Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Springfield TAC weighs code changes to allow more housing in mixed‑use and Climate Friendly Areas
Summary
At its third meeting, Springfield planning staff proposed code amendments to permit more multi‑unit housing in commercial and Climate Friendly Areas, reduce some ground‑floor commercial requirements, and offer a new “commercial‑ready” option. TAC members raised questions about frontage rules, auto‑oriented uses, industrial adjacency and minimum densities.
Haley Campbell, the city’s senior planner and project manager for the Housing and Design project, presented draft zoning changes at the Technical Advisory Committee’s third meeting, arguing the amendments would remove barriers to housing supply while preserving commercial and industrial land. "We need 470 new homes every year to meet state targets," Campbell told the TAC, citing the project’s housing‑need analysis.
The package would allow standalone multi‑unit housing in more locations — notably along Main Street and the South Bay corridor — for parcels under one acre that front on local or collector streets, and would expand housing opportunities inside Climate Friendly Areas (CFAs) on sites that do not front on arterials. Chelsea Hartman, a senior planner leading the CFA work, said the Booth Kelly Mixed Use District in downtown would be rezoned to a Mixed Use Employment (MUE) district and that the CFA approach aims to permit more housing "outside of the arterial."
Staff offered three ways to meet a new ground‑floor commercial expectation in mixed‑use areas: a minimum of 30% of a building’s ground‑floor area (or…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
