Springfield's proposed new zoning code grows out of the city’s Forward SGF plan, adopted in 2022.
Chris Brewster is with Multistudio, the Kansas City architecture and design firm contracted to write the new code. He told commissioners about the 20th-century rules currently still in effect, contrasting them with the new code’s emphasis on flexibility and quality of life.
Brewster said the current code is "geared for what we call suburban development pattern. It was geared for growth, geared for more car-oriented development, um, from an older period of time when Springfield was growing. As Forward SGF talked about, you have a lot more urban and infill situations that needed attention, and so this code wasn’t doing too good a job with that.”
Commissioners voted 7-to-zero to recommend the new zoning code, with commissioners Bill Knuckles and Christopher Lebeck absent. City Council is expected to hold its own public hearing in March ahead of an up-or-down vote on making it part of city ordinance.
To learn more, listen or read to Ozarks Public Radio's recent rundown covering what's going on with the Forward SGF Land Development Code rewrite.
