Monthly Archives: May 2007

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools, The Peoria Chronicle

Be back soon!

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Hi all. I’m still on vacation, but will be back soon. Just a few odds & ends I wanted to mention:

  • I did a little catching up tonight and looked at the recent comments on Beth’s guest editorial. That’s a really interesting discussion. I also checked my Akismet spam filter and found a couple of comments that were erroneously caught. So check out the comments again to make sure you didn’t miss any.
  • If you’re wanting to comment on something else in the news, you can use this as an open thread.
  • I checked with Terry Beachler about his court date on May 1; he said no charges were filed, but the statute of limitations isn’t up for a year, so I guess he could still be charged if the Peoria PD has a change of heart. I wouldn’t want that hanging over my head for a year
  • From the Journal Star: “‘I think overall we [the District 150 school board] feel that if you look at the status of the district today compared to two years ago that there have really been significant improvements,’ board president David Gorenz said today.” He was referring to the likelihood that Superintendent Hinton’s contract will be renewed for two more years at Monday’s school board meeting. What exactly has improved under his leadership? Better test scores? Fiscal improvement? Intergovernmental cooperation? I’m drawing a blank here.
  • Speaking of District 150, they’re selling property, but not the properties on Prospect that they no longer need. Rather, they are selling some land down by the river — one lot is being sold to ADM for $650,000. They’re selling another lot to A. Lucas & Sons for $200,000. And then there are two lots they’re selling to Tri-City Machine for $40,000 each. And they’ll be selling the Meyer building at auction, if that item passes Monday night. Not including the Meyer building, that’s $930,000 the school board will be raking in. Is this the same school district that says they can’t afford to keep their truancy center open?

That’s enough for tonight. Talk to you more later when I get back in town. By the way, are you all enjoying the Duany presentation I’ve been putting up on the site?

City of Peoria

Guest Editorial: Is Peoria desperate for development?

49 Comments

[Beth Akeson is Vice Chairman of the Heart of Peoria Commission, a former candidate for District 150 School Board, and a friend of mine. She wanted to comment on my recent post about the proposed South Peoria grocery store, and I felt it would actually work better as a Guest Editorial. More people will see it and can comment on it directly this way. –C. J.]

There is more to the visit and if CJ doesn’t mind I would like to add the following…

CJ and I met yesterday for lunch to talk about the Heart of Peoria Commission. In conversation the grocery store topic surfaced and I said Councilman Gulley suggested I visit and talk with Mr. Abud and I suggested maybe we should do it together… CJ agreed and on we went.

During our visit, Mr. Abud told us in addition to the grocery store he had plans for a full scale truck stop (phase three), a Laundromat (phase two) and he told us the grocery store (phase one) was dependent on securing a liquor license. He warned us that if he does not get a liquor license for the grocery store he would be forced to stop his work on the grocery store and move the business to Ohio. He claims it would not make financial sense to continue. Mr. Abud indicated he was currently in negotiations with the city to secure incentives for the truck-stop phase of the project and that he spoke with City Manager Randy Oliver and Economic Development Director Craig Hullinger that morning, at the site, regarding the truck-stop.

I asked Mr. Abud if he could rank the importance of each component of this project and he said the most valuable would be the liquor business followed by diesel gas sales and the grocery business would be last. He mentioned a Laundromat in passing, but CJ and I did not ask for Laundromat details.

Mr. Abud presented some good arguments for why he should be allowed to sell liquor. Many of these arguments CJ has articulated on his blog. Mr. Abud also mentioned a couple of places that currently sell liquor, one that sells beer at very high prices and the other that according to Mr. Abud sells liquor without the required license using a pass code system (what ever that means).

My view, of course, is that the Heart of Peoria Plan should be the guidepost as projects are proposed. Amenities for families living in the Heart of Peoria Plan area should be accessible without needing to own or have access to an automobile. The walk to the grocery store should be nice; in fact, it should be inspiring. All citizens should be able to walk out their front door and feel the world is a wonderful and safe place. Our city’s built environment should convey to each and every one of us, “You matter and we care about you!” That feeling should be felt everywhere in Peoria and yet, I am sad to say, that is not the case.

CJ and I spent more time speaking to Mr. Abud than we planned and I left with conflicted feelings about this deal. I know this area is desperate for a grocery store, but I believe Peoria’s number one problem is that we always appear desperate. We were desperate for riverfront development, desperate for Campus town, desperate for Cub Foods, desperate for…you name it. Could it be that Peoria’s desperation prevents successful long term real population growth and prevents truly quality projects from being developed in the older sections of our city?

As time goes on we have witnessed solid quality businesses moving north and the buildings they once occupied are now housing predatory (my opinion) operations which do nothing to enhance the neighborhood’s quality of life or we see the buildings sit vacant adding to the sense of despair. A truck-stop in this part of town will reinforce the current blighted conditions. Would any of us choose to live next to a truck stop? And if we wouldn’t want that for ourselves why would we knowingly allow this to be developed near Harrison Homes? I asked Mr. Abud if he would want to live near a truck stop and he said no.

Development for development’s sake is not a good idea. My favorite quote is from Winston Churchill who said, “We shape our cities and then they shape us.” Enough said.

City of Peoria, Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive planning kick-off is tonight

From an e-mail reminder I received:

The first in a series of Comprehensive Plan Workshops will be held this Thursday, May 3 starting at 5:30 p.m.

The Workshop will be held in the Twin Towers building, 456 Fulton St., suite 420.

The topic for this Workshop is Housing & Neighborhoods.

I hope there’s a lot of participation and that all parts of Peoria are represented. What comes out of these meetings will affect you if you live in Peoria, so I would encourage everyone to make it out to the meeting tonight so your voice can be heard.

City of Peoria

South Peoria grocery is not a ruse for another liquor store

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Grocery Store Produce

This is a picture of the produce section of the La Princesa Market in Watsonville, California. It’s owned by Ahmad Abud, and is the same kind of supermarket he wants to open on the south side of Peoria.

I got meet Mr. Abud today over my lunch break and take a tour of the old Miracle Mart that he is in the process of renovating. He plans to offer good-quality, fresh produce like you would find at Kroger or Cub Foods. He’s also planning to have a full-time butcher on staff. There will be a lunch counter where one can get fresh, hot foods, coffee, juice from concentrate, etc. There will be standard grocery items (brand names and generic) — dairy items, canned goods, etc. As a special niche, he plans to offer a full line of Hispanic food items.

And yes, in one corner, taking up approximately 1,800 square feet, he will sell packaged liquor, if his liquor license is approved. On that point, Abud expressed many times how surprised he has been that this is such a point of contention. He points out that every grocery store sells liquor, and the reason is because there’s not enough margin on grocery items alone — especially in this poorer neighborhood where he’s locating, where prices will need to be low and affordable.

He had some other things to say about the liquor controversy, too. His cashiers will be required to scan the bar code on the back of the purchaser’s drivers license or ID card in order to sell liquor in order to keep it from being sold to those underage. He also points out that adults on the south side who want liquor are going to buy liquor whether they buy it at his place or somewhere else, so denying him a liquor license doesn’t really solve anything in that regard. All it would do is keep the residents from getting a grocery store, which they sorely need.

He’s using local labor to remodel the store, which is good for the economy. One disadvantage of the site is that Adams street has an unbroken median in front of the store that prevents those traveling north from turning left into his parking lot. He said the city had indicated a willingness to work with him on that, perhaps picking up 50% of the cost of redoing the median if Abud will pick up the other 50%.

Finally, Abud said he was willing to put in writing as a condition of his liquor license that the liquor section will never be more than 12% of the total square footage of the store. That means that if he ever wants to change that percentage, he’ll have to come back before the liquor commission.

I understand the concerns about opening just another liquor store on the south side, but this isn’t a liquor store. It’s a grocery store. And grocery stores today sell liquor. If we’re going to wait until a liquor-free grocery moves into the south side they will never get a grocery store. This project should be approved and the liquor license granted, subject to the square-footage restriction.

Update: I should have mentioned that this property is in the proposed Eagle View TIF district, and Abud is counting on that incentive as a requirement for opening his store. I think one would be hard-pressed to argue against the need for a TIF in this area.

City of Peoria, Southtown

What’s the vision for South Peoria?

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Lately I’ve been driving around South Peoria. I’ve been checking out the housing stock, the parks, the library, the business facades. It’s common knowledge that this is an economically-depressed area, but if you haven’t driven around there, you really need to see it. To say there needs to be more investment on the south side would be the understatement of the decade.

Yet there’s a lot of potential on which to build. In nearly every neighborhood, there’s the remnants of a commercial center where a grocery store or laundromat used to be and could be again. There are a number of parks, most notably Trewyn Park, which are well-maintained by the Park District. The Lincoln Branch of the Peoria Public Library, while small, is very nice with beautiful architecture and a park setting. There are numerous schools and churches.

All other areas of town have big, exciting projects: New construction/annexation in the north, form districts and medical expansions in the center of town and downtown areas. South Peoria, unfortunately, is not known for a lot of new or exciting investment. Now that new investment is proposed, there’s a controversy brewing about it.

There’s a plan to open a grocery store on Adams across from Harrison Homes in the old Miracle Mart building. Businessman Ahmad Abud is requesting a liquor license so he can sell packaged liquor at the new store. He’s gotten the blessing of the Public Housing Authority as well as first-district councilman Clyde Gulley.

But others won’t hear of it. They think the “grocery store” is just a ruse to get a new liquor store on the south side, and that a liquor store will only invite more crime. Abud, according to a recent Journal Star article, “said his store floor plan sets aside only 12 percent of space for alcohol but says he needs those sales to stay in business.” The store would be 15,000 square feet in size, so 12 percent means alcohol would take up 1,800 square feet.

Incidentally, the Journal Star also said Abud was the owner of Pulaski Corp. and “has stores in Chicago, Ohio and California. He just recently moved from Chicago to Bartonville to concentrate on this business development.” However, I searched the secretary of state websites of Illinois, California, and Ohio and could not find an active “Pulaski Corp.” in any of those states’ corporation/LLC databases. I also did a search of the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago phone book and could find no reference to “Pulaski Corp.” I find it a little strange that I can’t find any reference to either Abud or his company anywhere.

But I digress. The question I have is, what is the vision for South Peoria?

First, there was “urban redevelopment,” which gave us Southtown. That’s where the city bought up a huge swath of land, tore down all the houses, then redeveloped it to look more suburban. I don’t believe anyone would consider Southtown a garden spot of the city now. Besides, even if it could be argued that redevelopment works, it’s too expensive for the city to completely rebuild the south side.

Then there was the Heart of Peoria Plan, which was recently codified in legal language known as the Land Development Code. The part of the code that would apply to South Peoria has been tabled indefinitely because there were some minor concerns with parts of it. City staff is now heavily involved in the comprehensive planning effort, so they can’t devote any time to fixing the flaws, which means it will sit on the table for a long time, and could be forgotten completely. I hope not, but it’s not the same as simply deferring it to a future date when you know for sure it will come back for further action; tabling, by definition, is indefinite.

Now there’s the grocery store, which we don’t like because they sell liquor (like every other grocery store does, by the way). Okay, fine. We’ll deny his liquor license and he won’t open a store. Congratulations. Now what? Now they still don’t have a grocery store.

How long will things be denied with no alternative? Is it okay to just let it continue its downward spiral while we focus on annexation and new development to the north? The residents on the south side are our neighbors. They’re not “those people.” They’re Peorians. They deserve better.