SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – There was another major step forward for the Grant Avenue Parkway project this week when the Springfield City Council approved tax abatements along the corridor as a way to encourage property owners to make improvements.
The Grant Avenue Parkway project was originally approved by the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission in March, 2021, to connect downtown Springfield to the Bass Pro-Wonders of Wildlife area with a pedestrian and bike-friendly corridor along a section of town where consultants said 93 percent of the 699 pieces of property had some type of blighting factor.
The cost of redeveloping and improving the roads and infrastructure will be around $25 million.
“Just the public investment alone might not be enough,” Springfield Economic Vitality Senior Planner Matt Schaefer said of the need for the private sector to get involved by improving homes and yards as well. “Therefore another way we can help redevelopment move along is to provide some incentive for private property owners.”
That incentive, approved by the City Council, is to offer tax abatements to property owners along the corridor.
There are two types of abatements available under Missouri law.
Chapter 99 freezes property taxes for a period of up to 10 years, preventing property tax rate increases.
Chapter 353 is 100 percent abatement for 10 years and 50 percent abatement for the next 15 years.
City planners explained the Chapter 99 abatement is geared more towards single-family home owners while the Chapter 353 abatement is more for bigger developers. There is a fee for filing a tax abatement request and the Springfield Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority is in charge of reviewing and approving or denying the requests.
“So owners would continue to pay their property taxes as they are right now,” Schaefer said. “But if you do a major rehabilitation or redevelopment the new taxes, which are most likely going to be higher, are abated.”
Candace Faith Fruje’ owns three houses, two duplexes and one commercial building along the corridor and wishes the city would have gone even further by waiving property taxes entirely.
“If owners were to receive a tax abatement on their existing property tax then that money could be designated to raise their property appearance to put it in line with the Grant Avenue Parkway improvements,” she pointed out. “I don’t know if I’ll seek the abatements because it costs several hundred dollars to apply for them and my property taxes aren’t that high to make it worth my while to pay the fee.”
Schaefer said waiving property taxes entirely was not an option.
“The way the laws are structured that’s not feasible,” he said in explaining that Chapter 99 and Chapter 353 are the only two forms of abatement allowed under Missouri law.
In the meantime as you walk along Grant Avenue you will notice a lot of homes are already being upgraded without the tax incentives. But that brings up another concern that’s been raised ever since the project was announced.
Will the improvements being done to housing along the corridor force renters to move out of places they can’t afford anymore?
Candace admits she had to displace renters when she purchased her homes and started remodeling them.
“Yes, people had to move out but the conditions they were living in were horrible,” she explained. “One of the houses was deemed a dangerous building and a couple of them were among the worst in the neighborhood. That’s why I started it. I want to save these historic homes.”
“Yes, there are some concerns about promoting redevelopment,” Schaefer added. “That it may result in higher rents which may price some residents out. But that is something we do not want. We want this to benefit the existing residents.”
And Candace says it has benefitted existing residents in terms of improving the neighborhood’s environment.
“We’ve had thefts and drug problems in the area,” she said. “But that’s been improving and everyone, both tenants and home owners, are happy about that.”
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