A public meeting is planned for the East Village Growth Cell TIF, and a majority of the City Council may be there:
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A MAJORITY OF A QUORUM OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF PEORIA, ILLINOIS, HAVE BEEN INVITED AND MAY ATTEND AN EAST VILLAGE GROWTH CELL TIF PUBLIC MEETING TO PROVIDE INFORMATION AND GATHER PUBLIC COMMENTS ON A PROPOSED REDEVELOPMENT PLAN AND THE DESIGNATION OF A PROPOSED REDEVEOPMENT [sic] PROJECT AREA TO BE KNOWN AS THE EAST VILLAGE GROWTH CELL REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT AREA ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7,2011, AT 6:00 P.M. AT THE GLEN OAK COMMUNITY CENTER, 2100 N. WISCONSIN AVENUE, PEORIA, ILLINOIS.
NOTE: NO OFFICIAL ACTION WILL BE TAKEN BY THE CITY COUNCIL.
The Glen Oak Community Center is the Glen Oak School. This meeting is intended to “educate” the community about the advantages of a TIF district and will feature a speaker from Springfield to tell people about the success the have had with other TIF’s in the Springfield area. In other words, this meeting is a sales pitch to get residents of the East Bluff on board with the possibilities of what “may” happen, and will be slanted in the direction of passing the TIF. It will not contain any negatives about the proposal at hand, the 81 page proposal from the Teska folks who used 2000 Census information and omitted a Median Income statement from their Housing Impact study. What they want is for people to think that the City Council is on board with this TIF, when several council members, including Sandberg, Montelongo, and Riggenbach, have expressed several concerns about the planning (or lack of) in the proposal. Since the council members have been invited to attend, and since their attendance should not be taken as an official act, I find it very strange that they would be their in the first place. If you read this and are in the East Bluff, you need to be there.
Wow Frederick, sounds like the perfect environment for anyone to get their complanits and or problems addressed.
Reminds me of the old saying “The beatings will continue until morale improves”.
Fully agree, Mazr. We need informed individuals to be there and ask serious questions. If the proposal passes as is, the TIF will be nothing more than a free license for the city to reward negligent landlords and cater to the whims of OSF, instead of being responsive and responsible to East Bluff homeowners and business. At the heart of it, I still believe this is a very thinly veiled attempt to try to repay the Midtown Plaza TIF, which is possible under the current proposal.
Where are the various East Bluff neighborhood associations? Have they formulated positions on this proposed TIF and, if that have, what are they? They need to be at the forefront of this issue.
Lisa Fischer is President of the Glen Oak Neighborhood Association. She is on the Board – so I guess that means those of us in the Glen Oak Neighborhood have her to look out for our interests.
Why do they need a speaker from Springfield? Doesn’t the success of the other TIF’s in the city speak volumes? I’d suggest asking, “since the city will force it down the resident’s throat, how can we as owner-occupied residents make it work for us?” Or how do we remove the area of so many non-owner occupied residents? It seems other great plans have been in place and passed but little overall improvement has been made. If OSF is such a major player in this study what are their intentions? If they use tax money and receive other benefits they should be more upfront with their plans.
Conrad, Richard “Mitch” Mitchell is on the Advisory Board and is also the President of the East Bluff United Neighborhood Association. I have yet to find out who the East Bluff Serenity Neighborhood Association has for a president, how many residents are involved, or if they are meeting at all. There are several organizations that are listed, but none of them seem to have websites, emails, or other accessible contact.
Emerge, I am absolutely positive you did not mean that to come out the way it did. This TIF will affect all of the East Bluff and the Near North Side, and if does not break down by segment. Lisa in on the Joint Review Board, which is the recommending body to the City Council regarding tax revenues and their affect on their respective services.
East Bluff Serenity president is Jim Combs. I cannot speak to the number of residents involved or when/if they meet.
I would have liked to have seen Decatur come to present on their residential TIF as theirs has had success. Regarding this TIF, there has not been enough planning. There have been a few meetings, but key questions have not been answered. This TIF will not only effect the East Bluff and the site where OSF wants to put dorms on the north end, but all citizens as the cost of services will increase over the 23 life span, but the city’s take on taxes will remain the same, which means we all pay for the incremental cost of providing city services. Given the projected 13-15$ million deficit for this and next year it is a reasonable question to ask and answer how this will be paid. Secondly, part of the Glen Oak impact zone was to increase code and police involvement, given the current and projected cutbacks we will be further effected. Finally, with the significant amount of crime happening in the E. Bluff, in order to have any prayer of a chance of drawing people into the area, which must happen to revitalize it, the people causing the problems will have to either shape up or move to another part of town. What has several other neighborhood leaders concerned is where are these people going? Many older neighborhoods are already decaying due to crime rates, poor tenants and irresponible landlords/homeowners. Adding additional stress to these areas will exponentially increase the decay.
East Bluff residents also need to ask about the special service tax they pay to the East bluff Housing services, who are utilizing the tax to procure more rental property. The city has plans to use TIF funds to provide low interest loans to homeowners to fix up properties. This is one of the roles for the housing services. Why should the residents be charged twice for the same service they are supposed to be getting?
Paul, welcome to the party. Nice to see we can agree on something after all. You mentioned the Glen Oak Impact zone and their goals for the area. One of their goals was to decrease crime, which has steadily increased in the area for the last two years, according to their own reports. As I stated before the Joint Review Board this last Monday, until the crime issue is addressed, the rest of this “proposal” is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. How can they possibly expect to attract businesses to the Wisconsin and Knoxville “corridors” when the crime rate will make insurance costs of operating a business there untenable? And with the number of businesses closing their doors in traditionally successful areas like Northwoods Mall and the Shoppes at Grand Prairie, why would they considering opening a business in an area where the Median Income level is $36,009.50 per household? There are definitely too many unanswered questions and too little planning to make this happen.
Frederick you hit the nail on the head. Ive ranted here millions of times that no matter how many planters you put out, how many sidewalks you widen or how much traffic calming you install low income areas are rarely attractive to businesses because no matter how much you pretty them up they are still low income areas. People without money do not buy artisan bread and 8 dollar coffee.
Sounds like I need to be at this TIF meeting on Monday, Feb. 7th with my camera to video it for CAPtions & the Web.
Dennis….Couldn’t hurt!
Another dog and pony show. Get questions answeared , Ha Ha Ha answears, na. This will be further window dressing. Hour of show and tell.
After the last tax body / election of a income eligible resident to rubber stamp this TIF it re-enforces that this will be put in place come hell or high snow. I agree with the posts to date. Wonder who from the council will attend? Mayor? Any at large councilmen? People that are running? OSF? #150? BVA has not been to a single public meeting but some of this TIF is in her district. At large council people should be there since they are elected for all of us.
I will ask questions again at this “TIF 101” meeting and not get a strait answer. TIF railroad brought to us by OSF.Our hi speed rail line.
Is this the same East Bluff that successfully stymied former D150 sup Hinton’s ridiculous school in the park? Where’s the outrage? Where’s the engagement?
Yup. We stood up the district. But then, we had the help of our city council rep. Bob Manning.
Conrad – why is it that the city and dunlap are all behind the “school in the park” learning environment for their students, but it wasn’t smart for inner city students with limited exposure? Me thinks there were other agendas – just look at neighborhood leadership that sold homes @ otherwise unattainable values. How many murders near the new school already? Yea – the neighborhood leadership really had the students best interests in mind. And if you believe that, you are probably also a bigblock museum backer. I am not a proponent of the TIF as structured either – the west side of Knoxville s/b included. It was obviuosly written by OSF for OSF and not the broader bluff neighborhoods that city leaders have long neglected.
@Just asking. Huh? I think the whole school in the park thing is ridiculous in whatever locale and I think the whole museum thing is a fiasco. Billy, good point about Manning. He represented his constituents well, unlike the current district council person.
Martin, I’d be surprised if this meeting only lasted 1 hour. I will be prepared for 2 hours. But then, if this many folks have this many questions, they need to attend and get many answers. And hopefully they will be good answers.
Keep in mind I agree TIFs are useful for redeveloping blighted areas, but disagree that school districts lose out on the tax revenue.
Isnt the East Bluff an example of ANYTHING would be better then what is there now? I mean some days I wonder which area is worse off the south end or the east bluff. I think that as of now you would almost have to give houses away over there and you still wouldnt be able to find people to take them. I know it sounds bad but at some point you just have to push the restart button….
The outrage and the engagement has simply been beat out of them. They fought the housing services because they did not want their special assessment tax being used to shore up more rental property. Despite facts and figures, documents galore paid for by citizens, inaccurate information presented by the board, the council ignored them. They fought against midtown plaza and lost, the council ignored them. The ONLY reason the school is not in the park is because Karrie Alms and Sara Partridge brought a lawsuit against the park district (and won) for violation of the open meetings act. The homeowners are getting older, dying off, dwindling, and are just plain tired. This will be voted upon and passed by the council, despite the concerns, unanswered questions. There will be a good dog and pony show. “they will be heard” then the vote will go as already intended. It’s a shame because that and other areas have paid property taxes in some instances over 100 years. This is an area that needs significant help, but will only be achieved through thorough planning. This is by and for OSF. The poor people of the bluff will pay for the expansion of the hospital and there might be a few cursory attempts made in the area, but like a dozen other half-assed completed projects will fall by the wayside. Main street, Sheridan triangle, mid town, prospect road, Eagle View, the river front just to name a few. Instead of utilizing the resources we have to actually finish an area and see the impact, learn from any mistakes, make those corrections and move on the next. we have paritaly completed things everywhere and no money to finish anything. Hotel was supposed to have been finalized and to the council by 12/31. Nada. Rumor is still no financing, although we were told it was fully funded. Museum will be dead in the tracks as the state funding source has been declared unconstitutional..remember it was to be 70% private money.. HA!. Now the warehouse district, a conservative estimate was $150 million when we did the Charrettes for HOP. The city couldn’t scrounge cab fare from city hall to the civic center at this point, but we are going to redo Washington street. We don’t have the money to pay for it (it will cost more than than the grants they currently have). One candidate took credit for procurring the funding for Washington Street today and is focusing on the Warehouse district as the next greatest thing. Don’t get me wrong. I think there is a lot of potential, but we keep building proverbial houses 2/3 of the way and wonder why no one wants to buy one an move in….I spoke with another candidate today about the city being like a household. We are at the point where we can buy groceries or go to the movies. Most of us buy groceries because we need to survive…city gov’t wants to go the movies…perhaps it’s the IMAX……
Dennis in Peoria:
Hour of lecture then by hour of questions with no clear answears.
Paul: school in the park was stopped by citzens pushing the PPD board also for a “no” vote on the whole issue, the lawsuit helped bring the whole prosess into light. We had support commuiity wide and city hall support. Now with this TIF railroad the stakes are stacked for OSF and there ajenda. Million dollar corp aginst a few “blighted” homeowners, Hell they can throw around money like it is holy water. Look back as to money support for council elections (past and future) and see where OSF spends its money.
OSF would not of “fronted” the money for this unless they (1, have a master plan. (2, getting there money back. This TIF will be enforce until 2034. Wonder how many city managers we will have had. Sandberg will still be on the council!