At a July 3 meeting of the Springfield City General Government Subcommittee, members agreed to recommend that two ordinance amendments be sent to the full City Council to reflect that zoning code enforcement falls under the chief development officer and to update a fee table and zoning-definition language accordingly.

The changes covered Chapter 1, Article 5, Section 1–25 of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Springfield and an amendment to Article 2, Section 2.2 of the city zoning ordinance. "Zoning code enforcement is moving over to the office of planning and economic development," said Tim, Chief Development Officer, explaining the proposed relocation and the goal of improving coordination between planning staff and neighborhood councils.

Attorney Tom Moore described the package as "a housekeeping measure of sorts, what we're doing with the ordinances to match up to what the special act was," referencing the legislative reorganization that created the community development office. The men said the changes are intended to align the city ordinances with the structure established by Chapter 468 of the Acts of 2008, which created the director of community development position and placed planning, code enforcement and related functions under that office.

Committee members asked whether the move represented an operational change or mainly a statutory cleanup. Tim said the reporting structure has been under the director since the control board era and that what is changing now is staff location and ordinance language: code enforcement staff will be relocated from the building department into the Office of Planning and Economic Development (OPED) so they are physically in the same office as planning staff. Tom Moore and Tim said the budget transfer for staffing had already occurred and that the amendments were intended to remove ambiguity for appeals and administrative clarity.

After discussion the subcommittee voted to forward both items to the City Council. The meeting chair recorded the voice vote in favor: "All in favor is aye." The subcommittee noted the items will be presented to the Council chambers on July 14.

The changes described are procedural and, according to presenters, do not change day-to-day enforcement personnel or processes; they add the director of community development (also referred to as the chief development officer) to the list of officials authorized in the zoning-enforcement language to remove any doubt in appeals or challenges.

Next steps identified by the subcommittee were forwarding the two ordinance amendments to the full council agenda and having proponents appear at the July 14 Council meeting to explain the changes.