Category Archives: Heart of Peoria Plan

City Council, Heart of Peoria Plan, Traffic

Council roundup: Good news for older neighborhoods

There were a few items passed by the council Tuesday that are good news for the older part of the city.

First was the Alley Lighting Program. This program will offer property owners, free of charge, high intensity security lights that illuminate the alley serving their property. The city had a similar program from 1995 to 2000, during which time they installed 658 lights. The council voted to spend up to $50,000 to install 150 alley lights in 2006, and tonight they chose to buy the lights from Grainger Electric and have Downard Electric install them.

Secondly, the council approved a contract with Ferrell Madden Associations (FMA) to provide “professional urban design and planning services.” Mayor Ardis praised this as the second phase in implementing the Heart of Peoria Plan (the first phase was the Renaissance Park proposals). Part of the contract is to develop form-based codes for the Heart of Peoria Plan area.

What is a form-based code? Put simply, it is a type of zoning that takes into consideration the context of an improvement or development. For instance, right now if a business in the older part of the city wants to expand, it is held to suburban standards for parking (x number parking spaces for every y number of square feet added). In dense urban areas, this is often impossible because the business is land-locked, so the business either continues without improvement or moves to an area that has more room for expansion, usually on the edge of town where such land is available. A form-based code will take into consideration the urban location and character of an area and apply urban standards for improvement/development of the property.

This goes hand-in-glove with the Heart of Peoria Plan, since it will also allow for mixed-use of properties. (For instance, a store owner could live in an apartment over his store, which would help small-business owners who may not be able to afford a separate store and residence.) This also provides incentive for neighborhood anchor stores to improve and expand, further strengthening the core of the city.

The public gets to provide input on developing the form-based codes (explanatory note to District 150 board members: “public input” means that the public gets to give input before a final decision is made). A charrette will take place May 19-25 at a time and location to be announced.

Finally, the city continues to pursue the purchase of property along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive so that it can one day be widened and improved.

All of these actions were approved unanimously.

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

Museum Square: Boondoggle in the Making, Part IV

I’ve pulled no punches in my criticism of the Heart of Peoria Commission (HOPC) in the past, especially as it relates to Museum Square. I still think they dropped the ball in a big way when they didn’t make any recommendation for or against the site plan, despite its obvious non-conformity with the Heart of Peoria Plan, which the council adopted “in principle.”

But the city council is not without culpability for that failure. I felt a little uncomfortable last night listening to one council member use the HOPC’s failure as an scapegoat for letting this project proceed unhindered.

The HOPC is not an elected body. It’s appointed by the mayor. They don’t make binding decisions, but merely recommendations. The fact that the HOPC couldn’t produce a recommendation should have been a sign that there were problems within the commission that were preventing them from reaching consensus. At best, it should have been a sign that the site plan was controversial. And the council — our elected representatives — should have stepped up to the plate and shown some leadership on that issue.

It’s not like there’s no precedent for the council to take action against the recommendation of a commission. The Railroad Commission recommended preserving the Kellar Branch for competitive rail service, but the council overruled them and approved turning a half-million-dollar asset into a bike path.

The buck stops at the council. Like it or not, regardless of what the commissions recommend or don’t recommend, the council is responsible for the decisions. And the decision to approve this site plan for the Sears block was a poor one.

Why? As I said earlier, the council adopted “in principle” the Heart of Peoria Plan. If that’s going to mean anything, it needs to apply to every developer, not just developers who don’t have Caterpillar backing. And it should apply to every project — especially a project on the “crown jewel” of downtown Peoria.

This museum project doesn’t conform in any way to the Heart of Peoria Plan:

  • The HOP Plan called for high-density development with large buildings, making optimal use of the whole block and having an urban character. The site plan is low-density; roughly two-thirds of the block will be open space with buildings and landscape that will look suburban in character.
  • The HOP Plan called for mixed-use with a residential component to make it a true 24/7 block. The site plan includes a museum, a visitor center, and some small retail that faces Water Street — all things that will close in the evening, leaving the block dead at night.
  • The HOP Plan called for building designs and materials that will blend with the surrounding architecture. The surrounding architecture is traditional, with brick and stone façades. The museum and visitor center designs are modern, with steel and glass façades.
  • While additional parking was envisioned by the HOP Plan for a high-density design for this block, the low-density site plan design doesn’t warrant additional parking since surrounding parking areas are sufficient.

The worst part is, the council had a chance to challenge this site plan, even as late as Tuesday night. Nothing has been built yet. These buildings are still just on paper. I know there’s expense that goes into designing and engineering those drawings, but it’s nothing compared to the cost of actually building the structures.

Unfortunately, since the council won’t stand up to Cat and has a handy scapegoat in the HOPC, it looks like we’ll be stuck with yet another boondoggle.

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.

Heart of Peoria Plan, Peoria Public Schools

Speaking of the Heart of Peoria Plan . . .

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What does the Heart of Peoria Plan have to say about our District 150 schools?  This:

Project Name: Neighborhood Schools.

Finding: Peoria has maintained an architectural legacy of attractive brick school buildings, well located in its inner city neighborhoods.

Discussion: This plan has little to say about the schools, beyond emphasizing their importance to the revitalization of neighborhoods. However, the issue of the schools came up again and again at the charrette. Peoria’s inner city schools are reported to be in much better shape than in many cities, with some particularly noteworthy successes such as the programs at Harrison School. At the charrette, however, a number of citizens brought up the possibility of closing and replacing the inner city schools–including, most pominently, the high school. At a time when many cities are re-discovering the importance of smaller scale neighborhood schools to healthy communities, Peoria has an opportunity to capitalize on a resource that fortunately hasn’t yet been lost as a result of the fashion of the 1960s for increased centralization.

Recommendation:

  • Encourage the continuation and expansion of programs to strengthen Peoria’s well-located historic schools, using available funds to renovate and enhance rather than consolidate or replace these schools.
  • As a priority, renovation should include restoring the glass in the windows.

I thought the line about increased centralization being “the fashion of the 1960s” was especially amusing in light of all the people who think tearing down old buildings is “progressive.”

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 of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

City planning largely to blame for isolation

I’ve been commenting on quite a few Journal Star articles today. I should send them a thank-you note for supplying me so much material. But they did have another interesting piece — this one on elderly residents who stop driving due to safety concerns.

The subhead for the article reads, “the loss of independence can leave them [the elderly] isolated.” One of the elderly non-drivers interviewed for the story said, “I’m having to depend on other people to take me where I want to go.” But the article never addresses the underlying reason for this dependence on others to drive them around.

That reason is our city planning or urban design — specifically, that our city is largely designed for cars rather than for people. Peoria has much of its housing completely segregated from shopping, entertainment, business, etc., because of zoning laws that have not allowed mixed uses of property. This kind of design requires dependence on the automobile to take one from one type of zoning to another (from home to work, from work to the store, from the store to home, etc.). Thus, this kind of city plan is hardest on those who don’t have automobile transportation: children, the poor, and the elderly.

That’s why the Heart of Peoria Plan, which is based on New Urbanism, recommends the reinstitution of mixed use neighborhoods. For example, if there is a market within easy walking distance, and the neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly, non-driving elderly persons don’t feel quite as isolated because they can still walk to the store and pick up some groceries themselves without relying on someone to drive them around. Similarly, if there’s a restaurant or cafe nearby, they can walk to such a gathering place themselves, without having to ask for a lift.

When my grandfather stopped driving, it wasn’t because he was feeble or unable to live on his own. Sure his eyesight and reaction time weren’t as sharp as they used to be, but he could still walk, fix himself meals, and live alone in an apartment. If he had lived in a mixed-use neighborhood, there are a lot more things he could have done himself without relying on others to drive him. The isolation he felt was the result of automobile-dependent urban design.

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.

Heart of Peoria Plan, Renaissance Park

Renaissance Park gets new website

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If you haven’t seen the new website for Renaissance Park, formerly the Med-Tech District, click here.

It looks pretty nice, actually. I notice there are a lot of stylized drawings and artists’ renditions of things, and very few real pictures of what the area looks like. I suppose that’s because, (a) right now there’s a big hole in the ground where the Innovation Center will be built, and (b) they’re trying to sell the vision for the area, not the current “look.”

Renaissance Park is part of the larger Heart of Peoria Plan, so it’s encouraging to see this part of the Plan progressing. Some may say what’s happened so far is all fluff, but I think good marketing is a key component of revitalizing that area, so this is definitely progress.

Click on “Read the rest of this entry” below to read the official press release:

Continue reading Renaissance Park gets new website →

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

Council Roundup: Boring

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Hey, not every meeting can be filled with exciting and/or controversial issues worthy of blogging. Tonight’s meeting was a pretty big yawn. They are looking at the city’s health insurance benefits, trying to determine if they’re comparable with other municipalities. Riveting.

The Heart of Peoria Commission received council support to ask for $500,000 in federal funds from the Economic Development Initiatives Program. These funds would be used for infrastructure improvements in the Warehouse District, marketing for the Heart of Peoria Plan area, and possibly the establishment of a design studio. Basically, passage of this tonight means that they’ll send a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin asking for the money. It passed unanimously.

The last thing on the agenda was approving an ordinance that prohibits people under 21 years old from serving alcoholic beverages. Gary Sandberg clarified that this would still allow under-age wait staff at restaurants to deliver alcoholic beverages to tables. It passed unanimously.

Barbara Van Auken mentioned that some Bradley students are going to be doing their senior project on improving the Sheridan-Loucks business corridor. That will actually be pretty cool. I’d like to see some updating along that stretch — and attracting some new businesses. It’s a nice area.

And finally, the only mildly-exciting moment was when Michael Langley addressed the council and got into a little sparring match with Patrick Nichting that Mayor Ardis had to break up. That was entertaining.

I don’t want to depress you, but it will be another whole week before we get to have another fun-filled evening in council chambers.

Heart of Peoria Plan, Museum Block, Peoria Civic Center

Hotel misplaced?

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The Journal Star reports that the Civic Center Authority will be deciding today whether to “enter into land negotiations with an unidentified developer” to build a hotel adjacent to the Civic Center.

Isn’t there already a hotel near the Civic Center called the Hotel Pere Marquette?  Granted, it’s not immediately adjoining, but do they really think that the extra block is driving convention-goers away?  I mean, everyone went apoplectic at the threat of an Embassy Suites going up right across the river.  If convention guests are willing to commute from across the river, it doesn’t look like proximity is the main problem.

I’m guessing the Pere was looking forward to the Civic Center expansion.  More events at the Civic Center means more guests at the hotel.  Only now, if the Civic Center Authority approves this development, all those extra guests will be going to the new Civic Center hotel.

Of course, that’s capitalism, so more power to them.  Still, I can’t help but think this hotel is misplaced.  Wouldn’t it be better, say, down on Museum Square?  You know, like the Heart of Peoria Plan suggested?

Huh (*shakes head*). The Heart of Peoria Plan . . . how passé.