in piles of gravel and dirt where the park, contemplated in 2017, has not fully materialized.

Curtis said the study will help to determine if the community still wants to see an urban park at the site or if there is a more desirable use. While the area was envisioned as a park 10-20 years ago, that may not be what it wants now, he said.

“That’s why this community engagement is so important,” he said.

Springfield resident Lucas Temple, present at the Eocene meeting, expressed a desire for redevelopment that honors history in the brownfields sites. He added that it’s hard now to spot historical features on the route, and few people know what those features are.

“When you go on the overlook here on College Street, you don’t see anything that’s historical,” he said. “If you look down, half the time you see people doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

He cited information mentioned by others about the first European settlement and a historic fort, memorialized in the name of Fort Street. Temple said he would like to see the history memorialized in development.

“I’m just spitballing, but you could build an apartment complex and make it look like a fort,” he said. “How would we know how to keep the character of a place when you don’t know what it is?”

The Eocene conversation ended with Temple’s and others’ remarks about historic features of the corridor, setting the stage for the discussion to come the next evening.

The final, implementation-ready College Street Revitalization Plan is slated to be released in April 2027.

Historical survey
Katie Cook and Cassandra Talley, archeological historians with Loggia Preservation, said their study is grounded in observation but also in library research with old newspapers and other archival material as well as in accumulated knowledge of residents and privately owned photos and writings about the area.

They described the survey as intensive, with each property in the corridor being researched individually and described in a final survey report provided to the city along with all research material.

“Surveys are the foundational preservation activity,” Cook said. “They’re the first thing you do when you want to try to understand what you have and why it might be important.”

Talley said the final study will be delivered in March 2027, and it will essentially serve as a planning document with a list of recommendations.

Cook added that Loggia does a lot of its work in neighborhoods where everyday people live, and they offer insight into why areas might be worthy of preservation.

“These kinds of projects can serve as catalysts to do something about that,” she said.

Phyllis Ferguson, co-owner of Rockwood Motor Court, said her property was added last year to a shortlist of historic hotels of America – a list that also includes grander structures, like the Plaza Hotel in New York City and the Peabody Hotel in Nashville.

“We’re very simple, but they explained Rockwood’s important, too,” she said. “We’re part of the history of our country, even though we may not be as opulent. We’ve been able to embrace that and not feel like the country peasant.”

Springfield City Councilmember Monica Horton said recognition of historic value helps the argument against demolition by neglect, or letting older properties fall into disrepair until they must be razed. The desire to curb demolition by neglect was one of the factors that led to council funding a historic survey, she said.

Horton said College Street needs to follow the example of Commercial Street to leverage incentives for redevelopment, like community improvement districts or tax increment financing.

“Where’s College Street’s CID? Where is their TIF?” she said. “Where are those type of economic tools that areas such as Historic C-Street also use to beautify their facades?”

Horton said the historic survey will help areas of town that may be overlooked begin to tell their unique stories.

“That’s a huge part of Forward SGF,” she said.