Rezoning Opposition
September 9, 2025
by Donna Hemann
This Thursday, September 11, University Heights (UH) neighborhood will stand before the Planning and Zoning Commission to again defend itself in a zoning battle with the BK&M corporation. This time, BK&M aims to gain a zoning change but now flip its eight historic properties, selling them to whatever company will pay the most for a chance at commercial profit.
Last week the University Heights Neighborhood Association Board of Directors issued a public statement unanimously opposing the rezoning. We listed many reasons, all of which center on the fact that the rezoning application does not meet the City’s criteria for a compelling reason to re-zone and that the proposal does not reflect the prescriptions or spirit of the Comprehensive Plan, Forward SGF.
One reason for opposition I find particularly compelling, which I have shared in several blogs, is that the area under debate best serves Springfield and the neighborhood by remaining a Green Corridor. Green Corridors are stretches of vegetation that link larger natural areas within cities and University Heights is the cornerstone of one connecting to the Water Wise Garden, Green Space adjacent to Perry Tennis Courts, 30-acre Phelps Grove Park, Fassnight Creek and Fassnight Creek Greenway. It is a green lung, to borrow a fellow Board member’s term, that breathes for the concrete jungle which now surrounds it. Kill it, and you kill a lot of things. This green corridor creates healthy biodiversity, safely supporting people and wildlife in the middle of the City. It yields numerous human health benefits, reduces urban pollution, noise, and flooding in this flood prone area, and arguably the most important benefit: It provides traffic calming for long stretches of Sunshine and National which are now heavily congested and fast moving.
Sometimes, progress is recognizing the value in something, maybe for the first time. We can have revitalization of dilapidated or empty commercial properties surrounding University Heights, in areas already zoned commercial. We can simultaneously preserve UH's small stretch of residential properties on National and Sunshine. This is not an either/or situation; it has been in the past, but progress can now mean that we embrace two opposites at the same time. That's what balance is. That's the nature of good government. Checks and balances. The residential properties owned by the developers that still stand can easily and successfully remain highly desirable housing which will appreciate, not depreciate. Take it from someone with good real estate sense (and a real estate license) and if not from me, take it from the trends and markets at play in this area.
In 2024, a 7-Brew Coffee Shop was approved at the southeast corner of Sunshine and Jefferson, across from a church, school and homes, and a half block from the corner under debate. The approval ended the residential zoning which provided relief for an area with dangerous ingress/egress resulting from rapid and intense commercial development from Jefferson to the west. Shortly after opening, Donald Abraham was killed in a head-on collision in front of that business. He was 54 years old and referred to as “an amazing, kindhearted caring man who would give you the coat off his back even if it was the only coat he had.”
The idea of commercializing University Height’s life-saving green corridor does not consider the reality of the situation. Non traffic creating redevelopment on the land razed by BK&M, such as a park, art installation, or place-making feature for the neighborhood and City, is a sensible, win-win way to go. Changing the zoning would lead to damages that exceed any poorly reasoned, hypothetical benefits, and would likely result in more tragedies. We hope citizens will support what's best for everyone by supporting University Heights in this matter. Write to Planning and Zoning, City Council, newspapers and magazines. Attend the Planning and Zoning and City Council hearings to show your support. The time is right now.
