springfield planning & zoning commission

Over 18 months, city officials, hired consultants and a team of more than 100 community volunteers have pitched in on a comprehensive rewrite of the city’s land development code.

It’s KSMU News Director Michele Skalicky. Two years ago, Springfield City Council approved a new comprehensive plan that charts the city’s future for the next two decades. That plan is called Forward SGF, and it focuses on the city’s growth and land use. Over the past several months, city officials and consultants have been ironing out some of the fine print — a community development code update. I’m joined by KSMU’s public affairs reporter, Gregory Holman, to help explain what’s going on with this major change in Missouri’s third-largest city.

After hours of comments by local residents at a Thursday-night meeting, commissioners voted 6-to-2 against the plan. One commissioner who lives in the residential area near the corner abstained to avoid a conflict of interest.

The property in question is a 5.4-acre parcel located on a looping stretch of road just west of the Library Center. A company called Ridge HZ55 wants to transform the western half of it from open land thick with weeds and wildflowers to a 55-plus residential care facility. They hope to sell off the eastern portion of the land.

By a vote of 8 to zero on Monday night, Springfield City Council passed a rezoning change that will allow a church to be built off Evans Road in south Springfield. Neighbors say they’re concerned about possible traffic impacts from the building — and the undisclosed religious affiliation of the congregation itself.

In December 2022, neighborhood residents filed a lawsuit to block developers’ plans for commercial buildings at the corner of National Avenue and Sunshine Street.

Springfield Planning & Zoning Commission members said they expect more EVs on Queen City streets in the near future.

The latest twist of the University Heights development controversy in Springfield will see a rezoning proposal for the corner of National & Sunshine sent back to the city Planning & Zoning Commission — after the commission already rejected an earlier version of the proposal.

On Thursday night, seven of the nine Springfield Planning & Zoning Commissioners voted against a rezoning proposal that would allow for development at the corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue.

After hours of discussion Thursday night, Springfield Planning & Zoning Commissioners voted to delay deciding whether a controversial University Heights rezoning proposal should be forwarded on to City Council.