General D council candidates have similar backgrounds, different views

On the surface, citywide council candidates Derek Lee and Bruce Adib-Yazdi have similar backgrounds. Lee is an engineer who has represented many development at city council over the years. Adib-Yazdi is an architect and developer who oversees projects across the country.

But the two candidates for General Seat D have radically different views on how the city should address crime, homelessness and development in Springfield.

Head of Lee Engineering & Associates, Derek Lee often represents developers at neighborhood meeting or before city council. His firm designs "everything outside the building," he said.

"When you hear people say, 'Oh, that building looks really cool,' they're not talking about my stuff. My stuff is the parking lot and the detention basins and the things that make it work," Lee said of his career.

As an architect, Adib-Yazdi does deal with the building itself. Having moved to Springfield in 1990, he had his own architecture firm before helping found the Vecino Group a decade ago. According to its website, the firm hopes to "maximize social impact and respond to broader community needs" in their developments.

Adib-Yazdi is Vice President of Development at the firm, which means he manages development projects and rather than acting as an architect at this point in his career.

"I'm an architect and a real estate developer. I have 20 plus years of architectural practice in Springfield and across the country with several corporate clients," Adib-Yazdi told the News-Leader.

"As an architect, I have a skill set and I have a skill set as a real estate developer. I think those skills can help positively shape the city and implement the Forward SGF comprehensive plan."

Adib-Yazdi has previously served on the Downtown Springfield Association board and as president of Ozark Greenways. He has been endorsed by the Central Labor Committee in his 2023 run.

Lee told the News-Leader he is running because he is "service-oriented" at heart and he has missed representing his clients in-person before council since the pandemic.

"I realized I really missed it. And so, I had a desire to do something a little bit more than what I've been doing in the past. To dedicate some more time to service. And I've always been very involved with my church but I have a unique skill set and I think it can best be utilized by being on city council."

Lee previously applied to be appointed to a city council vacancy in 2018 but was not chosen. In his 2023 run, he has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce-backed Good Government Committee and the Springfield Police Officers Association.

Is city biased for or against developers?

Derek Lee would like to see an overhaul of the city's zoning code to make redevelopment easier and regulation "less onerous" for potential developers.

"I think that redevelopment is an area that most everybody agrees on and we have a bunch of areas in Springfield that were developed over 100 years ago, and they're needing to — some need to be torn down. Some need to be fixed and replaced. And the city makes it very hard to do that," he told the News-Leader.

According to Lee, many of the city's regulations around zoning are still centered around greenfield development. Given Springfield is surrounded on many sides by nearby communities, there is scant empty land in the city yet to be developed. Instead, the city should focus on redevelopment in areas that need revitalization.

"That type of approach literally drives development away from Springfield. And so, we have all these great old corridors that that can be repurposed, if we will work with development a little bit more," he said.

The city often tries to "take whatever it can" from a developer when their project needs rezoning, according to Lee.

"If you change in any way, if you subdivide, if you rezone if you want to change your use — you have to get what's called a conditional use permit. Any the city looks at that as a way to take whatever they want from a developer, whatever they can. Probably not all they want, but whatever they can, and it's gotten too much. I think that some of those things are necessary, but we've gone way too far with it."

Lee recalled his work as an engineer to build several simple subdivisions. The improvements required by the city cost the developer $130,000 and eight months to go through the process. For an identical subdivision by the same developer in Ozark, improvements cost $400 and the process took less than two months.

Lee does not want to "completely eliminate" or "throw away the role of government" but wants to add "some practical things" to "make it easier to develop" in Springfield.

Adib-Yazdi holds a radically different view on development in Springfield — agreeing that the city's rezoning process is "broken" but believing the city may too often err on the side of development over neighborhood concerns.

Since the city gets the vast majority of revenue from sales tax, there is an incentive for the city to approve as much development as possible

"Increasing sales tax revenue is a high priority and should be a high priority from the city's perspective. To maintain an increase and and grow sales tax revenue, that's the primary engine source of revenue for the city for its operational funds. That's a fact. But that means there's going to be some motivation on the city side to continue to approve projects that generate that sales tax."

But that incentive can at times come at the cost of overlooking legitimate concerns of neighborhoods and other stakeholders in proposed development, according to Adib-Yazdi.

"If whatever shiny thing that's going to generate sales tax adversely effects neighborhoods or neighboring properties, then people aren't going to want to live there. So it's a hard balancing act..." Adib-Yazdi admitted. "But you have to do both. You have to generate more revenue, and you have to make the place better. It's not an either/or proposition."

To combat these concerns, the architect believes the city should involve themselves earlier in the rezoning process — having a city representative at neighborhood meetings and prioritizing the creation of neighborhood plans.

"There's not one neighborhood that's going to say I want a project developed next to my neighborhood. There's also not a developer that says they don't care about the neighborhood. It's not black and white. But what happens is the divisiveness starts right away. And I feel like there was a way to bridge that gap. And the city has to be the party that bridges that gap," Adib-Yazdi said.

"Each neighborhood should have a long-range plan just like the city does. And the city is willing to help. They've got some staff members that are willing to help each neighborhood develop their own long-range plan so that when development starts to happen around the edges, there's at least a codified plan that says 'here's what we'd like to see happen.' And then it becomes a lot easier to have those conversations instead of everything just being yes and no."

One impetus Adib-Yazdi had for jumping into the election is city council's approval of several controversial developments, including the approval of a 7 Brew coffee drive-through on Sunshine. The project was rejected by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission several times before ultimately being approved by city council. Adib-Yazdi believes the plan should not have been approved over P&Z objections.

"That issue was tabled by council with a directive to staff to make it work. To me, that was kind of wrong to start with, but then it came back and essentially got approved by council even though it was denied by planning commission three times."

Meanwhile, Lee emphasized that developments are rarely so controversial, and the system often works well to create compromise between developers and neighbors.

He pointed to a project in Quail Creek he worked on last year. At the initial neighborhood meeting, approximately 40 people came to oppose the development. Lee asked for a list of changes neighbors wanted to see in the project. Each change was made, and the project was approved without opposition.

According to Lee, the goal is to find a "win-win" that supports all stakeholders, and the city is successful in that for most cases.

"I am not going to vote for developers who ignore the neighborhood's requests. I'm also not going to vote against the case if the neighborhood's response is 'well, I think you need to just use the existing buildings and not have any development,'" he said.

Lee also decried some development-skeptical voices as misguided.

"Development in our city gives us jobs. It pays for infrastructure. That's where we get the money that makes the city run," he said.

But not every development is without controversy. In 2018, Lee was hired to represent developer Mitch Jenkins in a controversial Galloway development. Lee facilitated several community meetings that were highly contentious before leaving the project. It was eventually approved by city council in 2020 without Lee's involvement.

"I'm on record a hundred times working with neighborhoods — bringing neighborhoods with development together... The rule is you are able to find compromise and I've been able to do that and that is my message. What you're asking about is one case that I got fired from back in 2018," Lee explained to the News-Leader about his involvement.

"What happened there is not the norm," he continued — adding he always acts as a representative of his client when he conducts neighborhood meetings.

After several years of a court case, the city was made to hold a referendum on the issue last year. Rezoning for the proposal was voted down by a landslide and tensions around the project remain high moving into April's election.

Asked how he voted on the referendum, Lee confirmed he voted for its passage.

"I feel like the city spent a lot of time working with that neighborhood. And so I would have been in favor of that," he said.

Adib-Yazdi declined to say how he voted on the controversial referendum but admitted to conflicted feelings over the project.

He called it a "reasonable project" that made "some concessions" to the Galloway neighborhood, but he sympathizes with the opposition and believes the city could have handled the process better.

"It's sad to see the property sit the way it's sitting now. That's my bigger concern. It's kind of water under the bridge, but I feel like there was probably a place where everybody could have come together at some point, but it got so ugly so quick that it just never got to that point."

He called it a "big learning lesson" for the city that should never be repeated.

Crime

Lee's top priority for the city is public safety and reducing crime — claiming the city can't grow and thrive if its residents do not feel safe in their communities.

"We have got to provide a safe environment where people aren't afraid to go out. Right now people are afraid to park their vehicle outside because things are going to get stolen or they're going to get hurt," Lee told the News-Leader.

Asked how the city should address crime, Lee said there needs to be more support for police. He praised council's current approach of prioritizing getting SPD back to full staff and said the city needs to double down on that approach.

"We need to listen to the Chief (Paul Williams) and rank-and-file police and give (Williams) the resources he needs to make us safe."

Lee has been endorsed by the Springfield Police Officers' Association.

Meanwhile, Adib-Yazdi believes crime in Springfield is not as bad as many believe — citing recently announced data showing crime in the city fell 17 percent last year.

But to continue that trend, Adib-Yazdi suggested the city should focus on "supporting, protecting and strengthening our neighborhoods." In his view, since poverty is highly correlated with crime, the best way to reduce crime is to reduce poverty and increase homeownership.

Part of that fight on poverty should be a renewed focus on helping those remain unhoused in the city. Adib-Yazdi endorses a "housing first" approach where access to housing is prioritized over addressing other issues those experiencing homelessness may have.

"Housing first is the way to solve some of whatever issues the homeless folks have physically or mentally. It starts with having a permanent roof over your head and a nice warm place to sleep and place to cook some food. That way you don't have to worry about those things and you can start thinking about some of the other things in your life that you need to improve," Adib-Yazdi explained.

His development company specializes in building affordable housing for chronically homeless populations, he said.

Asked about how the city should address homelessness, Lee said it was an issue the city "is not going to fix" but there is still a requirement for individuals and government to assist the less fortunate — pointing to such requirements in his Christian faith.

"We're going to always have homeless people with us. And that is something I have actually prayed about more than any other thing," Lee said. "I get my morals that I have towards homeless people from the Bible. And it talks about two different things. One is the Bible is full of scriptures where it says we need to love people that we need to take care of the poor ... It says that our responsibility is to help people."

But Lee emphasized such assistance should come with accountability. He pointed to A Better Way, a program in Tulsa that attempts to curb panhandling by providing city work to those who are experiencing homelessness.

"It has providing services for the homeless so they have a place to go, but it also has accountability in that Tulsa is even not allowing people to panhandle. Part of accountability is not allowing people to trespass on land," Lee explained.

"Part of accountability is also policing. When I've sat across the table from police officers, they've said we have homeless people that are causing trouble and ... we have to have a way to put those we need to in jail."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: General D council candidates have similar backgrounds, different views