Members of the Springfield City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission dove into the plans for comprehensive city code updates, the next step of the city’s Forward SGF comprehensive plan, at a June 11 work session.
The code updates will overhaul regulations for development and public infrastructure, and identify alternative development processes to “streamline and increase flexibility, reduce community stress, and deliver more integrated projects with a higher community return.”
While under the purview of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, Multistudio, a design and community planning firm based in Kansas City, and a slate of other architectural and engineering firms have been charged with identifying recommendations for code updates.
“Updating the City’s development codes is a significant step toward implementing numerous recommendations outlined in the comprehensive plan,” said Randall Whitman, the principal planner for the city’s Planning and Neighborhoods Team, in a news release. “Rather than revisiting policy issues and the direction on the type of community Springfieldians want the city to be, this effort will focus on how to implement the guiding principle of quality of place through a regulatory lens.”
Of the 800-plus recommendations of Forward SGF, Whitman said about 200 will be addressed or impacted through code updates, which will also help implement 7 of the comprehensive plan’s 10 initiatives and “move the needle” on “quality of place,” a main theme of the plan.
Updated codes to create certainty, allow flexibility
Whitman said code updates can lead to creation of a predictable, streamlined development process in Springfield, guided by Forward SGF’s emphasis on design rather than on exclusive land use.
“That will hopefully reduce the community stress that development or redevelopment can create that I think we're all feeling,” Whitman said.
The aim is to make the codes user-friendly, promoting civic design and providing predictability and certainty, with some flexibility to allow the codes to be used as decision-making tools, because they can’t “prescribe every solution for every situation.”
The code changes will update subdivision regulations, land development codes, zoning regulations, building codes and design standards. While changes have been made when necessary, Springfield's last comprehensive code update took place in 1995.
Phases from now to late 2024
While a conventional approach might apply changes to regulations as needed, Multistudio is attempting to build in flexibility with regard to design criteria, alternative solutions and exceptions to conform to how the community itself is built.
“One of the biggest things that we want to provide to you is a logical framework to your new document that will allow this document to live on,” said Graham Smith, an associate principal with Multistudio. “It'll allow it to be amended, it’ll allow it to be updated and it’ll allow people to use it in an organized and timely fashion.”
As land-use plays a less significant role, looking at context, scale, form and pattern of development across different typologies will be heavily reflected in the code updates.
“Really, we want to code what matters to the community, so that we ensure the outcomes that will implement the vision of [Forward] SGF,” Smith said.
While Smith said code updates don’t typically require changes to a city charter, he said charter amendment discussions may arise as a result of this project.
The code revision process will be carried out in five phases, with the aim of having code updates adopted by the City Council by the end of 2024.
Council members concerned over flexibility levels
Council members Matthew Simpson and Monica Horton raised concerns over how too much flexibility, or flexibility in certain areas in city codes may create conflict. They said certainty may be able to alleviate conflict.
“There's a kind of trade off between those two, having the flexibility and discretionary decision points can come at the expense of predictability,” Simpson said. “Both are valuable, but we also know that we've seen, I think, in the past, the more of those discretionary decision points we have, the more potential conflict points you have too throughout the process.”
Smith emphasized that flexibility would be built around certainty in the code updates, beginning with “purpose and intent statements,” which can provide flexibility in criteria to meet goals that can’t be met with required standards.
Ultimately, however, he said they’re “just not there yet,” in determining exactly what it will look like.
“I think one of our biggest challenges in any community really, but it sounds like here, as we're changing kind of the way the community looks at development and the way the things that are important about development are on the ground, I think that's going to be a key thing that we're going to have to figure out,” Smith said.
Horton suggested that predictability versus flexibility will be evident through code enforcement and maintenance, due to the varying degree of adherence to certain codes.
Community engagement will continue
While the code revisions will take a page out of the Forward SGF playbook in providing opportunities for public engagement, community interaction will serve a different purpose. Rather than helping create a vision for the next 20 years, discussion and participation among the public will focus on education and implementation.
“At the end of the day, really our guiding principle is going to be implementing [Forward] SGF,” Smith said.
Prior to adoption of code updates, the team drafting recommendations and the city will host engagement opportunities through “place teams” comprised of various stakeholders and representatives to focus on specific components of the project, including neighborhoods, destinations, corridors and employment.
“The key element to the place types is finding or engaging a group that is diverse, and not just neighborhood people in neighborhoods or not just destination folks in the destinations, but really providing a cross section of the community within each one of these groups, so that we can have conversations about all those different elements and how it impacts the users of those different contexts,” Smith said.
An online form is available for individuals interested in participating on one of the teams.
Smith said other opportunities will be available for people who may not want to come to a public meeting, including interviews, focus groups and open houses.
Smith emphasized that people interested in engaging in the process need to bring more than their role as a council member, business owner or citizen, but their perspective and critical eye for the community with a “big picture view.”
