Urban Land Institute setting roots in Springfield

With implementation of the city of Springfield’s Forward SGF comprehensive plan underway and moving into the rezoning phase, Springfield-based professionals are working to start a regional chapter of the Urban Land Institute to help shape the community through the goals set forth in the city plan.

Established in 1936, ULI has become one of the oldest and largest networks of land-use industry experts with a focus on urban development. Its vision includes promoting responsible land use and creating thriving, sustainable and resilient communities through research, education, advisory services and collaborative efforts with its 45,000 network members and partners. In addition, ULI has 68 product councils touching on a wide range of development sectors, including airport development, entertainment, health care, hotels, placemaking and urban revitalization.

After attending a recent ULI conference in northwest Arkansas, Brandon Biskup, a project architect at Kinetic Design and Development LLC, realized southwest Missouri needed its own chapter. ULI, which he said is suited for real estate development and planning, is also a way to create a good dialogue between developers, municipalities and residents.

Citing the current planning and zoning phase in Forward SGF, Biskup said the need for a ULI chapter is stronger than ever. City officials announced this month the start of city code updates to align with the comprehensive plan. According to a news release, the process – last updated in 1995 – will cover building codes, and subdivision and zoning regulations.

“One of the big impetuses for starting this, and a focus going forward, we’re going through a citywide zoning reform for Forward SGF, which is not very common to do citywide. So, this is a huge opportunity to get it right,” Biskup said.

Organizing a ULI council is a grassroots effort driven by members. Still in its early stages, Biskup has gathered a leadership team of local and regional professionals to create awareness and programming that reflect the Forward SGF comprehensive plan.

“We’re in that stage of showing national that we have real interest. We’re working up to, in the next year, to be designated as a full satellite [chapter] northwest Arkansas,” he said.

The northwest Arkansas council, he said, will be beneficial to work with for administrative support and because of similarities of the two regions.

Biskup said there’s often a dichotomy between the city, developers and neighborhoods, and that ULI Southwest Missouri will give opportunities for discussions before future planning and zoning issues arise by showing what other communities have done in similar situations.

“This is exactly what we need in the community, not to just bring people together but with the resources and network to experience from other communities and learn best practices about urban planning and development,” he said.

The impact of having a local chapter, Biskup said, is broad. Since 2020, the ULI Kansas City council, which has roughly 350 members, has been effective in working with its city and community partners to consider issues surrounding housing affordability, present plans to make the park system more equitable, and advance the real estate careers of women and professionals of color, according to the council’s website.

Biskup said getting a district council started takes time, upwards of 10 years.

“As we grow, we’ll work up to being our own council long term,” he said, adding that once he started talking to local professionals, the interest has been growing fast.

ULI has 52 district councils across North and South America, including Kansas City and St. Louis. Biskup is leading the efforts as chair to establish the local ULI council, along with eight other members in varying professional sectors, including real estate development, city planning, arts and culture nonprofits, and business media. [Editor’s note: The chapter includes Springfield Business Journal Editorial Vice President-External Relations Eric Olson.]

Tim Rosenbury, director of quality of place initiatives for the city of Springfield, is on the leadership team and moderated a panel discussion on place-based zoning codes at one of the chapter’s first public meetings, held in June. Place-based zoning, adopted by Forward SGF, is a zoning ordinance approach that looks at the overall goals of the community set forth by the comprehensive plan, rather than implementing a one-size-fits-all model. They discussed planning and zoning with Springfield Deputy City Manager Maurice Jones, Principal Planner Randall Whitman and a representative from the consulting firm Multistudio, Graham Smith. Multistudio has been hired by the city to identify recommendations for code updates.

“The ULI has the potential to build a community or constituency for a new way of thinking of how we develop and, more important, redevelop our community,” Rosenbury said.

He added that ULI is a private initiative, not backed by the city, but that many city officials, including himself, are involved and excited about the possibilities.

“The city can execute on the public’s wishes, but it’s really nice to have an organization that establishes a community of people who are committed to making this happen. It’s not just bureaucrats and politicians mandating this, but peers and industry,” he said.

While at the June meeting, Rosenbury said he was inspired to see who was in attendance.

“I looked out in the crowd and saw public officials, city planners – not just from Springfield, but from the surrounding cities – landscape architects, real estate agents and developers, bankers. It was all the different professions and trades that touch the development process. That’s the ULI community,” he said.

Jerany Jackson, a landscape architect at Great River Engineering, was one of the attendees, having heard about the burgeoning chapter from Biskup. She said she is excited about the potential of ULI.

“The diversity that is built into this organization, of many different professionals and leaders and businesspeople, it gives us a great place to have conversations and to be educated and figure out how to bridge any gaps,” Jackson said.

She hopes these additional resources can be the extra support needed to further Springfield’s goals for enhancing its quality of place.

“It’s educational and gives people a way to network with others they may not normally get a chance to network with,” she said.

Local chapters operate under the umbrella of ULI but are independent entities tailored to the specific needs and challenges of their individual communities. Because of this, Nancy Caughlan Evans, a Realtor with Keller Williams Greater Springfield, said she has a year’s worth of programming ideas for events. Serving as the program director for ULI Southwest Missouri, Evans said her goal is to create monthly programming of either a lunch-and-learn or a small presentation followed by networking opportunities.

“I believe Springfield has so much to offer if we allow it to give it its full potential, and not hold it back,” Evans said.