courtroom_spring_Hill_boma
By David Walsh

By MATT BLOIS

The Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen is considering a major zoning change that could slow down development. The proposal would prohibit housing in two of the city’s business districts.

Some of the city’s zoning districts currently allow housing. The change would remove high density housing from two zoning districts.

At a work session on Monday night, several developers told the board that removing housing from commercial districts could discourage walkable neighborhoods. Jeff Heinze, a project manager for Catalyst Design Group, is working on a housing project in a business district. 

“The mixing of residential and commercial uses keeps trips off major arterial roadways,” he said. “Kids to soccer at the park, picking up dry cleaning, picking up medicine. The more that you can have those things within potentially walkable distance, bikable distance helps.”

Developer John Maher said that he was frustrated by the proposal because he said attracting commercial development requires residential development.

“You’re not going to have the commercial development without my residential development,” he said. “It takes both. You’ve got to have both sides of the equation to make it happen.

Mayor Rick Graham said that the city had already given out more than 250 building permits in 2018, and he wanted to find a way to slow some of the growth. He said removing housing from those business districts would be one way to do that.

Alderman Vincent Fuqua said he was open to requiring a percentage of commercial development in those business districts, rather than an outright ban. He encouraged both developers and the people living in Spring Hill to look at this proposal with an open mind.

The board would likely vote on the resolution in May.

The Planning Commission will vote on the Unified Development Code, a major overhaul to the city’s zoning ordinance, in May. Then, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen will vote.