Category Archives: City of Peoria

City of Peoria, Streets

Signs or Designs?

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Speeding carsThe city’s Traffic Commission is considering lowering the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour in residential neighborhoods and subdivisions. The cost would be about $200,000 to purchase new signs.

It’s hard to argue against a 25-mph speed limit in residential areas. I don’t have any objection to lowering the speed limit, provided the cost can be spread out by phasing in the changes over a few years. It certainly would be safer, assuming people actually drive slower. The arguments against this effort is that people will ignore the signs (like they do now, it’s argued), thus it won’t be the most effective use of $200,000. They may have a point.

I believe the speeding problem is systemic, and that’s why signs are believed to have little or no effect. To really get people to slow down, some fundamental changes in road design are needed.

When you build a road that has wide, multiple traffic lanes capable of accommodating speeds of 40 or 50 miles per hour, guess what you’re going to get? That’s right: people driving 40 or 50 miles per hour. It doesn’t matter what the sign says; people are going to drive up to the limit that’s comfortable given the road’s design.

Take Knoxville between War Memorial Drive and downtown, for instance: Five lanes (most of the way), 35-mph speed limit. And do you ever see anyone driving 35 miles per hour? Sure you do — you can’t miss them. They’re the ones getting passed by the rest of the motorists who are doing at least 45, if not 50.

This is true in residential areas as well. If you have wide collector streets that can easily handle 40- to 45-mph traffic, that’s what you’re going to see, despite the speed limit signs saying 30 or 25. The roads are wide in the mistaken belief that wide streets equal safer streets. But the inverse is actually true: narrower streets produce naturally lower speeds and end up being safer.

This is the theory behind “road diets.” You can read about it in this PDF report by Dan Burden and Peter Lagerwey. They write:

Nationwide, engineers are putting roads on “diets,” helping them lose lanes and width. In the process formerly “fat” streets often become leaner, safer, and more efficient. They become multi-modal and more productive. In many cases these former “warrior” roadways are tamed and turned into “angels.”

Often these changed roads set the stage for millions or megamillions of dollars in new commercial and residential development. The change can increase value of existing properties. In some cases costs of reconstructing roadways are repaid in as little as one year through increased sales tax or property tax
revenue.

The “Road Diets” report focuses on reducing arterial roadways. However, narrower streets (in concert with other calming measures, such as on-street parking) have been shown to reduce speeds and make roadways safer in general, as this report from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) shows.

To effect change in this area, the city’s subdivision ordinance would need to be amended, since that is where the design standards for street widths and on-street parking are codified (Municipal Code, Appendix A, Article V, Part I). Until changes are made to the way we build our roads, speeding is going to continue to be a problem, no matter how many signs we put up.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Library

Library plans taking shape

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Lincoln Branch of Peoria Public LibraryThe Library Board is ready to ask the City Council next Tuesday to approve the sale of $35 million in bonds to pay for upgrades to Peoria’s library system, including building a new branch in far north Peoria.

You may have heard the library’s director Ed Szynaka on the radio recently giving an update on where the library is in the process. It’s been a long year. The library has completed the programming phase of the process, and now they’re working on negotiating a site for the north branch. Negotiations will be more meaningful if they are able to talk real money, which is why they want the council to okay the bond issuance.

I got a chance to talk to Gary Sandberg, City Council liaison to the Library Board for this project. Everyone knows the library board had a couple of missteps early in the process, but Gary got them to agree to go through a deliberate and open process.

He showed me how they developed criteria for what features a new library site would need, and then went out and found sites that met the criteria to varying degrees. They put all that data in a matrix and ranked the sites by how well they met the criteria. The most favored site before this process (old K’s Merchandise building) came in third or fourth. The top two sites identified, as mentioned in the paper today, were the old Festival Foods store on Knoxville in Northpoint shopping center, and a greenfield site just north of Route 6 on the west side of Allen Road, behind the new Sud car dealership. I was pleased to see the sites were selected on a rational and objective basis.

But that’s not the end of the story. Next comes cost. Just because a site meets the criteria doesn’t mean that a fair price will be able to be negotiated for it. The asking price for the Festival Foods site is approximately $4 million. The Sud site is $5.50 per square foot developed (i.e., with roads, utilities, etc. built out to the property line). The Library Board will be trying to negotiate a lower price. The more they have to spend for land, the less they have to spend on construction.

The Festival Foods site is terribly overpriced. In fact, the owner of Festival Foods reportedly had been asking a little less than $2 million for the site before the library showed interest. It has certainly sat vacant long enough while other big box stores have been passing it by, searching for greener pastures (literally) farther north. Fortunately, they’re not the only site the library is considering.

This may come as a surprise to some of my readers, but I would prefer a standalone building for this project, which in this case would most likely mean a greenfield development on the Sud property. The reason is that this is a civic building, and the architecture of civic buildings is symbolic. It symbolizes the civilization of a city. When you put a library in a strip mall, it says something about your community’s values, or at least about how much your community values (a) libraries, and (b) civic architecture.

Look at the other libraries in the system. Consider the Lincoln Branch. Here, you have a Carnegie library building proudly placed in the middle of a civic square. It’s inspiring and set apart from the surrounding architecture. You know immediately that this is someplace special. It’s not a title loan place or a pizza joint. It’s a civic building. It is important. The architecture and setting reinforce that importance.

Now I realize that not every library is going to look like a Carnegie library building. That’s not my point. My point is that it’s distinguishable. The McClure branch, which is more modest architecturally, is nevertheless a distinguishable and inspiring civic building. That’s what we should be shooting for in the north end, too.

The paper says the cost of the bonds to homeowners would be “about $50 per $100,000 of assessed property value a year.” That may be, or it may be lower. Because of the way the economy is, the city may be able to get an even lower rate for the bonds; instead of $0.15 per $100 assessed value, it may only be $0.13, in which case the cost to taxpayers would only be about $43 per $100,000 of assessed property a year.

Also, it should be noted that the $35 million in bonds isn’t just for a new north branch. Only about $11 million is going toward that. The $35 million is also going to triple the size of the Lincoln branch (they’re going to build a large addition), completely remodel the Main branch (also close to $11 million), and expand the Lakeview branch as well.

*Lincoln branch picture courtesy of PeoriaIllinoisan, via his Name This Peoria Landmark blog.

City of Peoria

$3.95

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High Gas PricesA gallon of gasoline is $3.95 today. In a couple weeks it will no doubt be over $4. It’s getting to the point that I can’t afford to drive anymore. Unfortunately, in Peoria, not driving leaves you with very few options.

There’s bicycling, as the paper profiled today. There are limitations to that, however. Winter (and other weather-related obstacles) comes immediately to mind. Proximity is another problem; depending on where you work or shop, it may simply be too far to reasonably bike. If it’s only moderately far, there’s the additional problem of showing up all sweaty — that may not be appropriate for certain destinations, like your job, for instance.

There’s walking, which is even more dependent on proximity. Pedestrians are further hampered by the poor condition and intermittency of sidewalks, if they exist at all.

Then there’s public transportation. This should be the preferred alternative to driving. Unfortunately, in Peoria the bus service is slow, infrequent, and often inconvenient. As I’ve stated before, “This isn’t all the bus company’s fault. Part of the problem is sprawl and lack of pedestrian infrastructure (e.g., sidewalks), which is a city planning problem. Just like sprawl puts a strain on police, fire, and snow removal service, it puts a huge strain on bus service.”

Nevertheless, with gas prices continuing to climb, Peoria is going to have to get serious about planning and providing infrastructure for alternative transportation methods. Otherwise, people are going to want to move someplace more sustainable, and people with options will.

City of Peoria, Economic Development

Hullinger spreading the good news

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I don’t think there’s a bigger cheerleader for Peoria than Economic Development Director Craig Hullinger. He’s trying to reach people through every method possible; he’s even using Blogger to set up a pseudo-blog for the Economic Development department. Now, he’s started directly e-mailing the media, including bloggers, with good economic news about Peoria. Here’s what he had to say:

The median home price rose in 10.4% in Peoria in the 1st Quarter of 2008, compared to the first quarter of 2007, according to USA Today on May 14, 2008.

Peoria had the second highest growth rate in the country, according to the article, which used data collected by the National Association of Realtors.

Nationally, the median home price fell 7.7% over the same period.

Thanks to all who helped make our economy so vibrant. Keep investing.

Now, if we could just get more mixed use development underway in the Heart of Peoria in the Warehouse District, Renaissance Park, and the Rivefront.

A great opportunity out there to start up the Heart of Peoria Development Corporation. Raise capital to make strategic investments in the City. Take advantage of the great Enterprise Zone, TIF, and historic tax credit incentives. Do well while doing good.

Keep the upbeat and positive news coming, Mr. Hullinger.

City Council, City of Peoria

Council preview 5/13/08

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The agenda for tonight’s meeting isn’t too exciting, although there are a few potentially volatile issues. There’s a really long consent agenda (A through GG, or 33 items), which is to be expected after the council hasn’t met for three weeks.

District 150 is on the agenda — there’s an item requesting the creation of a Neighborhood Impact Zone (NIZ) around Glen Oak School and revision of the timeline for implementing other such zones. You may recall that the NIZ plan is a partnership between the City of Peoria and District 150 (and possibly Tri-County Regional Planning) to “collectively provide resources to stabilize and enhance the two square block area surrounding the school site to provide a safe, vibrant, attractive neighborhood.” I wonder if any council members will take that opportunity to question the school board’s shortening of the school day for 12 primary schools. I mean, the city has committed no small amount of time, effort, and money toward this initiative, the idea being to stabilize neighborhoods and ultimately draw more families into District 150. If the D150 administration is going to undermine those efforts by reducing teacher contact time and arts and music programs, one has to wonder if this is the best use of the city’s funds after all.

The “Knoxville Crossing” strip mall is going to be taken off the table tonight. This project is way out north on the west side of Knoxville/Route 40, north of Alta Rd., south of Wilhelm Rd. It had been tabled a few weeks ago because the neighbors opposed the project. According to the Journal Star, they’re still unhappy about it, but feel the development is inevitable:

Liverpool Drive resident Tim Sander said on Wednesday, “I don’t think anyone really wants it. (Neighbors) know they can’t stop it, but they’re trying to get the best they can as far as keeping their quality of life.”

Developers have the public trained well, don’t they? Neighbors don’t even put up a fight anymore. They have plenty of reasons to believe such a fight would be futile (Glen Hollow, Midtown Plaza, to name just a couple).

One might question why we need more big box stores and strip mall storefronts when we have so many empty ones already. Does the city ever do any kind of cost/revenue analysis to see if this is going to be a net gain or loss for the city? This will put pressure on the city to use limited funds to upgrade the infrastructure in that area, and yet what new businesses will it be bringing into the area? How much tax revenue will it generate? If businesses are just going to move from one area to another within the city leaving vacant storefronts in their wake, the city ends up losing money because they’re not gaining enough net sales tax revenue to sustain all the northern growth.

Of course, the big thing on the agenda tonight is Elliott’s strip club asking for a liquor license again. If the council denies it as the Liquor Commission has recommended, you can bet that the taxpayers will end up paying dearly for it. I actually agree with the Journal Star’s editorial on this issue. The fact is, the strip club isn’t going away even if they don’t get a liquor license, and it will undeniably lead to a lawsuit that the city will almost assuredly lose. I’d rather not add insult to injury by having my tax money go to Elliott’s. Let this one go and work on some sort of ordinance that will keep this sort of thing from happening in the future.

City of Peoria

Peoria Cares [Updated]

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Dialing 494-CARE

“Hello, Mayor and City Council office.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was calling the Peoria Cares number.”

“He’s off today, so it rolls over to us.”

“Okay, well, I was wondering if there was a problem with the City’s website today; I can’t get it to load.”

“I can give you our I.S. department’s phone number. It’s 494-8100.”

“Thanks.”

Dialing 494-8100.

[something unintelligible]

“Hi is this the City of Peoria I.S. Department?”

“Yes it is.”

“Hi, I was referred to you by the Peoria Cares number. I was wondering if there was a problem with the City’s website; it doesn’t seem to be loading for me this morning.”

“Who is this?”

“C. J. Summers.”

“Are you with a company?”

“No, I’m just a citizen who wants to get some information from the City’s website and it won’t come up.”

“Hold on a second.”

[phone ringing 4 times]

“Your call is being answered by Audix. John [mumble-mumble] is not available….”

[Me hanging up phone, mumbling to myself] “Who cares?”

UPDATE: Mike King from the city called me after I posted this (and he left a comment, too) and helped me figure out what was wrong. Apparently it’s a problem with my ISP. Many thanks to Mike for his quick response! I also concur with other commentators that when Sean is manning the phone, you get great service at the Peoria Cares number. (Although, I’ll also point out that I didn’t get bad service from Sean’s fill-in, but rather from the person who answered the I.S. department’s line. Mike explained that they don’t usually get calls from citizens.)

City of Peoria

Another proud Peorian

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Kirk Wessler gave his list of things he likes about Peoria in his article Sunday. He credits my “Be Positive About Peoria Day” post as his inspiration. I’m glad to see that catching on.

For all the irritating things about Peoria, there’s also a lot to like. Nowhere is that truer than sports in Peoria. For a city our size, we’ve got a ton of sporting events and nice facilities in which to watch them.

It’s good to remind ourselves of the good things once in a while… but not so much that we get complacent. There’s still a lot of room for improvement.

City of Peoria, Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive planning not easy, City discovers

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A recent “Issues Update” from the city outlined the difficulty city staff is having getting participation in the Comprehensive Planning process from certain segments of the community:

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SURVEY – PRELIMINARY RESULTS. As part of the Comprehensive Plan re-write process, the City made an online survey available to the public in order to help gauge levels of interest and importance for various public services. A copy of the preliminary report was presented in Issues Update last week. The preliminary results were presented to the Planning Commission at their April 16, 2008 meeting. During the presentation, several of the commissioners had questions related to the percentage of response from several areas and groups. Specifically, the response rate from the African-American community was significantly below the relative percentage of Peoria’s population. The response rate from the 1st Council District was also below the proportional population amount. Several steps were taken by City staff to provide direct outreach before the launch of the survey, and in anticipation of difficulty reaching some population groups. Additional outreach efforts were made as the survey results were received.

Some of these outreach efforts included:

  • Partnership with the Peoria Public Library to make computers and assistance available to anyone wanting to take the online survey in a library.
  • The placement of two of the three “Help Plan Peoria” billboards in areas of the city that were anticipated to have low response rates.
  • Direct mailings to all faith based organizations in Peoria, requesting that an encouragement be placed in bulletins or newsletters requesting participation in the survey.
  • Direct mailings to all neighborhood associations, neighborhood watch, and business watch groups encouraging them to have their association members participate in the survey.
  • Direct outreach to the Black Chamber of Commerce and the African American Contractors Association requesting that they encourage their members to participate.
  • The provision of 250 paper surveys with self addressed stamped envelopes to residents of the Southside in response from a community leader in that area.
  • A recorded telephone message from the mayor targeted to areas of low response requesting participation in the survey.
  • The placement of “Help Plan Peoria” posters on several CityLink buses.
  • Placement of ads in the Traveler Newspaper.

Despite all those efforts, survey results show only 58 of the survey takers identified themselves as living in the first district, and only 29 described themselves as African Americans.

This is the second attempt at gaining input from citizens. The first one was through a series of public meetings that were so poorly attended that the City decided to cancel the second round of meetings and instead go with the online survey. The survey saw increased participation, but only from certain groups (including a lot of people who live outside the city). So, getting citizen input appears to have been a bit of a struggle.

The Issues Update went on to say:

Although the online survey has been closed at this point, there is still ample opportunity for participation in the Comprehensive Plan process. A series of Public Hearings will begin at the May Planning Commission meeting, and will continue on a monthly basis through September or October of 2008. At each of these meetings, City staff will present recommendations to the Commission, and the Commission will accept public comment and testimony on the recommendations. Further, any resident can call the Planning Department at 494-8600 with comments related to the Comprehensive Plan and the future of Peoria, or send a comment via email to planning@ci.peoria.il.us A detailed listing of future public meetings related to the Comprehensive Plan will be distributed in a future Issues Update.

What’s surprising to me about this whole process is that no consultant — no city planning expert — was called in to help. Not that I think we need a consultant to do every little thing. But this is no little thing.

Consider that we’ve hired a consultant to do a traffic study for the west bluff. We hired a consultant to develop the Heart of Peoria Plan and write the Land Development Code, both of which covered about 8,000 acres of the city. We hired a consultant to help us with the CSO project. We had Caterpillar come in to provide Six Sigma training. We’re likely going to hire a consultant to do an engineering study for the Kellar Branch rail/trail issue.

But for the City’s Comprehensive Plan — the guiding document that will define our public policy direction on everything from land use to transportation for the whole entire city for the next 20 years — we think we don’t need any outside help for that? We have all the expertise we need in house, even though we evidently don’t have it for any of the other, comparatively smaller things I just listed? If the City can’t figure out a way to engage all the stakeholders and get adequate representation from all parts of the city, how will they be able to put together a comprehensive plan that will address the needs of the whole community?

This plan is too important to be one of the few initiatives on which we try to save money by not hiring an expert to assist us. This isn’t the Developer’s Handbook, it’s the Comprehensive Plan! The future of our City will be guided by this document. It’s imperative that we get this one right.

City of Peoria

Riverfront planning session to be held May 3

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Green-Edge PlanThe City’s Economic Development Department has been trying to drum up support for their newest riverfront plan, sometimes called the “Green Edge Plan.” In case you’ve forgotten, this is a plan to build a road along the riverfront from the RiverPlex north to Spring Street (and eventually further north to connect with Grandview Drive) and construct townhouses on the northwest side of the road.

A workshop has been planned for next Saturday, May 3, 8:00 a.m. to noon at the Gateway Building, to get public input on the plan. Here’s the invitation and agenda:

Discuss what Peoria can do to encourage continued improvement in Riverfront Planning.

8:00 a.m. Welcome – Ray Lees, Planning Commission
8:10 a.m. Tom Tincher- Heartland Water Resources Council
8:30 a.m. Terry Kohlbuss – Tri-County Regional Planning
8:45 a.m. Craig Hullinger- Economic Development
9:00 a.m. Break-out session of 10 person planning group.
Discuss ideas, goals and proposals.
11:00 a.m. Present outcome to group
12:00 p.m. Adjourn

The citizen’s input will be placed on the City of Peoria blog at peoriaed.blogspot.com and incorporated into Riverfront planning efforts.

This plan has been getting its fair share of criticism. Owners of Detweiller Marina aren’t too keen on it because of how it would impact their property. Environmentalists aren’t happy with the fact that it would be displacing park land. Others wonder why we’re spending our energy and resources on this plan when we have other plans still in the hopper that we’ve only scratched the surface on — like the Heart of Peoria Plan and its four form districts, just for starters. Still others are concerned that the same developer who gave us “Riverfront Village” (concrete platform on stilts that blocks the view of the river) is involved in this plan.

At the March Planning Commission meeting, environmental activist Tom Edwards brought his own alternative plan to share with the commissioners:

For the record, Mr. Edwards’ alternatives listed on his document titled, “A Synopsis of a New Vision for Peoria’s Historic Riverfront Area,” dated March 11, 2008, are listed as follows:

  1. A hiking/biking trail on the River’s Edge from McCluggage Bridge to the I-74 Murray Baker Bridge.

  2. Keep all development on the outside of the Riverfront Park, i.e., between Adams Street and the park. There is a lot of empty land there, plus little used buildings that could lend themselves to other uses, including apartments and some thriving commercial artists among the solid industries already there.

  3. Begin a continuing long-term joint program of the City and private property owners to locate in existing buildings. Fill in this area with multi-faceted types of development. Improve the attractiveness of Adams Street itself. It is the first view many people get of the City and Riverfront – plus, the view a great many commuters have to live with daily.

  4. With money that would be spent on the proposed highway through the park, instead begin an outreach program with fix-up cost sharing incentives for the entire North Valley neighborhood west of Adams Street.

  5. The former Rock Island Railroad depot building at the foot of Morton Street: Make it a museum for River history.

  6. The proposed apartment development on privately owned land next to Detweiller Marina but not surrounded by the public’s park: It would be a total of 45 units, plus its large parking lot at the foot of Spring Street. This would be a negative for the present and future of the park. It and its parking lot would wall off part of the park and River view to the general public.

    Solution: Arrange a trade for this Riverfront parcel for available land directly opposite but on the outside edge of the park, which would allow apartment residents to have both green space and the lake to view from their windows, and the building and its parking lot would be consuming none of the park or River frontage itself.

  7. There is a small wooded tract at the foot of the McCluggage Bridge. A Riverfront road would eliminate it; but it would be a shady terminus for a simple hiking/biking trail, as well as remaining a green entranceway to the City at the bridge.

  8. Whether called island or peninsulas, river fill is simply more river fill. Halt all taking from the lake; rather, add to it. The River is our lifeline; its lake, our crown jewel.

Mr. Edwards’ plan would be quite a bit more expensive than Hullinger’s, since it would involve the acquisition of private property. One reason Hullinger is putting development on park land is because the city already owns it (this park land is unique in that it’s owned by the City and not the Park District). However, I do agree with Mr. Edwards in this: the City needs to promote (and possibly even incentivize) the reuse of existing buildings in built out areas.

I haven’t quite made up my mind yet, but I’m leaning toward the “let’s finish current plans first” camp. I like Hullinger’s idea, but it just feels like the timing isn’t quite right.

City of Peoria, Comprehensive Plan

Comprehensive Plan survey results are in

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Peoria LogoRoss Black, Assistant Planning Director for the City of Peoria, has released the results of the Comprehensive Plan online survey. You can read the summary results here (PDF file); more details will be released in the near future.

Take a look at them and tell me what you think. Here are some things I thought were interesting or notable:

  • The one-to-ten scale is inverted — lower numbers indicate higher satisfaction or importance and vice versa.
  • They’re still saying that lower scores indicate that something is “not important.” I think that’s misleading, as I’ve explained in this earlier post.
  • Survey-takers’ satisfaction with Peoria as a place to live is decidedly middling: 4.2. In other words, “so-so.”
  • Not surprising was that the top two districts to respond to the survey were the fifth and second districts (29% and 21%, respectively).
  • Very surprising was how many people took the survey who don’t even live in Peoria (18%) — they were actually the third highest group! Gee, thanks for the input, interlopers. I suppose one could make the argument that these are people who have businesses or rental properties in the city, but who personally live outside the city. If so, then the high percentage is even more disturbing.
  • Lowest district representation: first (5%). This is not surprising. The first district includes predominantly lower-income residents, many of whom presumably cannot afford computers and internet access, and even if they can, don’t have the time to spend filling out surveys. There are also a lot of renters who presumably would not have as much interest in the city’s comprehensive planning process. Many may also just simply feel disenfranchised — like nobody cares about their opinions anyway.
  • 93% of respondents were white, 5% were black, 1% were Asian, 1% were “other,” and less than 1% were Native American. According to the 2000 census, 69.3% of Peorians were white, 24.8% were black, 2.3% were Asian, less than 1% were “American Indian.”
  • The higher the income, the more people responded. 80% of respondents had a household income of over $50,000. 20% of respondents had household income less than $50,000. Median household income in 1999, according to the census: $36,397.
  • 35% of respondents would “like to live within walking distance from downtown and the riverfront.” That’s a little more than one out of every three respondents — a significant number.
  • The number one item under Public Health and Human Services: “Provide youth services that guide children toward good behavior.” Wow. Apparently it takes a government to raise a child. When I was a kid, we had parents to guide children toward good behavior. Now we need “youth services” provided by the city.

Your turn. What are your thoughts on the results?