It’s no secret I’ve been disappointed with the Museum Square design and its complete lack of adherence to the Heart of Peoria Plan, which the city council adopted “in principle.” Nevertheless, I have been encouraged by Mayor Ardis’s “City Issues” articles for Interbusiness Issues the last couple of months.

In the January issue, Ardis mentioned his hope that the Heart of Peoria Commission (HOPC) would write and implement Peoria’s Form-Based Code. I went to a public meeting on this subject last October when Ferrell Madden Associates were in town. Form-Based Code is basically an alternative to our current zoning laws that allows for mixed use and puts tighter control on the form, or physical characteristics, of the built environment. The concept makes sense to me, but I can see why it would be a lot of work to actually write the parameters. Let’s just say I “appreciate the complexity of the task.”

This month, Ardis devoted the whole column to giving a complete overview of the HOPC. Granted, he didn’t write it alone, but at least he credited the new HOPC chairman, Bill Washkuhn, for “helping assemble this information.” Regardless of who did most of the writing, I think it’s significant that Ardis devoted the column to HOPC.

Jonathan Ahl predicted (during a year-in-review broadcast of “Outside the Horseshoe”) that the HOPC would be eliminated this year. I can understand why he might think that –they haven’t been terribly effective so far. But there has been quite a bit of turnover on the commission of late, several council members seem to be in favor of the HOP Plan, and Ardis appears to be pushing them to be on-task and productive. If the commission fails, it won’t be for lack of support from the city council.