Tag Archives: Heart of Peoria Commission

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

City staff omits key fact about HOPC’s ‘review’ of museum design

14 Comments

Before the City Council can give away the museum block for $1, they first have to approve the “design concepts” for the museum. On the council communication, under “neighborhood concerns,” it states, “Heart of Peoria Commission reviewed the drawings prior to Council approval on April 4, 2006.” This is misleading. First of all, the design plans have changed dramatically since 2006. The council communication does acknowledge that there have been “some revisions,” but that’s rather understated, considering the size of the building decreased by 26%, retail development has been pushed off to a future phase, etc. Secondly, the Heart of Peoria Commission recommended denial of the changes that reduced the building size in 2007.

Why is City staff not providing council members with all the facts? What other facts have they omitted?

HOPC

Still waiting for former HOPC commissioners to organize advocacy group

26 Comments

It was a year ago this month that the Heart of Peoria Commission voted 5-2 to disband, and the City Council obliged. Commissioners who voted in favor of disbanding were chairman Bill Washkuhn (who has since passed away, sadly), Henry Lawrence, Mark Misselhorn, Julie Waldschmidt, and Geoff Smith. Beth Akeson and I were the only dissenting votes.

The primary argument was this, from my December 1, 2008, post:

The theory goes that commissioners could have more of an impact if we weren’t a city commission. We could instead organize ourselves as a public advocacy group, similar to Peoria City Beautiful. This would free us from the restrictions of the City Council and the Open Meetings Act, allowing us to meet as often as we want and have a coordinated lobbying effort of council members.

So, I think it’s only fair on this anniversary of our commission’s demise to ask, where is this vaunted public advocacy group that the those favoring disbandment feigned interest in starting? Mark? Geoff? Henry? Julie? Funny, I haven’t heard a thing — not a peep — about this idea since our last meeting on December 5, 2008. We’re all free from the dreaded Open Meetings Act now. When’s the first meeting? What lobbying have you done in favor of the Heart of Peoria Plan this past year?

*chirp* *chirp* *chirp*

So much for having more impact.

2009 Campaign, City Council, City of Peoria, Elections

Beth Akeson to run for Third District council seat

77 Comments

I just received this e-mail from the vice-chairman of the Heart of Peoria Commission, Beth Akeson:

I have gathered the required signatures and completed the necessary paperwork to run for Peoria’s third district council seat.

These documents will be turned in tomorrow, December 15, 2008. I look forward to a positive campaign as I champion Peoria’s older neighborhoods, advocate for doing the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way.

In other correspondence, she also says she will be “an advocate for proactive policy.” Beth has served on the Heart of Peoria Commission since its inception in 2004, having been appointed by former Mayor Dave Ransburg. She ran unsuccessfully for a Peoria Board of Education seat in 2007. Beth has also contributed several guest editorials here at the Peoria Chronicle.

Current third district councilman Bob Manning recently announced he is not running for reelection. The only other candidate to formally announce a run for Manning’s seat is Peoria County Board member Tim Riggenbach. Candidates have until 5 p.m. Monday to file petitions, so more candidates may come forward.

HOPC

Condolences

2 Comments

I just received word that the Chairman of the Heart of Peoria Commission, Bill Washkuhn, has passed away. Here’s the e-mail I received from Planning and Growth Director Pat Landes:

Our office just received word that Bill Washkuhn, current chair of the HOP/C, died this morning. Our office has worked with Bill for nearly 30 years on land use issues, usually as the applicant representing clients for zoning and subdivisions. Bill also generously contributed his time and expertise, serving on various ad-hoc groups focusing on development processing and zoning issues. More recently he served on the Heart of Peoria Commission and was appointed by the Mayor as chair. We’ve always enjoyed our working relationship with Bill, particularly his treatment of staff and good communication with our elected officials.

Please keep Bill, his wife Linda, and their two sons in your thoughts and prayers.

I just saw Bill on Friday — three days ago — at our last Heart of Peoria Commission meeting. Although he was in a wheelchair due to some recent surgery, he was his usual affable self. The news of his passing comes as a real shock to me.

I didn’t know Bill very well personally. I only saw him at commission meetings and occasionally at a City Council meeting. But he was always friendly, well-informed, and full of amusing turns of phrase. I always enjoyed talking to him.

We disagreed on whether HOPC should continue or not. He voted for disbanding, and I voted against it. But afterward, I helped him get to the parking garage where his ride was waiting and we talked briefly about the prospect of starting a private advocacy committee for the Heart of Peoria Plan. I was looking forward to working with him more in the future. I’m so saddened to hear of his passing.

My deepest condolences to his family. May the Lord comfort them.

City Council, City of Peoria, HOPC

HOPC votes to disband

4 Comments

At the Heart of Peoria Commission meeting this morning, commissioners in attendance voted 5-2 to disband. Voting in favor were Chairman Bill Washkuhn and Commissioners Henry Lawrence, Mark Misselhorn, Julie Waldschmidt, and Geoff Smith. Voting against were Vice Chair Beth Akeson and me. Commissioner Nancy Biggins was undecided and did not vote. Commissioners Dick Schwebel and Joe Richey were unable to attend the meeting.

The vote was technically a recommendation to dissolve the commission. That recommendation goes to the City Council as they will have the final say on whether to disband the commission or not. Planning and Growth Director Pat Landes informed the commission that the council will consider our request at their December 15 meeting, which starts at 5 p.m.

Included in the recommendation is a request that all commissioners be appointed to another city commission if they aren’t already. Those who are not currently dual appointed are Akeson, Waldschmidt, Washkuhn, and me. However, Waldschmidt lives in East Peoria and Washkuhn lives in Peoria Heights, so they would be ineligible for most other commission appointments.

There’s a possibility that a private advocacy group could be established to take up the mantle of a disbanded Heart of Peoria Commission. I’ll let you know if anything develops.

HOPC

HOPC meeting on Dec. 5 may be last

10 Comments

Some Heart of Peoria Commission members want the commission to voluntarily disband, possibly as early as our next meeting — the final one for 2008 — on December 5 at 8:00 a.m. The theory goes that commissioners could have more of an impact if we weren’t a city commission. We could instead organize ourselves as a public advocacy group, similar to Peoria City Beautiful. This would free us from the restrictions of the City Council and the Open Meetings Act, allowing us to meet as often as we want and have a coordinated lobbying effort of council members.

This idea has been going around for a while. We talked about it at one of our meetings a year ago or so when the Council was considering disbanding HOPC. At that time, HOPC voted to oppose that move. The Council decided to keep HOPC, but cut all funding for the commission and reduced its meeting schedule to six times per year. So now voluntary disbandment is back on the agenda for discussion at our Dec. 5 meeting.

I have no idea if it’s any more likely to pass. The last time, we ultimately decided that the advantages of being a city commission outweighed the advantages of being a private advocacy group. Should make for an interesting discussion.

General News

Still under the weather

5 Comments

I’m still under the weather, hence no new posts. Sorry. If I had time and felt like writing, I would put up posts on these topics:

  • St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols is the 2008 Most Valuable Player.

  • Ken Spirito is leaving Peoria. He got another job someplace else — I think on the radio they said Newport News. Congrats to him. He certainly improved air service to Peoria while he was here. Of course, he also raised taxes through his ambitious new terminal building project.

  • District 150 is going to raise taxes again. They take more of our money each year, yet things never seem to get better.

  • The Heart of Peoria Commission meets this Thursday morning at City Hall. Yes, we usually meet on Fridays, but our regularly-scheduled meeting would have ended up on the day after Christmas. So we rescheduled the December meeting for November 20.

  • Why do people write Ann Landers with their problems? What is the thought process? “I’ve got to get help with this problem. Should I talk to my friends? My spouse? My favorite uncle? My pastor? My therapist? No! I’ll write to Ann Landers, instead. Because the best advice comes from a total stranger who knows nothing about me or my situation other than what I tell her. Besides, I would be too embarrassed for one other person to know my secret problem; I’d much rather share it with newspaper readers across the nation instead.”
City Council, City of Peoria

Council Roundup 10/28/08

Leave a comment

Possibly the biggest news from Tuesday’s Peoria City Council meeting is that the council decided not to pursue purchasing the Peoria District waterworks. So, the clock starts ticking — the city has the option of buying back the waterworks every five years, so mark your calendars for 2013 when this will come up again. The vote, by the way, was 4-7. Voting in favor were councilpersons Manning, Sandberg, Montelongo, and Van Auken.

Naturally, the council approved a temporary change to the Form District portion of the Land Development Code (which I discussed in a previous post). The vote was 9-2, with councilmen Sandberg and Jacob voting against it.

A new Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district was created downtown. Sandberg was the lone “no” vote. This TIF is part of the new “Hospitality Improvement Zone Tax Increment Redevelopment Plan and Project” (HIZTIRPAP?), which, if I understand it correctly, is designed to help existing downtown hotels improve and encourage the development of new hotels downtown — especially a hotel near the Civic Center. I’ve heard unconfirmed rumors that the Pere Marquette is going to be one of the first hotels to take advantage of these incentives by planning an expansion.

The council made no decision on whether to raise elected officials’ salaries, deferring the item until next Monday’s special meeting. However, there was a last-minute attempt by councilperson Van Auken to tie any future raises to the Consumer Price Index instead of a flat percentage. This led to a six-and-a-half-minute sermon from councilman Nichting on the value of public service and the sacrifices of public servants.

The other two newsworthy items were that (a) they denied a liquor license to Target in the Glen Hollow shopping center, and (b) they appointed F. Eugene Rebholz to the Peoria Public Library Board of Trustees, replacing Frank Gold, chairman of the library’s building committee.

City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, HOPC

Heart of Peoria Commission votes against temporary LDC changes

4 Comments

The city’s Planning and Growth Department is spearheading an effort to review the portion of the Land Development Code (LDC) that deals with form-based code districts “to determine if all the regulations are performing as anticipated and to ensure compatible development which meets the purpose statements of the code.” Toward that end, they have done two things:

  1. Established an LDC Review Committee. The LDC Committee is comprised of two representatives from the Heart of Peoria Commission, Zoning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Historic Preservation Commission. I’m one of the two representatives from HOPC. So far, we’ve had two meetings. No decisions have been made yet, but we’ve discussed street wall and parking setback requirements and worked on crafting definitions for “change of use” and “expansion of use.”

  2. Requested the City Council temporarily amend the LDC while the LDC Review Committee completes its work. This is on Tuesday’s agenda. Basically, they want to make it easier for projects in a form district to get an exception from the regulations. Currently, any exceptions to the regulations must go through the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). The ZBA’s decision is final; any appeals have to go through circuit court. Planning and Growth is requesting instead that any exceptions be handled as a special use request; that would require the City Council’s approval. Again, this request is just for a six-month period — long enough for the committee to complete its work.

During the Heart of Peoria Commission meeting Friday morning (which wasn’t attended by any media, incidentally), that second point was one of the topics of discussion.

Some commissioners felt the temporary LDC change was a good idea. They argued, like Planning and Growth, that the LDC Review Committee’s recommendations “could include rewriting of certain regulations or removal of them after a determination that they may be too extensive.” Hence, exceptions during this time should be able to be made legislatively (through the council) rather than judicially (through the ZBA). The applicant would still have to make their case either way; it would only change which body has the final say.

Others, like me, were skeptical. I didn’t hear a compelling reason why this change was necessary. First of all, there don’t appear to be a rash of requests before the ZBA (in fact, their last regular meeting was cancelled because they didn’t have a single case). Secondly, the issues that are being reviewed by the committee are limited in scope, so there’s no need to change the exceptions procedure for all form district regulations. Others pointed out that exceptions made under this proposed temporary change could set a bad precedent.

The Heart of Peoria Commission was split on the issue. A motion in favor of the temporary change failed 3-4. That was followed by a motion to make no changes to the exception process while the commission completes its work; that motion passed 4-3.