On Monday night, Councilmember Craig Hosmer was the lone holdout, overruled by the votes of the other eight councilmembers who chose to approve the preliminary plat for Chimney Rock subdivision.
“I don’t know what we need to change, but I think this is fundamentally unfair to neighborhoods," Hosmer told his fellow councilmembers.
The Chimney Rock street layout calls for roughly 40 houses to be laid out on just 8.69 acres, connecting to what is currently a cul-de-sac on Arcadia Street, just west of the Galloway neighborhood.
Last month, many homeowners told Council stormwater retention would be an issue. They also said increased traffic from new residents would be dangerous for their kids. Meanwhile, a nearby commercial district overlay established by the city in 2018 called for “no access to Arcadia and Mimosa Streets” near the current residential project.
Hosmer made a failed motion to table the bill until Council’s next meeting. His subsequent no vote on Chimney Rock was rooted in the neighborhood’s expectation that the 2018 commercial zoning would have applied to the new residential project. But the Springfield city attorney, Jordan Paul, made clear the two projects are legally separate.
Last month and again Monday night, Paul told council their role in the vote was limited only to evaluating whether the project plan had complied with city regulations — a black-and-white technical review — not whether councilmembers thought it was a good or bad idea.
