Category Archives: City Council

City Council, City of Peoria, Museum Block, Uncategorized

Museum Square: Boondoggle in the Making, Part III

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Of course, the truth of the matter is that this underground parking deck isn’t for the Central Illinois Regional Museum at all — it’s for Caterpillar’s visitor center. As councilman Sandberg pointed out, Cat originally wanted an above-ground [underground] parking deck built on their portion of the Sears block and paid for with federal dollars. But they found out that federal rules prohibit the use of those funds for [public] parking decks on private property. Furthermore, the Heart of Peoria Commission strongly recommended there not be any surface parking on the site. So Cat, rather than doing away with the parking, now decides to put the deck underground on the public half of the property and use property tax dollars (through the TIF) to pay for it.

The rest of the council is, of course, perfectly okay with that. They had all kinds of justifications for it. Councilwoman Van Auken said that removing the cap on the TIF wouldn’t take money away from essential services like fire station staffing. Bill Dennis has the best response to that spurious argument.

But the most embarrassing justification was the “we- have- to- approve- this- plan- or- Cat- will- move- their- headquarters- out- of- Peoria” reason. To hear Chuck Grayeb talk, for instance, you’d think Cat was poised to pull up stakes and move out of town any second, and that Peorians should be sacrificing their virgin daughters on an altar outside Cat headquarters and paying tribute money to keep them here.

Let’s face it — Caterpillar is a very large employer and has been very generous to Peoria civic projects and charities. I’m all for giving credit where credit is due. But that doesn’t mean our council should just rubber stamp every Caterpillar request. To do so makes the council a mere figurehead government that represents Cat and not Peoria residents.

City Council, City of Peoria, Museum Block

Museum Square: Boondoggle in the Making, Part II

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For further proof that this museum will be a bust, we need only turn to the parking lot debacle, which consumed most of the deliberations last night. The council voted to give more money to the Museum Square project (by removing the TIF cap) so that an unwarranted and expensive parking garage could be added.

Yes, the 75+ street spaces plus the parking decks across the street to the northwest plus the surface lot to the southeast are just not enough parking according to the council and Museum Collaborative. Why? On-site parking is “part of the success factor for the facilities being built there,” said one of the presenters. “This is Peoria,” councilwoman Van Auken reminded us, as if we all just arrived here from outer space. People aren’t going to walk a block to the museum because “we live in a northern climate” and the weather isn’t always good.

With all due respect, that’s horse hockey. Ever been to a Bradley game? A symphony concert? A Chiefs game? Steamboat Days? Skyconcert? I would submit that Peorians park on the street and in surrounding parking decks and surface lots for these and a host of other downtown activities — in all kinds of weather. People are more than willing to park a block or two away and walk if there’s something worth walking to. If the parking deck proponents believe that people won’t walk across the street to see our beautiful, new, state-of-the-art museum, then why are we building it at all?

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan, Museum Block

Museum Square: Boondoggle in the Making, Part I

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Let’s play the old game, “Who Am I?”

  • I will be a regional draw
  • I will revive downtown
  • I will raise a lot of tax revenue
  • I will be self-supporting

Who am I? If you guessed Museum Square, you’re correct. And if you guessed the Civic Center, you’re also correct. Yes, the promises are remarkably similar. Also remarkably similar: the prospect that this project will not be self-supporting and will need ongoing help from the city to keep it afloat.

Councilmen Manning and Jacob ran the numbers, and this project has even less of a chance of being profitable than the water company buyout would have been in its proposed first year. They convinced the council to change the language of the redevelopment agreement amendment to say the museum collaborative will not ask for any more money from the city.

I applaud their effort, but realistically, everyone knows the museum is going to come back for more money around 2010. And what’s the city going to say? “No, we’ll let the museum close down and have a big vacant building on the Sears block again”? Not hardly. No, we’ll be subsidizing this thing for many years to come. And it started last night with the vote to give them more TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money.

Caterpillar, City Council, Heart of Peoria Plan, Museum Block

Cat blames HOPC for higher Museum Square costs

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The Heart of Peoria Commission (HOPC) is on the agenda for Tuesday night. They are recommending approval of the proposed elevations of Museum Square. But included in their request is a copy of the HOPC’s meeting minutes, and they reveal something of Caterpillar’s mindset.

Putting Museum Square parking underground is expensive. As was reported back in February, it may add as much as $3 million to the cost. At that time, the Journal Star editorialized that, essentially, this extra expense was the HOPC’s fault because they didn’t want to see another surface parking lot downtown.

Now it’s Caterpillar’s turn to play the blame game.

Despite the fact that Cat got almost everything it wanted in the museum site plan (except the surface parking lot) even though it severely compromised the Heart of Peoria Plan, and despite the fact that this project is continuing to get support from the HOPC, commission minutes reveal that Caterpillar representative Mark Johnson (Project Manager for the Caterpillar Visitor Center) wanted this line included in the commission’s recommendation to the council on Tuesday:

“The Commission recognizes that the inclusion of the underground parking structure in the site plan has resulted in a substantial increase in infrastructure development cost and urges the Council to work with the developers to adopt a mutually acceptable financing plan.”

In other words, he wanted the Commission to take responsibility for the additional parking expense on Museum Square. Why? The minutes state:

Mr. Johnson said, “I urge the Commission to step up to their responsibility, as we developed this underground parking as a part of this plan in response to this Commission’s strong recommendation; and we have to find a way to pay for it.”

Au contraire, replied commissioner Beth Akeson:

Commissioner Akeson said she was sorry the Commission has been put in the position to make it appear they are the ones that forced the issue of underground parking, when in actuality the Commission was never brought into the conversation about what its recommendation would be.

(Emphasis mine.) That’s right. It wasn’t the HOPC that came up with the underground parking idea. They weren’t even consulted.

In fact, the need for any parking on that site is questionable. Even if it could be shown that parking is needed, the bulk of the cost is not simply to put it underground per se, but to put it below the site as it’s currently designed — i.e., with the boomerang-shaped buildings. Those building designs were not the HOPC’s either.

Mr. Johnson’s amendment was defeated, but expect this argument to surface again — on the very next agenda item.

Caterpillar and Lakeview want to amend the City of Peoria/Museum Block Redevelopment Agreement.  Among other things, they want to remove the $500,000 cap on TIF reimbursement.  I imagine this will be the source of some discussion, as it’s the only part of the amendment that “could result in additional money being paid over by the City to the Museum.”

I have an idea.  Instead of reducing the size of the museum by 15,000 square feet and trying to finagle more money from the city, why not make money and increase density by adding residential, restaurant, and retail components, like the Heart of Peoria Plan recommends?  You remember the Heart of Peoria Plan, right?  You know, the one the council adopted “in principle”?

City Council, City of Peoria

Council roundup: Longevity pay gets the short straw

Long-time city employees will no longer be rewarded for simply sticking it out a requisite number of years.  The city council voted to eliminate longevity raises/bonuses for city managers and give salary increases based on merit alone, like most businesses nowadays.

If I worked for the city a long time, I would probably be ticked off.  On the other hand, councilman Turner pointed out that Peoria eliminated longevity pay two or three other times in recent history, only to reinstate it a few years later.  So perhaps it will prove to be a temporary measure.

This measure is predicted to save just under $300,000.

Sorry for harping on this, but if the city is so strapped for funds, why didn’t they sell that old rail line that runs through the heart of the city to Pioneer Railway and rake in that cool $565,000 when they had the chance? Maybe they should approach Pioneer and see if they’re still willing to buy….

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Civic Center

Council roundup: Hotel “request for proposal” approved

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The city council wants to get proposals for a new hotel that would be physically connected to the Peoria Civic Center.  The Civic Center Authority believes that such a hotel is crucial for the success of the civic center expansion.  According to the all-knowing, all-seeing consultants, convention centers “in northern climates” are more successful when they have climate-controlled hotels connected to them.  Thus, they’re looking for a hotel that meets this criteria:

  • National chain with centralized reservation system
  • Minimum 3-4 star Mobil rating
  • At least 250 rooms (300 preferred)
  • Full-service, including pool, sit-down restaurant, bar and room service
  • Facility must be architecturally compatible with Peoria Civic Center

Incidentally, I think that second bullet is funny — I mean, is the minimum 3 or 4 stars?  It can’t be both!

The request for proposals originally specified where the hotel would be sited on the Civic Center property, but the council decided to leave the specific location open to developers, so long as the hotel is physically attached somehow.

My take: This is only the latest in a series of proposed “silver bullets” for the success of the Civic Center.  What does the Civic Center need to be successful?  HRA taxes.  A consultant.  A renovation.  An expansion.  A hotel.  It never ends!  It’s like that old detective show “Columbo” starring Peter Falk.  Just when you think you’ve finally gotten rid of them, they turn around and say, “Oh, one more thing….”

We’re always just one more large capital expenditure away from wild success.  This hotel is just the latest mirage.  They’ll build it, and the Civic Center will continue to operate in the red, and then we’ll hear that there’s just one more thing we need:  a new covered parking deck, perhaps, or a private restaurant in the Civic Center proper, or whatever.

I don’t know what the answer is for the Civic Center, but I can tell you that it isn’t more tax money. Why is it that The Mark of the Quad Cities can make a profit for 12 straight years (they had their first losing year in 2005), but Peoria’s Civic Center, which is managed by SMG, can’t ever turn a profit?  Is it time for new management?

City Council

Council roundup: Council quiet on noise ordinance

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The city council tonight deferred action for two weeks on a proposed noise ordinance revision.  The council agenda included an item that would give the police the power to impound a vehicle that violates the noise ordinance (noise so loud it can be heard from 75 feet from the vehicle). Councilwoman Van Auken explained she wanted to (a) make sure motorcycles would be exempted, and (b) gather more information on how effective enforcement of this type of ordinance has been in the communities where it has been tried.

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

Council roundup: Put on a happy façade

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This picture wasn’t shown in the council chambers tonight, but it could have been. This is a picture of my late grandmother’s business, Merchant’s Cafe, in the late 1960s. It was located on Sheridan Road, near Loucks, and that’s the area being targeted by the city’s new façade improvement program.

As a part of commercial revitalization, City staff has partnered with property and business owners on North Sheridan to develop a Facade Improvement Program in order to improve the area’s physical characteristics through the enhancement of the aesthetics and attractiveness of the commercial properties. These improvements will increase the community pride of the adjacent neighborhoods and encourage business recruitment and expansion in the area.

Much like councilman Manning’s initiative along Prospect Road, councilwoman Van Auken deserves kudos for her work on putting this program together. She enlisted the help of five Bradley University students for marketing this initiative — three of whom were in the council chambers tonight — which is a brilliant way to give students real-life experience and save the city some money.

Not that the city isn’t putting any money into this initiative. On the contrary, $100,000 was allocated for the Program. They will pay 50% of the total cost of improvements to each property or $20,000, whichever is less. It warms my heart to see the city spending money in the older neighborhoods to revitalize these neighborhood centers, just like the Heart of Peoria Plan directs.

If you’ve seen this stretch of properties, you’ve seen that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. In fact, in the picture above, just to the right of Merchant’s Cafe is a business called Florence’s Beauty Shop. If you go by that shop today, you’ll see that store front looks almost exactly the same 35 years later, the faded paint being the only difference.

This is a perfect location to enact the Heart of Peoria Plan. Narrow the road a bit and add diagonal parking. Update the façades and sidewalks. The neighborhoods surrounding these businesses are stable. This area could be easily revitalized and draw new businesses to this corridor.

Not surprisingly, the motion passed unanimously. I expect Whitey’s Tap will be the first business to take advantage of the new program.

City Council, City of Peoria, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Council roundup: Hospitals withdraw Southtown bid

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Several weeks ago, a couple of area hospitals stared down Select Medical of Pennsylvania’s plan to put a long-term acute-care hospital on the last unsold parcel of Southtown.  At that time, they said they were looking to locate a similar establishment in Renaissance Park.  Then, several days ago, they shocked Peoria by considering the possibility of locating on the same parcel in Southtown instead of Ren Park.

Tonight, they withdrew their proposed option agreement on the Southtown property.  Why?  Who knows?  Hopefully, the Journal Star will have more details tomorrow.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools, Renaissance Park

Council roundup: We have an understanding

The city council approved a “memorandum of understanding” between the Renaissance Park Commission and District 150 school board “in order to research and develop a project proposal for a math, science and technology academy for Renaissance Park.”

This was an easy thing to vote on, frankly, since there is no financial obligation to any of the parties involved. It just says that they’re all in agreement on the goal. There was a lot of love to go around, and only one minor controversy.

That controversy was the last three words of the action requested: “for Renaissance Park.” Gary Sandberg objected to this wording because he felt it was a “hard boundary” that was unnecessary. He suggested that Peoria Central High School would be a good location to house a math/science academy, even though it’s not within the boundaries of Renaissance Park.

Van Auken amended her motion to strike the last three words of the action requested, and the motion passed unanimously.

Grayeb had a good point during the discussion of this item. He cautioned against focusing too much on science and technology in the younger grades because grade school children need a more balanced, liberal education, including history, social studies/government, literature, handwriting, etc. He felt the upper grades were the time to gear curriculum more heavily toward math, science and technology.

And, he had a little zing for the Journal Star. He intoned through his usual Tuesday-night grimace, “We have an excellent school district despite cartoons that appear in our monopoly newspaper.” Ha! Look out, Journal Star — he may ask the council to look into buying out the city’s newspaper of record. It’s owned by out-of-state investors, you know.

Just before the council voted, Gulley expressed concern about the school being built within Ren Park. Apparently he fell asleep during the first 15 minutes of the discussion when the council addressed that issue. Even the usually unflappable Ardis sounded exasperated as he explained to Gulley the council already talked about that, and quickly called for the vote.