The agenda for tonight’s meeting isn’t too exciting, although there are a few potentially volatile issues. There’s a really long consent agenda (A through GG, or 33 items), which is to be expected after the council hasn’t met for three weeks.
District 150 is on the agenda — there’s an item requesting the creation of a Neighborhood Impact Zone (NIZ) around Glen Oak School and revision of the timeline for implementing other such zones. You may recall that the NIZ plan is a partnership between the City of Peoria and District 150 (and possibly Tri-County Regional Planning) to “collectively provide resources to stabilize and enhance the two square block area surrounding the school site to provide a safe, vibrant, attractive neighborhood.” I wonder if any council members will take that opportunity to question the school board’s shortening of the school day for 12 primary schools. I mean, the city has committed no small amount of time, effort, and money toward this initiative, the idea being to stabilize neighborhoods and ultimately draw more families into District 150. If the D150 administration is going to undermine those efforts by reducing teacher contact time and arts and music programs, one has to wonder if this is the best use of the city’s funds after all.
The “Knoxville Crossing” strip mall is going to be taken off the table tonight. This project is way out north on the west side of Knoxville/Route 40, north of Alta Rd., south of Wilhelm Rd. It had been tabled a few weeks ago because the neighbors opposed the project. According to the Journal Star, they’re still unhappy about it, but feel the development is inevitable:
Liverpool Drive resident Tim Sander said on Wednesday, “I don’t think anyone really wants it. (Neighbors) know they can’t stop it, but they’re trying to get the best they can as far as keeping their quality of life.”
Developers have the public trained well, don’t they? Neighbors don’t even put up a fight anymore. They have plenty of reasons to believe such a fight would be futile (Glen Hollow, Midtown Plaza, to name just a couple).
One might question why we need more big box stores and strip mall storefronts when we have so many empty ones already. Does the city ever do any kind of cost/revenue analysis to see if this is going to be a net gain or loss for the city? This will put pressure on the city to use limited funds to upgrade the infrastructure in that area, and yet what new businesses will it be bringing into the area? How much tax revenue will it generate? If businesses are just going to move from one area to another within the city leaving vacant storefronts in their wake, the city ends up losing money because they’re not gaining enough net sales tax revenue to sustain all the northern growth.
Of course, the big thing on the agenda tonight is Elliott’s strip club asking for a liquor license again. If the council denies it as the Liquor Commission has recommended, you can bet that the taxpayers will end up paying dearly for it. I actually agree with the Journal Star’s editorial on this issue. The fact is, the strip club isn’t going away even if they don’t get a liquor license, and it will undeniably lead to a lawsuit that the city will almost assuredly lose. I’d rather not add insult to injury by having my tax money go to Elliott’s. Let this one go and work on some sort of ordinance that will keep this sort of thing from happening in the future.