Springfield City Council last night unanimously approved a zoning change forwarding O’Reilly Automotive Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ORLY) plans to expand its Queen City headquarters.
The national auto parts retailer has remained tight-lipped about the expansion, but according to the approved bill, the rezoning is limited to new offices and parking on 2.6 acres at the 500 block of South Barnes Avenue. Council approved a change to the conditional overlay district within the heavy manufacturing zoning, allowing plans to progress near the corner of East Cherry Street and South Barnes.
At the
May 2 public hearing, Springfield Planning and Development Director Mary Lilly Smith told council the zoning change was necessitated by O’Reilly’s plans to expand its corporate offices. The previous zoning designation only allowed parking on the site west of its main headquarters building.
At last night’s council meeting, the administrative body approved the O’Reilly rezoning without comment.
According to information in the bill, a March 7 neighborhood meeting about the zoning change was held at the office of Buddy Webb & Co. The Springfield-based architecture firm has a long history with O’Reilly Automotive, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
Founder Buddy Webb said in 2014 he and his firm had designed some 1,100 retail stores, several distribution centers and the sprawling O’Reilly headquarters for the parts company. Reached this morning, Webb deferred all requests for information on the project to O’Reilly Automotive officials. They could not be reached for comment by deadline.
The letter inviting nearby residents to the March zoning meeting was sent by Anderson Engineering Inc. Vice President and Project Engineer Paul Engel. Engel, who was out of the country, did not respond to an email request for project details by deadline. In addition, Anderson Engineering President and CEO Neil Brady did not return a call for comment by deadline.
According to SBJ archives, O’Reilly built its 117,000-square-foot headquarters in 2010 as part of its efforts to consolidate 600 employees working across several Springfield office buildings.
