At the last City Council meeting, the council approved a new institutional (N-1 zoning) plan for OSF St. Francis Medical Center. Part of the plan called for the future construction of an “energy center,” which is a euphemistic way of saying “industrial power plant.” Power plants are ugly, loud, smelly, and require no small amount of semi-truck traffic to supply. OSF took a look at this power plant and decided the best place for its future construction would be right next to a single-family neighborhood, on the edge of the N-1 zone.

Neighbors were alarmed. They contacted their councilman, rookie Tim Riggenbach, and signed a petition objecting to OSF’s plans to build a power plant next door to their homes. The council, however, approved OSF’s plans anyway and simply received and filed the residents’ petition without comment.

In the Journal Star’s Word on the Street column today, we get a little insight into Riggenbach’s thinking on the matter. It’s not pretty.

Third District City Councilman Timothy Riggenbach hopes opposition to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center’s wishes to someday build an “energy center” in the East Bluff won’t scare off other developers from being transparent in their future plans.

“I would hate to think developers will take the wrong lesson from this,” he said. “We want to encourage as much openness and transparency as we can.[…] If I lived there, I’d rather want to know about it now than have it sprung on me down the road,” Riggenbach said. “We can prepare for (the energy center) and make sure we have the right noise ordinances in place.”

Oh, I see, the neighbors shouldn’t have complained because now it might scare other developers into being less forthcoming in their future plans, is that it? That’s got to make the neighbors feel good. Not only did Riggenbach not support them on the council floor, now he’s publicly taking them to task for giving OSF such a hard time. One wonders what value there is in “openness and transparency” from developers if it doesn’t allow neighbors the opportunity to object to certain plans or negotiate changes.

It sounds like Riggenbach is saying, “Look, neighbors, developers are going to punch you in the stomach and you’re powerless to stop them. Now, do you want to know in advance that they’re going to punch you so you can brace yourself for it, or do you want them to punch you when you’re not looking? Those are your options.” Not an option, apparently, is negotiating a way that the neighbors won’t get punched at all.

If I were Riggenbach, I wouldn’t worry too much about what “lesson” developers take from this episode. I think the lesson was quite clear: The council is going to approve your project no matter how egregious it may be to the surrounding neighborhood. The council has been sending that message to developers for years, so why would they start fretting about it now? Just because of a little petition drive? Pshaw.