Monthly Archives: November 2006

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Note to Cahill: Plenty of construction jobs available

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I know School District 150 Treasurer Guy Cahill hasn’t been able to sleep for worrying about the fate of construction workers once the Upgrade 74 project is done. So I hope today’s Journal Star put his mind at ease:

The reconstruction of Sterling between I-74 and Reservoir Boulevard is one of several Peoria projects that had been put off until after the four-year interstate overhaul…. But now, Peoria officials are ready to jump-start several new construction projects. Therefore, a lot of jobs are open such as builders, contractors, electricians, and more.

That includes reconstructing Fire Station 13 at Gale Avenue and Reservoir, and improving Pennsylvania Avenue near Wayne Street next to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.

Since the construction workers are taken care of, maybe Cahill and the school board can stop pushing for $60 million in new school construction and look seriously at renovating its existing buildings where needed.

Peoria Public Schools

School board’s job apparently to keep construction workers employed

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Obviously Shadid is going to try to override the Governor’s veto on SB2477, regardless of his reported indecisiveness in this story in today’s Journal Star. So it’s not worth commenting on that much. But what I found particularly troubling in the article was this statement from district treasurer Guy Cahill:

Cahill, after being told of Shadid’s comments on Friday, said the issue “comes down to whether or not” Peoria wants to replace 100-year-old school buildings and provide jobs for construction workers who are nearing the end of the extensive Interstate 74 renovation project.

“The timing for new school construction couldn’t be better, in our minds, to keep people at work,” Cahill said.

First of all, since when is it the school board’s job to “provide jobs for construction workers”? Is that an unwritten part of District 150’s mission and strategies?

Not long ago, when statements were made that the school board’s planned building did not jibe with the Heart of Peoria Plan, then school board member Garrie Allen stated in no uncertain terms that such “urban renewal” is not the school board’s job, but the city’s. Which do you think will help school children more: long-term strategies for neighborhood stabilization or short-term construction jobs?

Secondly, the first part of his statement is a bald-faced lie. If the issue came down to whether or not “Peoria wants to replace 100-year-old buildings,” the school board would get authorization to do so via referendum instead of state legislation designed to bypass Peoria voters! In reality, the issue comes down to whether voters should be allowed to decide how the school board spends our money, or whether the school board gets a blank check for $60 million in construction money on our tab.

City of Peoria, Elections, Peoria County, Voting

Is this a case where city/county cooperation could help?

Jennifer Davis reports in a front-page story today that the city can’t use their fancy new electronic voting machines for the council primary and election because they can’t handle so-called “bullet voting”:

The new electronic voting machines that the city spent millions on last year can’t count cumulative votes at the precincts, which is required by state law.

Peoria has a rather unique style of cumulative voting that only occurs every four years during at-large council elections. Voters can give all five votes to one candidate; or one each to five; or some combination in between. Some say it is that so-called “bullet provision” which makes our cumulative voting unlike any other nationwide.

Before the city and county went to electronic voting machines, they used a paper ballot which was counted with optical scan equipment. The difference between the county and the city, however, was that the county counted the votes at the precinct level — that is, they had counting machines at each polling place — whereas the city took all the ballots to the main election office and counted them all centrally. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires that votes be counted at the precinct level, not centrally.

So, the question I have (and I haven’t called anyone to ask) is what happened to the machines the county used to use? Did they sell them? If they still have them, are they capable of counting cumulative votes? If so, could the city borrow them for their city council election, if there are enough to cover all the polling places?

I just wonder if this is a case where the city’s cooperation with the county would help, instead of having to go to the state to get special legislation passed.

I also wonder why this is just being discovered now, mere months before the city council election. Who dropped the ball on that one? One would think the election commission would have had the ability to count cumulative votes as a basic requirement of any new voting machine they considered; even if they couldn’t find any machines that offered that functionality, why was no back-up plan put in place? Now, all their hopes are pinned on passing emergency legislation.

Peoria County, Voting

Voter turnout low despite “early voting”

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The Journal Star reports today that “Area voter turnout for Tuesday’s election was the lowest in years, with about 47 percent of Tri-County registered voters casting ballots.”

Yet the establishment of “early voting” was supposed to increase voter turnout. Perhaps the expense and extra staffing incurred by the County to offer early voting can be put to some better use in the future.

City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, Heart of Peoria Plan

Low attendance at LDC public hearing

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Everyone was surprised by the low attendance at the public hearing for the new Land Development Code (LDC) for the Heart of Peoria area. The public hearing portion of section 6 — which covers the form-based portion of the code — has closed now, although some deliberation by the Zoning and Planning Committees will continue at the Dec. 6 meeting. There are four form districts: Renaissance Park (West Main Corridor), Sheridan-Loucks Triangle, Prospect Road Corridor, and the Warehouse District.

While the hearing was sparsely-attended, there were a few concerns raised. Two property owners expressed concern about the boundaries of the West Main Corridor, one of whom said that the boundary bisects a single parcel of land in some places. Planning and Growth Director Pat Landes explained that any bisected parcels are errors in the map drawing and would be corrected as they are identified. However, anyone wanting to add parcels to the form district would need to do so after the LDC is adopted under the provisions in the code.

I suggested for the record that parking requirements be amended to require bicycle racks — nothing fancy, just somewhere to lock up one’s bike. I also suggested that the transect illustrations be modified to show examples of streets with bike lanes and city bus pull-off lanes as suggested by frequent commenter Mahkno. However, the commissions approved those sections without any changes; they might have had a better chance of being modified if more people had attended and spoken in favor of such provisions.

The Warehouse District Association distributed their request in writing. They requested the LDC require “minimum square footages of dwelling units be established.” The association argues that without this safeguard, “developers can produce a dwelling that encourages transient behavior by simply not providing enough space to live adequately.” They also point out that minimum square footages are required elsewhere in the code outside the form districts. The association also requested that residential group living be subject to special use review; the code as currently written permits residential group living as a standard use.

The next public hearing meeting will be Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall. At that meeting, the committees will hear testimony regarding the remaining sections of the LDC. Those sections cover the remainder of the Heart of Peoria area.

City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, Heart of Peoria Plan

Public Hearing on Land Development Code tonight

My last post has triggered some very interesting comments and excellent suggestions for Peoria. As a Heart of Peoria Commissioner, I’d like to invite everyone who commented and anyone else with an interest in the new Land Development Code (LDC) for the Heart of Peoria area to attend the public hearing which begins tonight.

For those of you who don’t know, the Land Development Code is being proposed as a replacement for the current zoning ordinance just for the Heart of Peoria area. If you’re not sure what the boundaries of the Heart of Peoria area are, you can click here to see a map. The Planning and Zoning committees are holding joint hearings on the new code so that you can, as the city’s press release says, “voice support and concern, and educate [yourself on] what the Land Development Code means to business, development, and property owners within the Heart of Peoria Area.”

The hearing will start at 5:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 419 Fulton St. The LDC is a large document and thus the hearings will span multiple meetings, so you’ll have more than one opportunity to comment on the code. After adjourning tonight, the hearing will reconvene on Nov. 29 and Dec. 6 at the same time and place. If further meetings are necessary, they will be added in Jan. and Feb. 2007.

The LDC is available as a free download from the City of Peoria’s website and the Heart of Peoria website. I hope you can all come out and go “on the record” with your support, ideas, concerns, and suggestions. Your input is crucial to making this code successful for Peoria.

Traffic

Better road design could have huge impact

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Since streets are in the news quite a bit these days (Northmoor widening, Washington Street narrowing, Adams and Jefferson possibly converting from one-way to two-way), I think this is a good time to raise awareness of how much impact our streets have on our safety and quality of life, and how they can be made better. Research and experimentation being done today in coastal cities is proving that new approaches to street design can net huge benefits for communities.

Ian Lockwood, Senior Transportation Engineer at the community planning and design consulting firm of Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, is featured in this little video explaining traffic calming measures that were implemented in West Palm Beach, Florida, and how those measures produced increased economic activity, lower crime rates, and a more liveable community.

The same kind of interventions could be implemented here in Peoria. See if you don’t see any similarities to Peoria’s streets in this presentation:

Hat tip: Pat McNamara