Category Archives: Peoria Park District

City of Peoria, Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Schools

Wal-Mart wants Peoria Stadium for new Super Center

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walmart-supercenterPEORIA — Attorneys for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., have notified the City of Peoria, the Peoria Park District, and Peoria Public Schools (District 150) that their client wants to purchase “a portion of Peoria Stadium on War Memorial Drive … for the construction and operation of a Walmart Super Center.”

The letter states that they have read the recent Peoria Journal Star articles on public reaction to selling the stadium site, and that they are “committed to working with each of the public bodies to arrive at a mutually beneficial development.”

Wal-Mart proposes that the school district sell the entire 76-acre site to the City of Peoria. The City would then sell a portion of the site, adjacent to War Memorial Drive and New York Avenue, to Wal-Mart for them to construct their Super Center. Another portion of the land, “within the Stadium Site closer to Lake Street,” would be leased to the Park District to satisfy terms of the Park District’s grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). Any remaining parcels would be sold.

Wal-Mart also proposes that the City of Peoria create a business district for the entire stadium site. A business district is an economic development/incentive program under state law. Incentives include reimbursing a business a portion of the cost of redeveloping land within the district, rebating occupation taxes, and even levying taxes within the business district for the purposes of redevelopment. The City currently has such a district downtown called the Hospitality Improvement Zone Business Development District; an extra 1% tax is collected in the HIZ BDD to help pay for the Pere Marquette redevelopment and Courtyard by Marriott construction.

Walmart-Peoria-Stadium Letter (PDF)

2013 Election, City Council, City of Peoria, Kellar Branch, Peoria Park District

New council candidate chooses puzzling platform

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Dan Adler (1409 W Kingsway Dr.), a 31-year-old Caterpillar engineer has announced he’s going to run for the 5th District City Council seat next spring, according to the Journal Star. His campaign will focus on “economic growth, regional competitiveness and civic participation,” according to a press release. That’s all well and good. But then the story takes a turn toward the bizarre:

Adler said one development issue he wants to focus on is completion of the Kellar Branch Trail.

He said he thinks it’s important for public officials to raise the required capital needed to complete an underpass beneath Knoxville Avenue to get trail users across the busy street.

“There was a lot of excitement last year when it opened to the public,” Adler said. “But we haven’t locked down the capital funding for the big under and overpass. There is so much energy over that trail for Peoria to be more open and active and walkable, and we’re pushing that off.”

First of all, the Kellar Branch trail is the Peoria Park District’s responsibility to fund, construct, and maintain–not the City’s. Perhaps Mr. Adler should consider running for the park board if his interests lie in increasing funding for our parks system.

Secondly, the Peoria Park District announced five months ago that “the Knoxville underpass has been funded” and design is underway. In fact, they’re close to starting construction on it now. Mr. Adler is apparently unaware of these developments. (Or else he subscribes to Rep. Leitch’s funding-things-that-are-already-funded school of thought.)

If Mr. Adler is concerned about making Peoria more “open and active and walkable,” I would suggest he do some research on “complete streets.” Implementing this kind of design for Peoria’s infrastructure would make Peoria more accessible for all users of the public right-of-way. And it’s something that’s actually in the City’s jurisdiction, not the Park District’s.сондажи

Kellar Branch, Peoria Park District

Exploring the new Kellar Trail (UPDATED)

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My dad and I rode our bikes from Alta to downtown on as much of the vaunted new Kellar trail as we could find. Getting from Alta to Pioneer Parkway was easy enough. Then we followed the blacktop sidewalk/trail to Sommer street, and rode down to Candletree. There we got a little confused, as there’s a green sign that says “Bike Route” with an arrow pointing to the right. However, the Kellar trail actually continues to the left.

Once we got that figured out, we were able to ride down to the intersection of Knoxville and Northmoor. There, we were unable to figure out where the trail went, so we followed the old rail corridor as best we could up to and across Knoxville where we found another paved portion of the trail — this one with a broken yellow line down the center. That took us as far as Glen Avenue, where the trail ended, never to be found again.

From there, we followed the old rail corridor to Prospect in Peoria Heights. After that, the corridor was choked with weeds (which is surprising since Peoria Heights made such a big stink about the condition of the corridor when the rail line was there), so we had to ride on streets parallel to the “trail.” Looking at the description of the Kellar trail that appeared in the Journal Star last November, it doesn’t look like any progress has been made since then. That’s also surprising, since I thought the Park District had sufficient grants to cover this rail-to-trail conversion — grants they were afraid of losing if they didn’t get used right away. Why is so much of the trail unfinished?

There were some other people on the trail between Alta and Peoria Heights. I counted 13. Given the hype of how popular this trail is supposed to be, and given the pavement markings creating lanes for traffic, I expected to see more people. I also expected to see more signs of commerce, since this trail is supposed to be an economic catalyst. It didn’t look like any of the people we passed had been shopping. I didn’t see any new commercial developments along the trail, either — no apartments or condos or McDonald’s.

As I encountered large and small gaps in the trail, I couldn’t help but wonder whatever happened to all those green signs demanding, “Build the Trail … NOW!” The project is incomplete, and there appears to be little or no progress, but we’re no longer hearing any angry demands to complete the project from the Friends of the Rock Island Trail or the other supporters. Perhaps the wanton destruction of a working rail line was success enough for them.

UPDATE: Mike Friberg, bike trail project manager for the Park District, explained the status of the project:

Just to let you know, the trail section from Northmoor to Candletree is actually still under the final phases of construction (the punchlist). We’re currently working with IDOT – our funding source- on the design for the trail section from Glen Ave. south to Springdale Cemetery. We’re still working on the temporary connection crossing Knoxville – that will go through Junction City and cross Knoxville at the Northmoor light. I fully agree that things are confusing right now, but give us a bit of time and we’ll get it worked out -the asphalt has barely cooled!

For current information (ok, yes, I need to update it more frequently!) you can look on the Park District’s main website and follow the links to the bike trail web page. I’m not sure on CJ’s restrictions on advertising here, so I’ll let you find the link on your own. [Here’s the link –C.J.] I also have a FAQ discussing some of the questions you raise above.

If anyone has any questions on the trail that the FAQ doesn’t address, or you just want to send fan mail, please feel free to contact me – my contact information is at the bottom of the bike trail page. Thanks!

My thanks to Mike for the additional information. Here is Mike’s contact info:

Mike Friberg
1314 N. Park Road
Peoria, IL 61604

(309) 686-3386
mfriberg@peoriaparks.org

City of Peoria, Kellar Branch, Museum Block, Peoria County, Peoria Mayor, Peoria Park District, Taxes

PJS Editorial pretends City asset giveaways have nothing to do with budget crisis

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A couple of responses to today’s Journal Star editorial. First, there’s this:

Even Mayor Jim Ardis, who never saw a tax increase he didn’t greet with contempt, seems to have come to the realization that City Hall probably can’t cut its way out of this.

That’s not exactly accurate. Mayor Ardis happily voted to increase sales taxes by 1% within the Hospitality Improvement Zone downtown.

And then, there’s this:

As a result [of the need to make more cuts to city services or raise taxes to balance the budget], a fair number of locals are venting, understandably, though some of them paint either-or scenarios that do not exist. Indeed, the choice is not a recreational trail vs. police officers, or a museum vs. firefighters. The vast majority of the funding for those quality-of-life projects comes out of dedicated revenue streams controlled by other local governments – the park district and county, respectively, with the help of grants. Those dollars couldn’t be used to put more badges on the streets even if the council wanted to. Like them or hate them, those projects — one of them initiated by a successful citizen referendum — are not what created this operating deficit.

First of all, this framing of the argument is obviously a “straw man.” I know of no “locals” who have made the assertions they are countering. Clearly “either-or scenarios” as painted here do not exist. But to imply that these projects have absolutely no relation to the City’s fiscal crisis is also false.

Yes, construction of the rail-to-trail project is funded by the Park District, but it’s only made possible by the City of Peoria giving away a $3 million asset to the Park District for one dollar. The City just threw away $3 million (or at least $750,000, the last bona fide offer to purchase the rail line) while at the same time they need to cut $800,000 from this year’s budget. Why didn’t they put the land up for sale to the highest bidder? Putting this land into the hands of a rail carrier and working with them to woo new manufacturing business to Pioneer Industrial Park would have resulted in raising the tax base in Peoria through new business and new jobs.

Then there’s the Sears block, which has lain dormant for over a decade now because the City won’t enforce deadlines on redevelopment agreements. This is prime real estate that could be parceled off and sold, which would provide a couple of things: income from the initial sale, and on-going revenue from sales and property taxes by the businesses who locate there. Instead, the City is sitting on the land indefinitely, until they can finally give it away for nothing to be used by a non-profit organization that will be a perpetual drain on the county taxpayers.

In addition to the lost opportunity to generate revenue with these assets, taxpayers now have to pay for their development and maintenance in perpetuity. That means we have to pay higher taxes to support these drains on the economy. And that exacerbates the City’s budget woes. Since taxes are high because of increases by other local governments (to which the City directly contributed, as shown above), it puts pressure on the City not to add to the tax burden. And that means the City continues to try to balance its budget by cutting — police, fire, public works, etc.

The Journal Star is simply trying to rationalize its support for non-essential pet projects by using straw-man arguments to dismiss valid criticism.

See also Billy Dennis’s post in response to today’s PJS editorial.

City Council, City of Peoria, Kellar Branch, Peoria Park District, Village of Peoria Heights

Taxpayers to be soaked $1,250,969 for non-essential trail — and that’s just the beginning

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I’ve been saying it ever since the sphynxlike Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation first appeared that its clandestine efforts were going to cost the taxpayers lots of money. Now we know just how much: $1,250,969.

That’s the amount of money in taxpayer dollars the Peoria Park District is going to pony up to buy out the leasehold interests of two rail companies on the Kellar Branch rail line: Pioneer Railcorp and Central Illinois Railroad. Doing so will free up the middle portion of the line to be converted into a recreational trail.

But that’s the beginning. After they buy out the leasehold interests, they still have to actually build the trail, which will cost untold millions itself. In 2006, the estimated cost of conversion was just under $6.5 million.

But there are other costs. The City of Peoria actually owns the Kellar Branch. So in order for this plan to go through, the City has to give the Kellar Branch (technically, the easement) to the Park District. The appraised value of the Kellar Branch is $2,872,500. So how much is the City planning to ask for this valuable asset? $1. That’s right, $1. And the City doesn’t even get the salvage rights for the rails.

Perfect timing. Right on the heels of a City Council retreat where we learned the City is facing a $10-11 million budget deficit and is in dire need of a new revenue source, our illustrious City Council will likely approve a request next Tuesday to squander a nearly $3 million asset. Pioneer Railcorp at one time offered the city $750,000 for the line, but the City turned them down. No, they were holding out for the Park District’s winning bid of $1.

Anyone who thought that the Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation was buying out the rail carriers’ leasehold interests out of charity was naive. Included in that $1.25 million is $140,800 for the Corporation’s “expenses.” No list of expenses is given. I suspect it includes a little reward from the Park District for finally acquiring what they’ve coveted for so long.

For those of you keeping score, let’s see what our new grand total is for tax dollars wasted on non-essentials/poor investments:

“Wonderful Development” (Downtown Hotel) $37,000,000
Peoria Riverfront Museum $34,700,000
Firefly Energy Loan Guarantee $6,000,000
Civic Center Expansion $55,000,000
Kellar Branch acquisition $1,250,969
Kellar Branch conversion $6,441,738
Total $140,392,707

It’s like they say, pretty soon you’re talking real money. But we can’t afford to fix sidewalks or resurface streets, or fully staff our police and fire departments. Yes, I know I’m conflating expenses from several municipal organizations (City, County, Park District), but the fact is that all that tax money comes from the same source: our pockets. The Park District raising its property tax levy puts pressure on the City not to raise its levy. It’s all related.

Perhaps we could take those toll booths we’re removing from Riverfront Village and install them at the entrances to the Kellar Branch trail. Given the number of users predicted by the Journal Star, we should be able to solve our entire budget deficit by charging a modest toll.

City of Peoria, Kellar Branch, Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Park District

Park District can walk lapdog Journal Star on new trail

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The Peoria Journal Star has published another article on the proposed Kellar Branch conversion. Of course, it is information that was on the blogs two weeks ago. However, since they’re a full-time, mainstream media outlet, and not just doing journalism as a hobby, they had the time and access to contact several people for quotes about the project, including Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, Pioneer Railcorp attorney Bill Mullins, Park District director Bonnie Noble, and head of the inscrutable Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation Tom Leiter.

Here’s what the Journal Star didn’t ask any of these people: Why did Pioneer Railcorp (who has steadfastly opposed trail conversion) change their mind? What is the purpose of the Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation? It’s been reported that Leiter’s company “bought out” the interests of the parties on the Kellar Branch; how much did that cost? Will those costs be passed on to the taxpayers? If so, why has that agreement not been publicly disclosed?

These are all questions that a watchdog media would have asked. But the Journal Star, which has long been a lapdog for the Peoria Park District, took a pass on doing any investigation that would hold public officials accountable for disclosing what’s being done or going to be done with our tax money. No doubt they’ll report on the costs after the fact, the same way they put a big article on the costs of a new charter school the day after the school board voted to approve it.

City Council, City of Peoria, Methodist Hospital, OSF St. Francis, Peoria Park District

Big non-profits doth protest too much

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The Journal Star is reporting that some area non-profit businesses are concerned about the possibility of the City Council imposing a 5% utility tax on water:

With the City Council weighing a possible 5 percent utility tax on water, not-for-profit organizations such as hospitals, colleges and local governments like the Peoria Park District are examining how they can absorb a cost that could impact their operations….

Chief financial officers at the city’s cash-strapped hospitals — OSF Saint Francis Medical Care Center, Methodist Medical Center and Proctor Hospital — say the proposed increase could lead to operational changes within their organizations….

St. Francis spends about $600,000 each year on water. A 5 percent utility tax would increase the expense by $30,000, Harbaugh said.

At Methodist, the hospital’s water bill ran about $300,000 last year, and the proposed increase would mean an extra $15,000 to $20,000 a year in expenses, said Cal MacKay, the hospital’s senior vice president and CFO….

Peoria Park District Director Bonnie Noble said her district is estimating a 24 percent increase in water rates for next year, or an additional $60,000 tacked onto a typical annual water bill of $250,000. She said costs for park services could go up if the water utility costs spike.

“We’d have to spread the costs,” Noble said. “You just can’t keep absorbing these kind of things and run the same kind of operation you’ve run before.”

Three entities are looked at in detail here: OSF, Methodist, and the Park District. And we have an estimated annual increase in water bills for each entity: $30,000 for OSF, $15-20,000 for Methodist, and $12,500 for the Park District. Note on the Park District’s quote that the $60,000 figure listed in the article included Illinois American Water’s rate increase, which is outside the city’s control and was not figured into the OSF or Methodist figures. So, to compare apples with apples, I took the city’s proposed 5% fee times the Park District’s annual water bill of $250,000.

Now let’s take a look at some other recent news stories about these organizations (emphasis added):

The new OSF Center for Health at Glen Park will be open to the public Sunday. The 53,000-square-foot facility is set to open its doors after 19 months of construction on the $18 million project, which includes three buildings on the campus featuring 24 primary care physicians.

–June 12, 2009

On an average day, 200 tradesmen work on the hospital’s [OSF’s] $280 million Milestone Project, designed to modernize and expand the center and Children’s Hospital….

–January 17, 2009

What’s the monthly debt service on $298 million? I think it’s safe to say that one monthly payment alone dwarfs the $30,000 annual increase in costs that could result from the city’s imposition of a water utility fee. $30,000 is a rounding error for OSF.

Methodist Medical Center will delay the final two stages of its $400 million hospital renovation project until tight conditions in the credit market begin to loosen, CEO Michael Bryant said Thursday…. Methodist will continue with the first two phases of its massive renovation plan, which carry a combined price tag of nearly $30 million and include building a parking deck and constructing a new entrance to the hospital off Hamilton Boulevard.

–November 7, 2008

The same goes for Methodist. Even a more modest principal amount of $30 million will result in monthly debt service payments that go way beyond the predicted annual increase of $15,000 to $20,000. To put this increase in perspective, a single birth can cost a patient that much money.

But here’s my favorite:

In anticipation of shrinking revenues, the Peoria Park District will cut its budget for the rest of the year by $390,000, but the public will not be overly affected. “On a $40 million budget, this is less than 1 percent,” said Jan Budzynski, the park districts’s superintendent of finance and administrative services.

March 3, 2009

So, let me get this straight: Cutting $390,000 out of the park district budget is no big deal — it’s less than one percent of the budget and “the public will not be overly affected” — but an increase of $12,500 in water fees is going to be difficult to absorb — so much so that they’ll have to raise the cost of park services? [Insert “Dueling Banjos” music here.] It probably goes without saying, but the Park District can’t have it both ways.

It sounds to me like all these protests are pretty weak. If an attempt is being made to garner opposition to the water utility fee, this isn’t the way to do it. These large organizations with their conspicuous building projects aren’t going to get a lot of sympathy from the public. In fact, hearing how little this fee would impact them monetarily, it actually makes me more favorable toward it.

Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Schools

Park District looking to buy Prospect properties from School District

85 Comments

Remember back in 2006 when District 150 purchased several properties adjacent to Glen Oak Park in hopes of locating a new school there? Well, now the Peoria Park District wants to buy them, and they’re asking for some help from Congressman Schock.

Included in Schock’s appropriations requests is one for “land appraisal, platting, demolition and acquisition to provide open public access to [Glen Oak] park.” I asked for some more information on this request from the Park District, and David Wheeler kindly sent me this text from their application for Federal assistance:

Glen Oak Park is bordered on the southwest corner with 12 residences owned by the local school district. Originally purchased for the purpose of constructing a school adjacent to Glen Oak Park, their plans have changed and the 2 acres of land is now available for the purpose of adding invaluable open space and stability to a social and economically challenged east bluff neighborhood. It will provide open public access to the park from the neighborhoods to the west, open up visibility and provide a higher degree of safety in one of Illinois’ oldest and most historic 19th century parks. Glen Oak Park is well known for its ancient oak trees, looped “carriage” drives, views of the Illinois River and was designed by the renowned landscape architect, Oscar Dubois. The opportunity to purchase land for expanding open space in an older established neighborhood is a rare occurrence and the opportunity is now.

To the best of my knowledge, the school district actually owns eight properties on the southwest corner of Glen Oak Park, not twelve. I double-checked the county’s website just to see if D150 picked up any additional land there, and it doesn’t appear they have. So either this was a minor error on the application, or else the school district has recently purchased additional properties.

In any case, I have to take issue with this proposed transaction for a few reasons:

  1. It’s odd that the park district, which just finished shrinking the size of the park in order to expand the zoo, would now be concerned about expanding the size of the park. It’s also strange that they would cite the “ancient oak trees,” many of which were uprooted to make way for the zoo expansion.

  2. If this transaction goes through, it will be the second time the taxpayers have paid for these properties. The school district bought these eight properties with $877,500 of tax money (and overpaid for them at that; fair-market value of the properties in 2005 was $609,540). Now the park district wants to use $1.2 million of tax money to purchase the same properties again (and demolish the structures). How many times do we taxpayers have to buy the same land? And why does the cost keep going up each time?

  3. If the properties are sold to the Park District, they will remain off the property tax rolls. That hurts not only those who receive property tax revenue (like the School District and the Park District, just to name a couple), but everyone who pays property taxes as well. Whenever tax-paying property is taken off the tax rolls, the remaining property owners pick up the slack. The School Board should be trying to get more property on the tax rolls where it can produce annual revenue for the district.

Also, if the school district does indeed only own the eight properties they purchased in 2006, here are their locations:

You’ll notice they’re not contiguous; how long before the park district tries to acquire the remaining properties?

City of Peoria, Museum Block, Peoria County, Peoria Park District

More than just sales taxes may support museum

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Did you know that your property taxes indirectly support Lakeview Museum? Karrie Alms does. She’s a community activist and frequent commenter here at the Peoria Chronicle. While doing her usual detailed research, she came across a property tax levy fund titled “Fund 123 MUSEUM PEORIA PARK.” That caught her eye, so she asked Park Board President Tim Cassidy about it. He explained:

Presently Lakeview museum owns and operates museum operations. The PPD [Peoria Park District] owns the land and building and allows Lakeview to use it under an agreement that is now several decades old.

Mr. Cassidy also confirmed that Lakeview does not pay rent for its use of the building, and “the amount of [the] museum fund levy going to Lakeview museum facility is $189,234 per the 2009 budget.” Not having to pay rent or upkeep on the building and grounds surely helps Lakeview’s bottom line and also explains why they didn’t include funds for capital improvement in their pro forma for the proposed downtown museum.

So, what happens if/when the museum moves downtown? As I reported in a previous post (“Is Peoria’s History Getting a Back Seat?” July 13, 2007) after talking to museum officials, “When the new museum opens, Lakeview is planning to hang on to its building at Lake and University to be used for storage because there’s not going to be enough storage space at the new museum. In particular, there’s not very much space planned in the new museum for special, climate-controlled storage of fragile pieces.” However, it doesn’t appear that the Park District has agreed to let the museum continue to use the building. Cassidy told Alms:

If Lakeview museum left the site to go downtown [its] continued [use] of present site would be subject to further agreement based on PPD needs for the facility. […] PPD has no final plans for Lakeview facility use if museum leaves. It remains open for discussion, although one use considered is a senior recreation/leisure facility for programming needs.

Cassidy also said that continued use of the Lakeview building “has never been approved by PPD. In fact specific request has not been made for PPD to formally act.”

If the new museum is unable to use the current Lakeview building for storage, they will have to find storage elsewhere. Without a rent-free (i.e., taxpayer-subsidized) facility to use, cost of that storage would impact the museum’s profitability. The Museum Collaboration Group can’t just assume they will be able to continue using that building (rent-free, at that) when their lease expires in 2012. Off-site, specialized storage costs should be figured into their pro forma.

The Park District/Lakeview Museum arrangement also raises another question. In the ground lease the Museum Collaboration Group signed with the City of Peoria for the old Sears block, it has this interesting provision:

11.2 Permitted Assignees. Notwithstanding anything in this Lease to the contrary, Tenant may assign Tenant’s interest in the Lease as follows:

11.2.1 Peoria Park District. Provided the District (“Peoria Park District”) agrees, the Tenant may assign Tenant’s leasehold interest in this Lease to the Peoria Park District, subject to the following: (i) Tenant shall not be relieved of any of its obligations under this Lease and Redevelopment Agreement; (ii) the Peoria Park District shall be obligated to observe the terms and conditions of the Lease applicable to Tenant; provided, however, that the Peoria Park District shall have no personal liability to Landlord, Tenant or any third parties with respect to the Lease, the Redevelopment Agreement or the Real Property, with such liability limited strictly to Tenant’s leasehold interest in the Lease; and (iii) the Landlord shall be entitled to enforce the provisions of the Lease and the Redevelopment Agreement directly against the Tenant, who shall continue to have available to it all the rights and obligations of the Tenant under this Lease and Redevelopment Agreement notwithstanding such assignment.

The “Tenant” would be the Peoria Riverfront Museum, and the “obligations under this lease” would include repair, maintenance, alterations, and additions to the building and grounds. If the museum were to assign its interest in the lease to the Park District, then the Park District could use its funds — i.e., Peoria property taxes — to maintain the building and grounds. Here you can check about student loan interest deduction with guide of an experienced firm like taxfyle. That would certainly be more than taxpayers bargained for if they approve the sales tax referendum on April’s ballot.

No deal has been made to assign the lease to the Park District at this time according to Cassidy. But the legal language is in place and could be acted upon if the sales tax referendum is approved and construction of the facility is allowed to proceed. It’s something to think about when you go to the polls on April 7.

Peoria Park District

Park District levy still going up, just not as much

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“Peoria Park District cuts levy,” the Journal Star headline reads. The article starts, “Taxpayers will be glad to hear the Peoria Park District just adjusted this year’s levy – down – by $63,000.”

That sounds pretty exciting… until you realize that the levy is still over three-quarters of a million dollars more than last year. The Journal Star reported on November 20, 2008:

A $41.4 million budget for 2009 was cleared by Peoria Park District trustees in less than 17 minutes Wednesday. That budget includes a $14.5 million tax levy, which is $821,000 more than the amount in the 2008 budget.

So, it appears to me that instead of the levy going up $821,000, it’s now going up “only” $758,000, or $63,000 less than originally planned. It’s better than a sharp stick in the eye, but not quite as exciting as the paper makes it sound.