65809 Community Association Presents FOR YOUR INFORMATION #1 Update on the proposed changes to the Sam's/Wal-Mart property #2 Request for zoning variation--Sam's East applicant #3 Annexation updates #4 Lone Pine update #5 School Board Issues #6 Last Area Town Hall Meeting #1 Road Vacation Request Postponed: The road vacation case has been changed to an “administrative sub-division’ process and is scheduled to be heard at P & Z on June 12th. Apparently the administrative sub-division process is something new and will require some efforts to educate ourselves about the process. From what little we have been told, this process could allow many changes to occur “in-house” and, on the surface of things, this does not sound good for the public debate process. We will be working to understand more fully this new process very soon. Please, schedule this night on your personal planning tool so you can attend if necessary. Keep your neighbors informed about these developments. Thus far, we have no information as to what the plans may be for this property. Remember: We may need you and your neighbors on the 12th of June! #2 Variance Request Denied The variance request heard last night at P & Z was a request by Sam’s Club to be relieved of the obligation of putting in sidewalks on their property along Sunshine and Blackman Road. Since the March 11th public exhibit of the plans for improvements to Blackman Road included sidewalks on both sides of Blackman, we have looked forward to having sidewalks along both sides of Blackman Road. The addition of sidewalks in this area is very important from a safety stand point alone. We have many residents who jog and bike Blackman Road as well as students from both Glendale and Catholic High Schools who train for long distance track and other athletics. Barbara Snell from Blackman Woods and I attended to voice object to the variance. P & Z entertained a brief discussion following our case and will be recommending to the City Council that they evaluate the variance policy concerning sidewalks. The recommendation will be that the policy for sidewalks be enforced at the development request stage and that the Planning Dept. has the ability to consistently require sidewalks. Of course, we will support the P & Z and the Council in this effort! #3 Annexation Occurring In Our Area: Recently the City of Springfield has engaged in aggressive annexation efforts. The newer sub-division in the '09 area under what is known as "Developer Agreements" have been annexed. Emerald Park is the exception due to the fact that the earlier section of the sub-division was started before the Developer Agreements were put into place. The City decided not to annex only the southern part (newer part) of the sub-division as previously planned. This was a wise decision. We have been told that a fire call was necessary in the Forest Heights sub-division after they were annexed and that residents were concerned about the time lapse between the time the call went in till the emergency responders were on the scene. Hopefully, the City Fire Dept. will be working to improve the response time. Last night at the P & Z meeting, one of the commissioners asked me if residents of Ridgeview Terrace were willing to be annexed into the city. My reply was that this question will have to be taken to the residents of Ridgeview Terrace for their consideration. Past history of this question has resulted in the City Staff saying that this annexation would be too costly for the City of Springfield. #4 South East Springfield Neighborhood Association and Lone Pine: The residents of SESNA and Southern Hills are about to close on purchasing the land that was the focus of a recent zoning case. The land will be preserved as a park for open green space and will add to the Ozark’s Green Way nature trail in that area. (For more details see our ’03 News Letter #1.) #5 School Board Issues: The Bond passed by a great majority at the election this week. Now, we look forward to some much needed repairs and renovations to our older school buildings. Also, the School Board has agreed to hold back on plans to close some of our neighborhood schools and look at them from the view of “better use” options. They have already done some re-districting that has resulted in relief of some over crowded schools. #6 Councilman John Wylie’s Town Hall Meeting: Last month, John Wylie held a Town Hall Meeting at which residents of our area had an opportunity to meet with the candidates for City Council and the School Board as well as Mr. John Twitty, who is the new head of City Utilities. All school board candidates were present. Bob Jones and Gary Deaver were the only City Council candidates to attend. Mr. Twitty gave an overview of CU plans and needs for the upcoming Bond issue they will be presenting soon. Aleta (887-08267)

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