City Beat: VA given options for medical clinic in city

Springfield City Council voted 8-1 March 24 to approve a zoning change on 20 acres south of Kansas Expressway and Republic Road, a move that puts the site in the mix for construction of a long desired veterans clinic.

According to a local architect and representative of the property owners, the southwest Springfield property could be home to a 92,000-square-foot Veterans Affairs medical clinic, but two other sites are in the running.

Three national developers are pitching their clinic proposals to the VA.

“The VA will develop a clinic in Springfield by the end the of 2016 – the last date they threw out,” said Springfield architect Geoffrey Butler, who has worked on behalf of the landowners the past four months to secure the zoning change to general retail with a conditional overlay district.

“This appears to be the best piece of ground for that.”

Butler said vacant land east of Kickapoo High School, as well as property south of the Library Center on South Campbell Avenue, also have been identified as possible VA clinic sites.

However, he feels both are unlikely to be selected.

“While there is probably 15 to 20 acres of land (east of Kickapoo), guess who owns it? Cox,” Butler said, adding he worked on rezoning that property for CoxHealth years ago, which he still understands is part of the health system’s long-range plans for use. “It is not selling to anybody, much less a clinic. … So, that’s out.

“The other property is south of the library at Weaver and Campbell,” he said. “That property is zoned single-family. That property is not platted, and that property is going to have some major infrastructure costs – sewer, water, electric, infrastructure improvements.”

Butler, a principal of architecture firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc., said he requested the amendment on behalf of the landowners – Judith M. Groover Trust and Warner Family Trust, each with 10-acre parcels at the 1800 block of West Republic Road – after the public hearing on March 10.

The amendment, he said, ensures that water runoff issues would be addressed no matter how the land is developed.

“The reason we did that is we want to make sure the property, post-development with a VA clinic, would be no worse than if the property was developed right now as it has been zoned,” Butler said.

Prior to the vote, Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky called for an amendment to the bill that would increase the amount of green space and address water runoff concerns expressed by neighbors to the south. Though the amendment was unanimously approved, Rushefsky herself balked at supporting the zoning measure in full at the council meeting.

The amendment called for 30 percent green space on the property comprising two 10-acre tracts, if they are developed together. If they are developed separately, the northern tract could meet current general retail standards of 20 percent green space, and the southern tract, which had been zoned single-family residential, would need to provide 30 percent green space, in keeping with current standards.

Butler, who has 35 years of experience in assisting developers and landowners with zoning issues, said he doesn’t expect his firm would design the clinic because the specialized VA developers typically already have construction services teams in place. He declined to name the interested national developers.

“There are three viable developers willing to do it,” Butler said.

“The VA just needs to execute.”

Bonds and taxes
Following council approval in February to refinance special obligation bonds issued in 2002 and 2004, City Manager Greg Burris said refinancing had been secured and would help the city retain its current bond rating.  

The refunding of both bond issues resulted in a total reduction in debt service of $2.8 million during the life of the bonds, he said.  

“In addition to the savings, we reduced the remaining term of the 2002 bonds by one year,” Burris said.

“The new interest rate, taking all cost of the financing into account, was 2.32 percent, and the average coupon of the bonds we are refunding was 5 percent.”

In preparation for the bond sale, Moody’s Investor Services reaffirmed the city’s Aa1 general obligation rating.

However, Burris said Jack Holland of Oppenheimer & Co., the bond underwriter, underscored the importance of the renewal of the pension sales tax in maintaining Springfield’s rating in a March 21 letter to city officials.

“We believe that it is reasonable to conclude that a failure to renew the city’s Public Safety Sales Tax at the April 8 election could lead to a downgrade in the city’s credit rating, resulting in an increase in the city’s future borrowing costs,” Holland said in the letter.

“The elimination of the revenue from the sales tax would certainly put pressure on the city’s general fund and create serious budget challenges for the city.”

On April 8, Springfield residents will be asked to keep or repeal the 3/4-cent tax, which was put in place by voters in 2009 to fully fund the police-fire pension. As of press time, the previously ailing fund was roughly 75 percent funded.[[In-content Ad]]