A plan to rezone land opposite Sequiota Park that would have allowed a big new mixed-use apartment complex in the Galloway neighborhood failed massively at the ballot box last November. More than 70 percent of city voters rejected the idea.
Council members on Tuesday night voted unanimously to pay for the election with $90,000 in taxpayer funds.
Campaign finance records at the Missouri Ethics Commission show that the Galloway Village Neighborhood Association reported spending roughly $8,500 on billboards, yard signs and T-shirts. Springfield United, the group favoring the mixed-use complex, reported more than $24,000 in campaign contributions.
The legal battle that ended in the special citywide election over Galloway zoning cost the neighborhood association some $70,000. That’s according to Melanie Bach, a Galloway leader now running for Springfield mayor in the upcoming April 4 election.