© 2025 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Greene County judge sides with business developers in University Heights neighborhood lawsuit, finds 100-year-old deed restrictions unenforceable

Be Kind & Merciful development company wants to put up commercial buildings in University Heights at the corner of National Avenue and Sunshine Street, shown here on Nov. 8, 2023.
Gregory Holman/KSMU
Be Kind & Merciful development company wants to put up commercial buildings in University Heights at the corner of National Avenue and Sunshine Street, shown here on Nov. 8, 2023.

They want to build a food hall and pickleball business at the traffic-heavy corner of National Avenue and Sunshine Street in central Springfield’s University Heights neighborhood.

A group of neighborhood residents sued back in 2022, alleging that century-old restrictive deed covenants blocked such a plan. The plaintiff group argued the neighborhood was originally deeded for single-family homes only.

Judge Ankrom’s 42-page order makes it clear that such deed covenants aren’t enforceable regardless of “what is best for the University Heights neighborhood."

Key hearings in the case took place in late 2023 and early 2024, after neighborhood residents began strongly opposing Be Kind & Merciful LLC's business plans for the Sunshine-National corner almost immediately after the first version of them was announced.

That announcement took place at a contentious neighborhood meeting back in the summer of 2022.

Related Content