Spring Hill saw a lot of changes in the last year; from a new city council, public safety updates, budget updates to preparing for a comprehensive plan.
Spring Hill Mayor Chad Young spoke about the changes and looked toward the future during his State of the City address April 15 at the Spring Hill Civic Center, hosted by the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce. About 100 community and business leaders attended the event.
City government and transparency
Last year marked one of many changes, Young said, including a new police chief, the write-in campaigns that resulted in Young’s own election and the city’s recaps of city meetings via social media.
“My goal for me in the position was to really increase transparency,” Young said. “I think we’ve tried to do that. We’re increasing the different ways we’re reaching out to the community. It’s not perfect, it’s not ever going to be perfect, but if we can get better every day, that’s all we can really ask for, and I feel like we have.”
The city’s new public information officer, Jenna Gant, brought “The Hill in 60,” a 60-second breakdown of what happens during city council meetings, to life.
“She does ‘Our Hill in 60,’ which is probably my favorite thing we’ve added since I became mayor,” Young said. “I don’t know who doesn’t like it.”
In addition to hiring Gant, the city has also hired Police Chief Jim Sutterby and Community Development Director Mike Mallon. The city now has 56 full-time staff and two part-time staff and is still growing, Young said.
“He (Mike Mallon) has a wealth of knowledge, comes from a planning background, which is really important right now,” Young said. “We’re working on our comprehensive plan and all the different items we’re going through. He’s brought in a lot of great ideas as far as zoning and different uses. That has been a great addition.”
Public safety
Young highlighted public safety investments and improvements, including:
- participation in the federal Safe Streets for All program, which prioritizes safety improvements for pedestrians, bikers and drivers,
- updates along 199th Street,
- new stoplights at 191st and 183rd streets,
- studies on U.S. Highway 169 and 223rd Street,
- and changes to the police department, which includes newly replaced body vests and cameras, two new officers and two new K-9s, Jax and Norm.
The city’s updates to 199th Street span from Ridgeview Road to Renner Road.
“It hasn’t gone as smoothly as I would have loved, we had to shut it down for a little bit, but outside of that, for the most part, it is going pretty well,” Young said.
In total, about 1.2 miles of 199th Street is getting new pavement. Crews started work last December, adding the two improved lanes to the north of the current road, new gutters, inlets, stormwater drains, sidewalks, curbs and a walking trail.
Work on 199th Street is expected to wrap up this December.
Eventually, the sidewalks and walking trail will connect north from 199th Street, toward Spring Hill High, Forest Spring Middle and Wolf Creek Elementary schools.
“Once it’s done, it will be very, very nice to have sidewalks and trails through to the school,” Young said. “We’re getting ready to help connect; we’re trying to get connected all the way from Foxwood Ranch down to Prairie Ridge. So, if we can get that all connected here in the next year or so, it’ll be very, very nice.”
Breaking down the budget
During his speech, Young provided an overview of the 2026 city budget. The city’s total budget for this year is roughly $37.2 million — up 14.85% from roughly $32.4 million in 2025.
While the budget increased, the city dropped its mill levy by 0.75, saving residents about $8.63 per $100,000 of their home’s valuation.
“We have pretty strong reserves, and we do pretty good financial management wise,” Young said. “We’re trying to tow that line of reserves and using cash for projects that we need to do. I think we’ve done a pretty good job.”
Looking ahead
To wrap things up, Young looked toward the future of Spring Hill. He called attention to the comprehensive plan, code and zoning updates, commercial and residential growth, the wastewater treatment plant and construction of new sewers.
“Our plan is to finish the comp plan by the end of this year,” Young said. “So, we’re going to try to put some additional zoning, some additional code changes to help us as we get there so we don’t have flippant decision making abilities through the next six months.”
Spring Hill also anticipates building a new wastewater treatment facility, which the city is hoping to secure state and federal funding for.
“We are looking at adding a wastewater treatment plant,” Young said. “Ours is getting to the point where we’re getting pretty, pretty full. That’s one thing we don’t love to talk about or think about because when we flush that toilet, we don’t want it coming back up.
“We have to get ahead of it,” he added. “We’ve got probably five to 10 years based off our current growth. If we have any large development happen, as far as commercially, it’ll be a lot quicker than that.”
Go deeper: To watch the full State of City address, click here.
