Design standards approved by Springdale City Council

Planning Commission recommended ‘form-based code’

SPRINGDALE — The city’s downtown area now has design standards after receiving approval from the City Council during Tuesday’s meeting.

The council approved the design standards — called “form-based code” — with a vote of 6-1. Alderman Jim Reed motioned to declare it an emergency so it becomes effective immediately. Only Alderman Mike Overton dissented. The code was recommended by the Planning Commission during a March 7 meeting.

Overton pressed Patsy Christie, director of Planning and Community Development, and Misty Murphy, executive director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance, about property owner rights.

“I get concerned when

individual property rights have to be subverted to the community,” Overton said. “The only heartburn I have is when a committee is going to tell somebody what they can or cannot do if they own a piece of property downtown.”

Downtown development plans will have to be submitted to the Planning and Community Development office and reviewed by the Technical Plat Review Committee to make sure they conform to standards, but property owners can ask for a deviation, Christie said.

Carol Kendrick, who lives in the 600 block of Shiloh Street, expressed reservations similar to Overton’s earlier this month.

“As a long-term resident in downtown Springdale who has gone to considerable labor and expense to make our property in downtown Springdale attractive, extra regulations would be a disincentive for me,” Kendrick said. “I’m more motivated by my own sense of beauty than regulations crafted by an architectural firm in St. Louis.”

The code gives guidance for development, not restriction, and was driven by the Downtown Springdale Alliance, not the city, Planning Commission Chairman Kevin Parsley said before the March 7 meeting. Murphy described the alliance as a 15-member task force of downtown business owners and people involved in downtown real estate. The alliance met over six months last year and reviewed the code.

H3 Studios, a St. Louis architectural firm, created the code. The firm also developed the city’s downtown plan. City leaders have frequently described code as a continuation of the plan. In the introduction of code, it’s stated the code was “designed to foster a setting for economic growth and development in a sustainable mixed-use pattern integrating residential with employment and commercial uses as well as civic and recreational opportunities.”

Christie said the code isn’t a perfect document and will be shaped over time.

The code is focused on the exterior aesthetics of homes, businesses and municipal buildings between Huntsville and Caudle avenues, and Thompson Street and Old Missouri Road.

“It’s the same area as the (downtown) master plan,” Mayor Doug Sprouse said.

Current structures would be grandfathered, but if a business or homeowner makes a change to a structure they must conform to the code, Christie said.

“If you’re building something new, you have to meet the standards,” Christie said.

The proposed code requires developments on Emma Avenue be at least two stories tall. The change will maximize space as square footage and land are selling at a premium, Murphy said.

Also, new buildings on Emma Avenue within the area designated as neighborhood center type 1, which for Emma goes from Shiloh Street to Berry Street, aren’t allowed to have a first-floor residence; a commercial space must be on the first floor.

The code changes the way the downtown develops, Murphy said.

“We made sure it fit the character of Springdale and where we see it going,” she said.

The proposed code requires developments on Emma Avenue be at least two stories tall.