Now what?

It’s been a little over a week since Question 1 was on the ballot. From all the interactions I have had, as well as the wave of social media chatter it was clear that the ‘no’ vote was split among those who probably voted no the first time, but also adding some folks who have questioned our priorities, as well as some that are not happy with the transparency and starting to not trust their city government. I’ve accepted the results of the vote as a challenge to continue working on engagement of individuals and stakeholders in our community to build a movement looking toward the next phase of growth for our city, without the proposed event and convention facility.

Looking back, we have had several growth periods in our city. Starting in with the post WWII industrial recruitment (‘40’s-60’s) when the chamber of commerce leaders attracted manufacturers like Lily Tulip, Kraft and Zenith among others. As a result, railroad and transportation also contributed to the growth. As a result Springfield surpassed Joplin as the SW Missouri growth city. Then came Eds and Meds period (higher ed and medical facilities 60’s-80s) then Retail and Regional services (70’s-90s); then Bass Pro’s explosion (90’s-2000’s) including the Wonders of Wildlife Museum which started branding our region as an outdoor destination; then the Downtown Revitalization (90’s - 2000’s) with public and private investment in downtown. The last big single investment that has been made was in the new SGF airport terminal in 2009. And now the leaders wish they had built it bigger.

So now what? Well, I say forge ahead with a strategic growth plan anyway.

The event and convention center would have been a great start to spur other opportunities. But that was just one in a chain of events that we can still continue to push toward. Our plan must include economic and job growth as well as a housing strategy. We are already working toward a new industrial park to continue attracting those types of jobs. Investment in neighborhoods, parks and trails. Since we are a core city, a housing strategy needs to include planning inside the city limits as well as collaboration with our surrounding communities.

The consultant we hired to help with Forward SGF and the new zoning code gave us some other clues as well. Because we are bounded by a city limit that is fairly locked in place, we need to look at how we increase our ‘yield per acre’ within that boundary. And he also pointed out that 24% of our city is paved parking lots, a very high ratio. What if we converted some of that underutilized parking area into productive mixed use development working toward increasing our sales and property taxes as well as housing units? And by going vertical (multi-story) instead of horizontal we are decreasing the need for stormwater infrastructure. He also did the math on how trees also reduce the impact of stormwater.

Through the Finance and Administration Committee, we are currently working on a strategy to increase the availability of affordable housing in our community. There is a pilot program in place to improve the quality of rental housing in older neighborhoods. RestoreSGF is working on helping homeowners with their improvements as well.

For neighborhoods, parks and trails the city has allocated $1 million through the SpringForward tax initiative to develop long range plans for all 24 neighborhood associations and 5 parks. This will yield a series of potential projects that can be funded through the remaining years of the SpringForward tax.

And of course we need to continue strengthening downtown and C-Street. Downtown has become a strong arts, entertainment and educations destination with a full array of performance venues, minor league baseball, fine dining and casual restaurants and cafes, corporate offices as well as universities (MSU, Drury and OTC) and the Discovery School. C street has burgeoned with shops and ethnic cuisine. Connecting these two areas with further development and shuttle style transportation along Booneville will expand the boundaries and vision for ‘downtown’. Higher density along arterial corridors as well as in and around downtown will make our city more accessible by foot, bicycle and transit.

All these things combined will lead us toward a better, stronger, more connected Springfield.

So you see, I still see a path for a better community. In order for this to be successful, we need to build better engagement with our citizens. I invite you to join me on this journey and help me spread the word. Feel free to email Bruce.Adib.Yazdi@SpringfieldMO.gov me or call or text at 417-371-1343