Springfield is updating city development code soon. Here are some key changes

Work on a new and updated City Code has been ongoing for months behind the scenes as the city hopes to align codes and land use with the new Forward SGF Comprehensive Plan.

Urban planning firm Multistudio, along with Urban3, has been tasked with leading the effort to update the development code. Multistudio Vice President Chris Brewster presented general changes the new code could include as well as areas which still need guidance from leadership to Springfield City Council on Tuesday. The last time the Springfield land development code underwent a comprehensive update was in 1995.

The goal of the updates is to implement principles and policy recommendations outlined in Forward SGF and support development in the city that benefits both Springfield's fiscal health and quality of place for its residents. The biggest influences from Forward SGF are a focus on beautification, diversifying the city's housing, and improving neighborhood vitality and walkability. The goal is also to clean up processes outlined by the code, allow for more flexibility in uses and streamline certain procedures that currently can take months and be confusing.

The main change overall is a shift to an approach that is design- and context-based and takes scale, form and intensity into account over use, as is the norm now. Here are some of the key changes Brewster presented Tuesday.

Emphasis on frontage, building design

Both for residential and nonresidential developments, the new code is focused on design and the way the buildings look from the street. For residential developments, three frontage types are proposed — terrace, center-city neighborhood and suburban. These would be dependent on the placetype, street type and building type.

While residential developments currently are controlled by density, or dwelling units per acre, the new code instead would take a building type approach based on scale and size. It would also give more flexibility for "missing middle housing," or housing that falls in between large apartment complexes and single-family homes and that the city is currently lacking. Brewster said the new code could encourage courtyard, accessory dwelling unit and cluster developments for various lot sizes that under the current code would be much harder or impossible to develop.

For nonresidential developments, the new code would "dramatically consolidate" the current 16 zoning districts and create a new mixed-use district for potential corridor redevelopment. Brewster also noted that the new code will tie districts and design standards to the placetypes designated in the comprehensive plan.

Tree preservation

As part of landscaping, buffers and site design, the new code could also include tree preservation standards.

In the presentation, tree preservation would be tiered based on location and size outlining how removal of certain trees would have to be mitigated.

Brewster said some of the logistics pertaining to the applicability, documentation, approach and how to enforce and penalize violations would have to be worked out and considered in order to include tree preservation in the new code.

Revamping the Conditional Overlay District process

Conditional Overlay Districts allow for additional limits to be placed on top of a zoning. This often includes establishing more stringent design requirements, prohibiting certain uses and creating buffers for neighborhoods. Brewster said the current COD process is widely overused and difficult to administer in the long run. In fact, a large portion of rezonings in front of council include a COD.

"[We're] trying to reduce the frequency of these individual sites that we feel like we have to negotiate every single site independently, and 90% of what we negotiate on every site is the same," Planning & Development Director Steve Childers said. "The design standards could be in the zoning district ... because we negotiate the same exact things on every single site or the majority of the sites, and we could just use those design standards."

With the new code, the COD process could be changed completely. Heavy on design, the new code would establish more detailed standards for zoning districts — addressing what CODs usually would accomplish earlier on, more consistently and on a larger scale. Under the code worked on by Multistudio, CODs would be a way for developers who know exactly what they want to build to speed up the process by submitting a binding site plan and skipping ahead for administrative approval, Childers said, without having to go through the Planning & Zoning Commission and council.

CODs do not require a site plan now; the new process would more closely mimic the current Planned Development process, though that is still required to head through the legislative channels. PDs Brewster said would be reformed for larger projects.

Some council members expressed concern with the shift with CODs, wary that it would take away from the active role neighborhoods have performed with rezonings in the past, but topics often at the crux of developer-neighborhood tensions would be addressed through design and performance standards.

"Part of raising expectations is a two-way street. It's letting neighbors know that, 'Hey, some of these issues you're concerned about are addressed through performance standards and site standards.' It's also letting developers know that if you hit those targets, you're going to get approved, and what the neighbors say isn't as big a concern, because we know we have standards backing that up," Brewster said. "So, it's 'trust the process and trust the standards' more than 'commit to negotiating everything on a binding site plan on every site.'"

The Conditional Use Permit process, one that allows for discretionary review of a request of a use, would also be adjusted to end with P&Z, where now these requests have to receive council approval. Appeals would still allow a request to go to council. Councilman Brandon Jenson said he felt this process could work and more faith had to be put in P&Z to make the appropriate decisions.

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The draft is expected to be completed within the month, followed by a series of public engagements until the end of the year. While the code is on track to be adopted at the beginning of 2025, it will not be in full effect until June 1, 2025, to allow for code testing and minor adjustments.

"We want to have a period of trial and error," Childers said. "We want to be able to submit our applications so that we can make sure that we know what we adopted and that you know how to work with the new adopted code, so during maybe a six-month period, we're receiving applications that we're vetting both through the existing code as well as the new one."

Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Have feedback, tips or story ideas? Contact her at mmieze@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield is updating city development code soon. Here are some key changes