When Your Plate is Too Full

October 8, 2025

by Donna Hemann

Monday, October 6th, at 6:30pm, University Heights residents gave speeches before City Council to avert spot zoning and a catalyst that intends to topple homes all along Sunshine and National. Speakers presented insight and winning arguments, bringing to light nuances not previously presented in public hearings. Soon, City Council's vote will influence what happens next.

If our quiet, residential neighborhood with the feel of yesteryear were to be a construction site for the next two decades, with shoddily constructed duplexes (as is the trend around these parts) and parking lots lining our borders, would it be the end of the world, as a crass Planning and Zoning Commissioner asked during the last hearing? No. It wouldn't be. It would be the end of something great, though. The end of a special kind of beauty and peace. The end of rock-solid integrity for a neighborhood which has stayed current by accepting the City's 'annexation' of massive commercial development from Kimbrough to Campbell as a 'trade' for being a City-recognized Neighborhood Association, but remained historic by preserving its original residential core. The end would be of something unique and valuable in Springfield.

The arguments presented in defense of our integrity are firm and factual. Commercial development covering the eight BK&M properties, which the company intends to flip, would put a major traffic burden into and around our neighborhood. More intense traffic is not good. And do we need another dentist office? There's one across the street. Medical clinics? We're surrounded by them. Fast food? Drowning in them. Hotel? Two blocks away. Do we need anything more than we need our current strong property values, clean streets, and peaceful enjoyment of our property to use a public policy term. The City’s Comprehensive Plan stresses that any re-zoning must serve the neighborhood and satisfy the requirement of "a compelling reason to rezone." I would be frightened to live in a world in which people would argue that there is a compelling reason to turn the two houses at the end of my street into a parking lot. The truth is, BK&M's full plate of homes is not some corner as the slight-of-hand language describes it, but something that stretches two blocks, one to the west and one to the north, spilling over into the laps of folks living on the neighborhood's first interior street past Sunshine.

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The on-going Sunshine Corridor Study provides insight about the characteristics of Sunshine Street and into what Springfieldians really want for it. The researchers, known as the Advisory Team, acknowledge the importance of the "residential node" on Sunshine, which includes our south border from National to Sunshine Elementary School. Their study finds "an obvious overabundance of grey" (referring to businesses and parking lots), and that Springfield has "more retail than there is buyer demand and spending." It reports public feedback, which emphasizes a desire for "green space, quality of place, traffic and pedestrian safety." It seems Springfield supports what University Heights has to offer, and that University Heights is fulfilling our community's end goals.

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I spent my early years in Illinois. Our first home was in Bensenville, a village 17 miles northwest of Chicago and known for its vibrant mix of quiet neighborhoods and bustling business districts. I remember the magic of it. With large yards where deer grazed regularly, our street was named "Deerpath Road." My family's next home was in another Chicago suburb aptly called "Wood Dale" for its 185 acres of Wood Dale Grove forest preserves and 97.5 acres of Salt Creek Park Forrest Preserve. In Wood Dale I joined the "Indian Princesses," which was a YMCA program for fathers and daughters to strengthen bonds and learn values such as honor, respect and community through service work and camping. The program evolved from an Indian Guides program started in 1926 by Harold S. Keltner of the St. Louis, Missouri YMCA with the assistance of his friend Joe Friday, an Ojibwa Indian. Ojibwa told Keltner, "The Indian father teaches his son to hunt, track, fish, walk softly in the forest, understand the purpose and meaning of life and everything he must know." The two friends collaborated to form a father-son program based on American Indian life and their values of dignity, patience, endurance, spirituality, respect for nature, and family. After World War II, the program's success led to the formation of the father-daughter Indian Princesses program. The values I learned from the program sunk deeply into me and lead me still.

Growing up close to nature, but only a five dollar train ride into the City where we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, where big sister and I studied dance, attended the Ice Capades and ate at Pizzeria Uno, the birthplace of deep dish pizza, was the foundation of my appreciation of two worlds--the wild world of nature and the peopled world of fascinating history, art and great food. The museums strengthened my appreciation of the natural world, and the abundance of art, music, different cultures, restaurants and ideas made me enthralled with what big cities have to offer.

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My husband found our home in University Heights. Where it sits is a big departure from the southeast side of town where I've lived since moving to Missouri, but the house reminded me of my final home in the Chicago area, an historic French Normandy in the village of Oak Park, which was also home to Frank Llyod Wright (along with the largest collection of his structures) and Ernest Hemingway. Both my Oak Park home and our University Heights home have a thick, wood front door, plaster walls, pretty staircases, and fine mouldings. Both are beautiful, exist in neighborhoods with notable architecture, and the University Heights house is close to MSU, my husband's favorite sports hub! So I said yes.

Here we are, five years later, dealing with a zoning issue that has plagued us for nearly all of the time we've lived here. If certain aspiring developers have their way, our core neighborhood could lose its peacefulness, safe interior streets, and most importantly, it's alluring balance of being a green haven near, but not too near, the good, the bad and the ugly of commercialization, such as intense traffic, fast food and vape shops, but also exciting venues, entertainment and shopping.

Please continue to support our goal of preserving the original core of our heritage neighborhood. Do so by sending letters to City Council, the City Manager and Mayor. Write letters to local news publications. Tell your friends about our situation and ask for their support. We would like the men who want their first development experience to be ending our 100 year historic legacy to keep the homes they own in the residential real estate market. The homes can be privately owned--the two on E. University being particularly attractive to would-be homeowners due to their location--or continue as rentals. Rentals for travelling nurses or other health care workers are becoming popular along Sunshine. Our Board members are now owners of several of these properties.

The BK&M 'parking lot' which used to be houses can be purchased by the City to improve the turn lane, with the remaining portion serving as buffer-enhancing green space. It's not our job to assist BK&M in handling the financial parameters of its speculation, but if a real estate investment becomes a loss because of zoning, speculators can write off the loss in many cases, particularly when the property is sold or abandoned.

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City Council votes at its October 20th meeting. The public is welcome. Maybe we are entering a new era in which we revitalize commercial zones along Sunshine, and elsewhere, while preserving residential nodes. That sounds like enlightened thinking. That sounds likes good policy making. That sounds like balance.

Below are some feel good comments about this issue from a KY3 story that followed the City Council hearing. I find that public commentary is typically heavily in our favor.
By the way, I loved that house in Oak Park. It was closer to busy thoroughfares than my previous childhood homes and less near woods and other voices of nature, but I found ways to stay connected to what I loved. I played outside on vacant lots and made mud casseroles. In those days we played outside a lot and kept our hands busy absent electronic devices. And I made friends with the animals that were around. A squirrel I named Charlie followed me to my second story bedroom window one day by climbing a tree and hopping onto the green canvass awning. Of course I let him in. Boy was my dad up in arms about that. Out Charlie went. I really loved that squirrel.

KY3 by KY3 Staff, Oct. 6, 2025, 9:08pm
On-Line Public Comments

Donna Dinger - This area should be protected as an historic area.

Walt Rose - Just build residential homes. Next time research plans instead of thinking residents will immediately roll over or the City will steam roller over public sentiments.

Eli Duvall - Make them turn it back into residential housing or a public park. That is all it should have ever been or ever should be. There is no need for another hotel in this town, especially not in one of the ONLY historic neighborhoods in town that has been kept up over the years. They should quit attempting to gerrymander zoning for already rich people. Build something that actually benefits the community and the people living in it. Just a thought.

Jennifer Skyles - Bottom line is, it's a residential area because people have their homes there. It should stay a residential area.

J Karl Lipscomb - Maybe we need to consider that not all intersections of major 'thoroughfares' need to be Drive-To places. Perhaps we can comfortably live with some Drive-Through intersections?

Rick Keesee - Shouldn't have bought it if you're not gonna build a house. Plenty of space to grow that's not on that corner. These investors thought all their money and might would outweigh residents' concerns. Been one heck of a fight so far.

Jimmy Barnes - What would be best for Springfield would be to keep these lots vacant and not cause more traffic at that intersection.

Linda Goodson - How about a pretty park with a big fountain? But that's not a big money maker for the owner...

Melody Stout - That intersection is too busy. Needs to be a clean space whatever is put in.

Kaylinn Diehls - ew. We don't need more traffic there. This is going to cause too many issues. Including cost, construction time, and no relative use to the city's residents.

Darren Williams Jr. - Turning that intersection into anything other than what it is is beyond stupid. Turn that vacant lot into something like a park and leave the houses up. Let's not make that intersection a nightmare please. Signed, someone who lives right around the corner from there and doesn't want to deal with that nightmare...ever.

Nate Love - ...Maybe they'll eventually cut their losses and sell it to a developer who is interested in building homes or community spaces that the residents want and which fit the character and history of the neighborhood.