Springfield’s Citizens’ Advisory Board or CAB has voted unanimously to recommend funding for two projects. The board is tasked with reviewing and recommending capital investment projects funded through the ½-cent portion of the ¾-cent Spring Forward SGF sales tax, which was approved by voters last November.
The board will recommend to council that $500,000 be used to create neighborhood plans and another $500,000 to go toward the creation of parks master plans from year two sales tax proceeds. Parks included in the proposal are Fassnight, Grant Beach, Nathanael Greene-Close Memorial, Sequiota and Silver Springs.
Those recommendations will go to Springfield City Council to consider at a December meeting.
Steve Childers, director of the City’s Planning and Development said in a statement that neighborhood plans act as bridges between high-level visions and what happens on the ground. He said those plans, built with community input, become a shared reference point.
Parks master plans are also built with community input, according to the City in a press release. Those plans, it said, are essential to ensuring each park "grows, evolves and operates in a way that is intentional, equitable and aligned with community needs."
The CAB previously recommended -- and City Council approved -- $30 million of the sales tax as a match with the State of Missouri for a convention and event center downtown. They also voted at the time to provide future recommendations for up to $10 million for parks projects; up to $5 million for neighborhood projects and $15 million in reserve.
The board’s next meeting is Dec. 17 at 10 a.m. in the Denny Whayne Conference Room on the fourth floor of the Busch Municipal Building. The meetings are livestreamed on Facebook and at cityview.springfieldmo.gov. And they're available to watch on the CityView portal after they're over.
