The City of Springfield will develop plans for neighborhoods and parks with $1 million in Spring Forward SGF half-cent sales tax revenue. City Council voted unanimously this week to approve a measure designating the money for that use.
The Citizen’s Advisory Board, which is tasked with suggesting how tax revenue should be spent, decided in November to recommend city council invest the money for the plans.
Springfield Planning and Development Director Steve Childers said in a statement that neighborhood plans "act as bridges between high-level visions and what happens on the ground."
He said they’ll bring on a consultant to get the plans done much more quickly. He estimated those plans will be finished in about two years and will involve a lot of community input.
"The basic plan will be fairly general but yet specific SWOT, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats," he said. "We want to keep a constant model for all the plans, but what will be unique to each neighborhood is that they will have the opportunity to engage with staff and the consultants."
Childers said in the statement that having many opportunities for community input "ensures decisions about land use, housing, transportation, parks, and economic development reflect what the people who live there actually want and need."
Half of the money allocated — $500,000 — will go toward developing master plans for five city parks: Fassnight, Grant Beach, Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial, Sequiota and Silver Springs. Those plans will be built with input from neighbors, user groups, sports leagues, accessibility advocates and other stakeholders, according to the city.
Director of Parks Ron Schneider said in a statement "the planning process helps us prioritize improvements, plan realistic budgets, coordinate grants and partnerships and avoid ‘piecemeal’ decisions that don’t fit a larger vision.”
