‘Year of Planning’: Imagine Nixa project emerges ahead of a new comprehensive plan

Jimmy Liles doesn’t foresee Nixa’s population growth rate slowing down.

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As residential growth continues to rise steadily in Nixa, officials have their eyes set on the future.

Part of that vision is a newly launched project – Imagine Nixa – in which residents are providing feedback for the city’s next five-year strategic plan, set to be adopted this fall.

The project’s launch is part of a trio of planning efforts by the city in 2020, joining an ongoing update of Nixa’s parks master plan and a new long-term comprehensive plan that will commence later this year.

“It’s a great time for us as we’re experiencing this type of growth to continue to plan, not only for the near future but the distant future,” City Administrator Jimmy Liles said. “We keep calling this the year of planning.”

The city has invested roughly $14,000 in the Imagine Nixa process, said Drew Douglas, public information officer. That includes marketing efforts and a website, ImagineNixa.com, which went live Feb. 11. Public input is sought through May 17 in such categories as community safety, infrastructure and ways to ensure a sustainable local economy. 

Steady growth
Residents can add comments to the online discussion forums, along with thoughts to what city officials are calling a digital “wall of ideas.” Nearly 120 ideas, including a drop-off recycling center, additional sidewalks and more public art, had been posted on the website as of March 5.

“We’ve got a couple hundred people who have commented on the site so far, and we’d really like to get into the thousands,” Douglas said, adding input received will go toward crafting the strategic plan this summer. “If we can get 5%-10% of the population involved in the process, that would be really great.”

That’d be between 1,100 and 2,100 people, based on Nixa’s 2018 population estimate of 21,868 from the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of residents in the Christian County town has increased 15% from its 2010 census population of 19,022.

“We’re staying at a very strong, steady growth rate,” said Liles, who’s doing his first long-term planning for the city after a promotion from police chief in September 2018. “I don’t see that slowing down in the near future.”

Assistant City Administrator Doug Colvin, who also serves as director of Nixa Utilities and Public Works, projects the population will eclipse 23,000 when the 2020 census is released. He said the city has completed necessary utility master planning to prepare.

“The big growth has been single-family residential,” Liles added, pointing to the city’s residential permits exceeding 200 in each of the past three years. 

Permits for both 2018 and 2019 were right around 250.

“That’s kind of our sweet spot, so to speak,” he said. “We can manage that growth very well and keep up with the infrastructure needs.”

Officials say the southwest part of town has the most potential for growth, primarily because of land availability. The city is butting against Ozark on the east side, while the north is pretty well filled with residential developments.

Former state Sen. Jay Wasson has been both a developer and a city official, serving as Nixa mayor from 1997-2002. He said as mayor, the city would typically react to a developer’s plans and try to figure out how to get utilities to them. He’s impressed with the city’s proactive approach to get utilities to properties before they’re even developed. 

“It’s a different feel,” he said. “Now, there’s some planning involved and more thought.”

Project progress
Wasson said most of the 200 acres he once owned in the city along Highway 160, north of Highway 14, has been developed. Roughly 170 acres is single-family residential housing, but an additional 5 acres got a new commercial purpose late last year. 

CoxHealth purchased the acreage from Wasson for an undisclosed price to build a $10 million, 30,000-square-foot “super clinic,” according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The clinic will have primary and urgent care services, pediatric offices and physical therapy.

Dirt work is in progress at the site, with J.E. Dunn Construction Co. serving as general contractor. The facility is expected to open this fall. 

CoxHealth currently operates a clinic in Nixa, but Liles said the new one will expand services, add jobs and save residents trips to Springfield for health care. The new clinic will have a staff of 65, up from the existing clinic’s roughly 30, according to CoxHealth spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell.

“It’s going to be close to where people live,” Liles said.

The future clinic site isn’t the only spot in town where dirt’s moving.

DeWitt & Associates Inc. is in the midst of a $6.3 million remodeling project at Nixa High School’s Eagle Stadium. The bleachers have been removed as seating will nearly double to 3,500 and a new concession area is underway, said Zac Rantz, spokesman for Nixa Public Schools.

“Later this spring is where people will see some vertical construction at the stadium,” he said, noting a summer completion.

It’s one of several projects the school district has on the docket for the next couple of years. Last April, voters approved a $15 million bond issue along with a 41-cent tax levy increase for teacher salaries, as well as construction and renovation projects, according to past SBJ reporting. 

Rantz said the stadium upgrades and classroom additions for Century Elementary School are funded through the bond, and the levy increase will pay for a performing arts center to be constructed on the high school campus. The work at Century Elementary will go out for bid later this spring, he said, adding the performing arts center is in the beginning design stages. Estimated costs for the two projects are still being finalized.

“All our demographics are showing we’re going to continue to grow,” Rantz said.

According to the school district website, total student enrollment as of December 2019 was 6,485, up 2.6% from the end of the 2018-19 school year.

Liles said feedback received for Imagine Nixa should naturally lead into the comprehensive plan work set before year’s end. 

“Community input is vital anytime you’re looking at the future and what citizens want and need,” Liles said.