City Beat: Senior housing project gets second life with council revote

Matthew Simpson: Vote corrects a mistake from the last meeting.

Craig Hosmer: City does not enforce its buffer yard requirements.

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A rezoning to make way for a senior housing project – a measure that was voted down by Springfield City Council on Aug. 19 – was revived at council’s Sept. 9 meeting, this time with full support of the voting members.

The affirmative vote represented a change of position by Councilmember Craig Hosmer, whose general concerns about the city’s enforcement of buffer yards led him to reject the rezoning measure previously.

The council bill sought to change the zoning designation for 5.4 acres of property at 817 W. El Camino Alto Drive to an office district with a conditional overlay from a low-residency family residential district, also with a conditional overlay. 

Complicating matters at the last meeting were recusals by three council members – Mayor Ken McClure, Derek Lee and Callie Carroll – and the absence of Heather Hardinger, resulting in a 4-1 vote. The nine-member council requires five affirmative votes for passage.

On Sept. 9, Hardinger was back, and Hosmer changed his vote to yes to result in the 6-0 passage.

Prior to the vote, Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Simpson criticized Hosmer for his position at the previous meeting and said he saw the opportunity to revote as a way to correct that mistake.

“As we’re considering land issues, it’s our responsibility as council to consider them on the merits of the proposal and not the opportunity to score political points or advance a personal agenda,” he said.

Simpson said the merits of the proposal were clear, with passage recommended by both city staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission. “It is consistent with the comprehensive plan and supported by the neighborhood, and it provides homes for senior citizens, including veterans, in our community, which directly aligns with our housing priority as a council,” he said.

City code typically requires a six-month wait for an applicant to refile a rezoning request, but council is permitted to initiate a refiling without a delay.

The proposed development is a 55-plus residential care facility to be placed on the west half of the property, with the eastern half to be sold, according to the staff report on the measure. The development, which would abut the Quail Creek neighborhood, would be required to install a 15-foot vegetative buffer yard.

Representing developer Ridge HZ55 LLC, Dave Bodeen of engineering firm Pinnacle Design Consultants LLC said the developer intends to maintain the buffer yard.

“This has to look nice,” Bodeen said. “We’re trying to sell a product, and in order to do that, we’re going to make it look as nice as we can.”

He noted plans set forth by the developer surpass the minimum standard and provide extra trees, which the neighbors are in favor of. The proposed conditional overlay also calls for a 6-foot wood privacy fence.

“We’ve even come up and we’re talking with them back and forth on what type of fence they like,” he said. “I think we’re really going above and beyond minimum standards.”

Bodeen said the developer plans to keep the property looking nice long term. “We’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that looks as nice as it possibly can, not just at the ribbon cutting but 10 years in the future,” he said. “It’s a product that they’re going to have to continually, continuously resell in order to fill those units.” 

Hosmer said his objection was not to the developer or the specific project, but to the city’s failure to enforce buffer yard requirements.

“The city of Springfield says that developers shall maintain that buffer yard, and yet nobody checks the buffer yard,” he said. “There are buffer yards all over the city of Springfield where the trees are dead, the plants are dead – nobody does anything to make sure that gets taken care of.”

City Manager Jason Gage said given current staffing, if the city becomes aware of an issue with a buffer yard or other landscaping requirements, it will follow up. “The question is, are we going to take more self-initiative to check those?” Gage said. “We’re going to talk about how can we do that – how can we leverage ourself to take more initiative to do that?”

He added that if there is a concern, the city will send someone out.

Hosmer asked if there is a plan for this.

“We talk about what we’re going to do, but we don’t seem to do it,” Hosmer said.

Gage said a plan had not been developed in the time since Hosmer raised his concern at the last meeting, but a staff person may be included in the next city budget for such enforcement efforts if one is deemed necessary.

Hosmer suggested that Tree City USA volunteers be used as a resource to scout buffer yards that are not being maintained.

“Certainly, we wouldn’t be able to probably leverage them as an enforcer, but they could be eyes in the field that could come back to us, and then we could send someone out if we need to do that,” Gage said.

According to the city’s comprehensive plan, Forward SGF, a buffer yard is intended to offer a barrier between two areas with different intensities, such as a commercial area that exists beside a residential one. Because the city currently relies on a complaint-based system rather than enforcement based on staff observation, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, people with complaints about buffer yards can submit responses by phone or online to the city’s Citizen Resource Center.

City Utilities budget
A budget proposed by City Utilities of Springfield for its next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, sets forth three years of natural gas rate increases for consumers.

Beginning in October 2025, a 2.5% increase to the base rate is planned, followed by 3.9% increases in 2026 and 2027. CU is also lowering the cost of its bus service by 20%. A single-ride adult fare is currently $1.25, but the budget proposes a fare of $1. Youth ages 5-17 will pay 75 cents instead of $1, and those now paying the senior, disabled and Medicare rate of 60 cents will pay 50 cents. The rate decreases will go into effect Oct. 1 if the budget is approved. CU officials expect customers bills to increase by $7.44 per month at the end of the three years of planned increases.

Louise Knauer, who is vice chair of the Board of Public Utilities, said CU operates by the tenets that the power it provides must be safe, reliable and renewable.

Knauer told council that in keeping with CU’s safety tenet, the budget includes major maintenance of electric-generating sources, design and build of a new 161 kilovolt transmission line from Republic to Partnership Industrial Center West and mitigation of corrosion risks in the natural gas pipeline system. On the reliability tenant, the budget includes a focus on infrastructure with emphasis on natural gas and water main renewals, electric pole replacements and vegetation management, she said, as well as funding to purchase a backup generator for the Blackman Water Treatment Plant.

She added that CU provides 39% of its electric energy needs through renewable sources.

“This makes CU continue to be a leader in the state of Missouri with its renewable portfolio,” she said. The budget sets the fiscal year’s expenditures at $640 million, up from $635 million in fiscal 2024. Council will vote on the measure at its Sept. 23 meeting.

Affordable housing
A public hearing was held on a $525,000 loan to developer The Kitchen Inc. through the Department of Planning and Development for a Maplewood Villas Phase II development at 3905 W. Maple St.

Also proposed is an exception to allow the development outside of the boundary designated for use of Housing and Urban Development funds. The development would provide 32 lots for seniors over age 55, with eight reserved for homeless veterans.

Meleah Spencer, CEO of The Kitchen, said the nonprofit has a waiting list of 124 applicants seeking affordable senior housing. Council will vote on the measure Sept. 23.

Other action items

• An appropriation of $461,000 from the city’s marijuana sales tax was approved to fund raises for police officers who are members of the bargaining unit. To fund the ongoing cost of premium shift pay, the measure also eliminated five full-time equivalency positions from the police officer roll. Eliminated positions are among approximately 55 current vacancies in the department.
• A federal grant of $5.4 million approved by council will provide five new passenger boarding bridges at the Springfield-Branson National Airport. The funds, matched by $282,000 from the airport budget, are provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.