Creating more affordable and market-rate housing, developing areas currently set aside for surface parking and catering more to walkers and bicyclists are among scores of suggestions in a newly released master plan for downtown Springfield and the Mid-Illinois Medical District.
The costs of those suggestions aren’t included in the 278-page document, the first-ever long-term plan for downtown Springfield and the second such plan for the 21-year-old medical district, immediately north of downtown, since 2005. But the master plan lists a variety of economic development tools and potential partnerships that could help with financing.
The plan’s details and priorities are expected to inform public policy and private development efforts over the next two decades.
Culminating a public process that began three years ago, the plan will be invaluable to secure future outside grant funding, help elected officials direct limited local resources and attract developers to Springfield and the rest of Sangamon County, partners in the master plan said.
“Once you have a plan in place, things can really happen,” John Stremsterfer, president and chief executive officer of the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, told Illinois Times.
“I’ve always felt that resources are out there,” Stremsterfer said. “You just need to convince people that you have a plan that is worthy of those resources, whether it be a private business investing, or a philanthropist, or the government. It’s just hard to see it happen unless you have some kind of strategy on how you’re going to get there.”
Springfield is unusual among midsize and larger Illinois communities not to have a master plan for its downtown, an area that typically serves as a front door to visitors and prospective investors and a source of community pride, according to Abby Powell, director of business development for the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance.
“The master plan is a clear roadmap for future development in downtown Springfield and the Mid-Illinois Medical District, signaling to developers that we are ready and eager to grow,” she said. “Whether it’s a new restaurant, a business supporting the medical industry or multifamily residential development, this plan offers the certainty needed to invest with confidence in Springfield’s future.”
The master plan grew out of a downtown revitalization effort in The Next 10 community visioning initiative that was spearheaded by the Community Foundation. Springfield city government is the lead agency for the plan, in collaboration with the Community Foundation, Growth Alliance, Medical District and Downtown Springfield Inc.
The master plan, guided by Chicago-based urban planning firm Houseal Lavigne, cost $195,000, with $150,000 coming from a state grant and the rest from donations by DSI, the city, Community Foundation, Growth Alliance and Horace Mann Educators Corp.
The plan covers the urban core of Springfield, the study area that is dubbed City Center in the plan document. It is made up of most of the city’s downtown and a portion of the medical district, immediately north of downtown, where economic activity in both sections is the most intense.
Springfield historically has depended on state government to fill up buildings in City Center, “but we can’t really do that anymore,” Powell said. “There’s a contraction in employment at the state, and also people are working at home more and more. You need to have a plan about how we are going to continue to grow our downtown and make it more resilient and economically viable.”
Some key takeaways in the master plan may be surprising to the general public: Springfield is “constricted by the amount of nontaxable land in the study area” – 62% – that is owned by tax-exempt entities. That share in Springfield, one of the nation’s smaller state capital cities, is four or five times greater than in many other midsize and larger cities, Powell said.
Tax-exempt entities in Springfield’s City Center include state government, Springfield Memorial Hospital, HSHS St. John’s Hospital, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and other nonprofits. Though they are some of the largest industries in the city and employ 17,000 people, their land doesn’t generate money through property taxes for units of government in the city.
Stremsterfer said state appropriations for taxing bodies in Springfield are “worth discussing at the Statehouse” to promote the long-term health of the community.
The “significant strain on the tax base” posed by tax-exempt entities, which leads to limited local resources for programs and services, is exacerbated by the “overwhelming amount of land dedicated to parking,” the master plan says.
Parking lots in City Center account for 29% of land area in City Center at a time when occupancy rates for those lots are at historic lows. The situation “further intensifies the lack of a tax base, as those parking lots essentially act as vacant sites,” according to the plan.
Surface parking lots “represent significant development opportunities and should be planned for accordingly,” the plan says.
The state should provide regular funding to hire staff to promote the medical district – similar to the way the Chicago Medical District received state funding for decades, the plan says.
Likewise, the city of Springfield should consider hiring one or more full-time planning and economic development staff members and focus their time on managing City Center, the plan says.
Participants in community feedback sessions as the master plan was being formed said City Center “has not yet realized its potential to become a destination for tourists and residents” by creating a “sense of place.”
The plan says the city’s challenges also include addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness, which would enhance City Center’s ability to attract visitors.
Among other recommendations, the plan says the city should update its 2008 Downtown Design Guidelines for facades and other building features, promote biking to and within City Center with a connected bicycle network, and establish “pedestrian priority streets.”
Plan consultants suggest focusing redevelopment efforts on three potential “catalyst sites” – the Ninth Street/Peoria Road Corridor; Governor’s Mansion Park, the 2.25-acre “Y Block” immediately north of the Governor’s Mansion; and a section of Sixth Street between Carpenter and East Mason streets that could be developed for multifamily housing.
Stremsterfer and Powell said there are many exciting, publicly funded improvements and public-private partnerships that are ongoing. Those projects include the downtown transportation hub, creation of a new home at 401 E. Washington St. for University of Illinois Springfield’s Innovation Center, railroad relocation, future Scheels Sports Park at Legacy Pointe and the potential expansion of the BOS Center.
The master plan, on the other hand, will be helpful to increase private investment in the community, Powell said.
“This provides us a framework to attract developers or communicate what we’d like to see our downtown and our medical district look like and provide some certainty to them that the community is aligned around that vision,” she said.
Val Yazell, director of the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, added: “This is feedback from our community. This is what our community wants.”
Want to learn more?
An open house for members of the public to learn more about the plan will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Memorial Learning Center, 228 W. Miller St., Springfield.
The plan also will be discussed from 8 to 9 a.m. Oct. 25 at the Citizens Club of Springfield meeting, which will be open to the public and held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St., Springfield.
The plan will be presented to the Springfield City Council at its committee-of-the-whole meeting at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in council chambers at Municipal Center West, 300 S. Seventh St.
This article appears in 15 Under Fifteen – 2024.