Late Tuesday night, Springfield voters nixed a rezoning plan for 4.2 acres of land across the street from Sequiota Park in southeast Springfield's Galloway neighborhood.
Unofficial election results from the Greene County Clerk showed the "No" vote on Question 1 received more than 70 percent of ballots, with "Yes" on Question 1 receiving roughly 29 percent.
As of early Wednesday morning, all 58 voter precincts included in Question 1 had been counted. No on Question 1 received some 32,800 votes; Yes got roughly 13,700.
The rezoning plan would have allowed a husband-and-wife developer team, Mitch and Amanda Jenkins, to build a new apartment complex with 90 to 95 rental units on the land.
Springfield's "no" vote on Question 1 keeps the current mix of zoning rules in place at the proposed development site.
After Springfield City Council initially approved the proposal two years ago, advocates with the nearby Galloway Village Neighborhood Association opposed the idea of more apartments in their neighborhood. They argued more development would cause problems with car traffic, pedestrian safety and stormwater runoff.
In 2020, the association organized a ballot petition drive. After successful signature-gathering and a lengthy court battle, the rezoning issue came to a citywide vote on Tuesday.
Advocates for Question 1 argued that a "no" vote on the ballot item would be bad for the local economy, with several high-profile community leaders arguing that a "no" vote would scare off would-be developers from investing in Springfield.
Melanie Bach is president of the Galloway Village Neighborhood Association. She rejected that line of argument in a brief interview with KSMU late Tuesday night.
"I do think that it's short-sighted to say that Springfield will be closed for business," Bach said. "We currently have 15 apartment buildings under construction right now. People, businesses can't even find employees. Clearly, Springfield is not going to be closed for business. But what we hope will happen is that a new spirit of compromise, in reality, will dawn on developers, on our city council, so that they realize that with neighborhood input, they can create something better than what they had ever thought of."
Developer Mitch Jenkins, who led the unsuccessful "Yes on 1" push, sent KSMU a written statement late Tuesday night.
"We would like to thank all of our supporters and people who took took the time to vote today," Jenkins said. "We love Springfield and the Galloway area. We look forward to continuing our efforts to provide jobs and housing in our community."
