Springfield, Missouri has filed a petition for its 23rd Community Improvement District. In a city of 170,000 people, that number is not a typo.

The North Glenstone CID petition was submitted in December 2025. The proposed district covers Glenstone Avenue between I-44 and Turner — 172 acres, approximately 33 property owners — with a majority petition already signed. Proposed services include security, landscaping, and streetscape. The proposed sales tax rate is 9.1%.

Missouri's CID enabling legislation, enacted in 1998, is among the most permissive in the country — formation requires a majority of property owners by acreage, followed by a voter-approved sales tax of up to 1%. Springfield has used this tool more aggressively than almost any comparable American city. The 22 existing CIDs produce a patchwork of consumer-paid sales taxes across the city's commercial corridors.

The formation process for North Glenstone is straightforward: council votes on the petition, then the district proceeds to a voter approval for the sales tax. Services begin only after both approvals. The mechanism is consumer-funded (shoppers pay the additional sales tax) rather than property-owner-funded, which means formation is generally less contested than assessment-based BIDs.

The more interesting question at 23 districts is whether Springfield's CID density is starting to produce coordination challenges — overlapping geographies, competing governance structures, and taxpayers who don't realize they're paying into multiple districts simultaneously.