Two cities claim same urban service area

Springfield City Council approved a 7.3-square-mile expansion to the city’s urban service area at its July 25 meeting.

The expansion generally follows U.S. Highway 60 east to Farm Road 125 and allows the city to connect the area to its sewer system and streets. The urban service area is not the same as the city’s corporation limit, though it could act as a precursor to annexation.

There’s only one catch: part of the area overlaps a parcel for which neighboring Rogersville had already applied for annexation.

Rogersville’s board of alderman added the land to its urban service area July 18 and intends to annex it into city limits.

Several Rogersville officials and citizens spoke against the bill at Springfield’s City Council meeting.

Mayor Jack Cole said the area in question would put Springfield right in Rogersville’s backyard.

“Our typical policy has been to only annex those into the city that wanted to come into the city,” Cole said. “We’ve been working with these developers on the south side (of the area), and we’d had some other citizens that had already filed their applications for voluntary annexation into the city.”

But the town’s application to the Missouri Department of Transportation for annexation of the area languished for two months, until Cole sent a note to MoDOT officials, asking about the application’s status.

“We got an e-mail on (July 21 or 22) saying Springfield had objected to it, and we would therefore not be able to voluntarily annex that area,” Cole said.

“That’s when we learned that Springfield was amending its urban services agreement to come all the way out to (Highway) 125.”

City Council’s action is intended to help ensure “appropriate development of the area” between Springfield and Rogersville, said Springfield City Manager Tom Finnie.

Finnie said the city has never been in this kind of predicament.

Officials are looking to Greene County for guidance.

“The county will have to decide on zoning as long as (the land) stays in the county, but I don’t think they have to resolve urban service conflicts,” Finnie said. “Maybe it will just stay in conflict.”

He added that any developer looking to have sewer services added to the area would be able to choose which city to approach about those services.

A meeting between Cole, Finnie, Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson and Rogersville City Administrator Nancy Edson was scheduled for July 29.

Cole said if that meeting doesn’t produce a compromise palatable for both sides, the county would have to step in and decide.

“Greene County will have to vote, and they’ve informed me that it’s basically whoever makes the best deal for the developer,” Cole said.

“When you consider the resources that Springfield has to bear, it’s probably going to be difficult for me.”[[In-content Ad]]