LunchVox: Development Unpacked

On February 14^th, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce gathered a group of over 70 attendees for a lunch filled with conversation, chocolates, and discussion around development. This was our first LunchVox of 2020, titled “Development Unpacked”, in a quarterly series located at the Hilton Garden Inn. Speaking to the topics of land use and the evolving Springfield Development code, were experts in the field including Phil Farrington, Director of Planning and Real Estate at CDC Management Corporation, John Brown, Broker with Evans, Elder, Brown & Seubert, and Mark Rust, Planner at the City of Springfield. 

Presenting on their vastly different experiences around development, our panel of speakers, facilitated by Phil Farrington, spoke to the effects that land use laws and Springfield’s own development code can have on the future of development here in our community. From zoning, to urban growth boundaries, to comprehensive planning, these topics, as well as the future of the development code, will have implications on property values, investment within the City of Springfield, and the overall image of our community, making this LunchVox program particularly interesting for not only the business community, but the community as a whole. 

Phil Farrington, began the program with a high level overview of the history of land use, where we then heard from John Brown on his experiences and perspectives of the barriers that these laws can have on business development, to then hear from Mark Rust on the hope that the evolving development code could provide Springfield as a whole, thanks to the work of the City of Springfield. With more questions from the audience than we could get through with the time allotted, it was clear that this presentation was one that folks were exceedingly interested in.

Thank you to Chambers Construction, for sponsoring our entire LunchVox program for 2020, and thank you to all of those who attended the first program in this quarterly series, we hope you not only left with a chocolate for the road and a Chamber’s Construction tape measure, but with knowledge around land use and development in and around our Springfield community.

If you are interested in applying to be on the Technical Advisory Committee to provide input on and make recommendations for changes to Springfield’s Development Code click here https://www.springfield-or.gov/city/city-managers-office/boards-commissions-and-committees/