Springfield staff propose zoning rewrite to open more sites for housing, lower commercial requirements
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Summary
City planners presented draft code amendments that would allow more multiunit housing across Main Street, South Bay and climate‑friendly overlay areas, lower some ground‑floor commercial requirements and raise minimum densities; TAC members urged clarifications on frontage, small‑lot feasibility and industrial adjacency.
Springfield planning staff on Tuesday presented draft zoning and code amendments aimed at boosting housing production by making mixed‑use and commercial districts more permissive for multiunit housing. Haley Campbell, senior planner and project manager, said the city needs about 470 new homes a year to meet state targets and that current code barriers — including where housing is allowed, height and setback rules and large ground‑floor commercial requirements — are slowing development.
Campbell said the changes respond to a Cascadia Partners code audit that found housing is often not allowed as a standalone use in many mixed‑use and commercial districts, and that existing development standards make mixed‑use projects economically infeasible. "We need 470 new homes every year to meet state targets," Campbell said, adding the draft would permit standalone multiunit housing on parcels under one acre that front local or collector streets along Main Street and the South Bay corridor.
Under the proposal, neighborhood commercial areas across the city would allow mixed‑use development; the city would also apply minimum density standards where housing is permitted (15 units per acre in mixed‑use, 20 units per net acre for standalone multiunit). Staff said allowable heights and lot coverage would be increased in selected districts and the current 50‑foot step‑down where a commercial district abuts residential would be reduced to 25 feet in order to create more buildable area.
The package would consolidate several districts into a new Mixed‑Use Employment (MUE) district to replace Booth Kelly and other light‑industrial/community commercial districts. Campbell said the MUE would keep ground floor uses primarily commercial or industrial — retaining a 60% ground‑floor commercial benchmark in that district — while allowing residential above the ground floor. "We're allowing housing there now, but we typically want it on the second story," she said.
Staff proposed lowering the ground‑floor commercial requirement in many mixed‑use commercial areas from 60% to 30% of the ground‑floor or 10,000 square feet (whichever is less) to reduce the cost pressure on mixed‑use projects. TAC members pushed back that small, narrow downtown lots might struggle to meet square‑footage or percentage tests and suggested additional frontage‑based measures for narrow buildings.
Several members flagged feasibility concerns about the minimum density rules on small downtown lots. "That 20 units per net acre is going to be tricky on a small site," one member said, and staff acknowledged they would rely on conversions and flexibility in application to avoid unduly preventing incremental infill.
The package includes objective design standards to satisfy state rules (building orientation, limiting surface parking between buildings and streets) and a code cleanup to simplify long, fragmented permitted‑use tables. Staff said they plan to take policy questions to City Council and the Planning Commission in December and to continue drafting through 2025 into 2026 before beginning a formal adoption process.
Next steps: staff will present policy options to City Council and Planning Commission for direction; public hearings and formal adoption are expected to start in 2026.