Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register
Developers succeeded in lobbying for changes to how the city of Springfield approves plans for apartment or office complexes and shopping plazas.
The Springfield City Council increased the size of developments that require council sign-off from any project over 5 acres to any larger than 12 acres, meaning that smaller proposals that don’t need rezoning could skip aldermanic review. All projects would still have to meet building and zoning standards.
Attempts by Mayor Jim Langfelder to keep the threshold at 5 acres and only strike the review process for projects with more than one building on a half-acre failed. As did a suggestion to exempt multi-family residential developments, such as apartment buildings, and storage facilities.
The council approved the measure by a vote of 9-1, after several attempts to tweak it failed. Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin was the lone dissenting vote.
Local developers argued that the additional review was only technical, pointing out that city staff go over all the same standards and that other cities don’t have a comparable process. Meanwhile, representatives from residential groups argued that the move eliminated an avenue for public input into what is constructed in their neighborhoods.
The measure also eliminates the required review process for projects with more than one building on a half-acre, but adds a provision for the public works department to give a monthly report of permit requests to aldermen.
Springfield Coalition of Inner City Older Neighborhoods president Carol Kneedler called the new rules a “hastily conceived idea” and expressed concern over limiting citizens’ opportunity for input.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 