OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL

 OF THE CITY OF WEST PEORIA, ILLINOIS

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2008

7:00 P.M.

WEST PEORIA CITY HALL

2506 W. ROHMANN AVENUE, WEST PEORIA IL

A Regular Meeting of the City Council of West Peoria, Illinois was held at the West Peoria City Hall on September 9, 2008

1. CALL TO ORDER

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Dillon

3. ROLL CALL

The following council members were present: Alderman Dohm, Alderman Dwyer, Alderman Ganson, Alderman Mathewson, Alderman Meismer, Alderman Roberts, Alderwoman Thomas and Alderman Venzon. Also present: Mayor Dillon, City Administrator Carlson, Economical Development Pratt, City Attorney Connor and City Clerk Stephens

3. A) MOTION TO MOVE THIS CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO CALVIN COOLIDGE SCHOOL FOR SAFETY PURPOSES BECAUSE OF THE OVERFLOW OF RESIDENTS was made by Alderman Venzon and seconded by Alderman Mathewson.

ROLL CALL VOTE:  8 –Ayes   Venzon, Mathewson, Dohm, Dwyer, Ganson, Meismer, Roberts and Thomas.

Nays – 0

Absent – 0

Motion Carried

Meeting adjourned to Calvin School at 7:01 p.m.

3. B) Mayor Dillon called the regular City Council Meeting back to order at 7:11 p.m. in the gymnasium at Calvin Coolidge School.

ROLL CALL:

The following council members were present: Alderman Dohm, Alderman Dwyer, Alderman Ganson, Alderman Mathewson, Alderman Meismer, Alderman Roberts, Alderwoman Thomas and Alderman Venzon.  Also present:  Mayor Dillon, City Administrator Carlson, Economical Development Pratt, City Attorney Connor and City Clerk Stephens.

4. ADDITIONS AND OR DELETIONS FROM AGENDA

None

5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES     Motion to approve the Minutes from August 12, 2008 City Council Meeting was made by Alderman Ganson and seconded by Alderman Dohm.

ROLL CALL VOTE - Ayes 8 Ganson, Dohm, Dwyer, Mathewson, Meismer, Roberts, Thomas, Venzon

Nays – 0

Absent – 0

Motion Carried

5. A) Motion to approve the minutes from the August 26, 2008 City Council Meeting was made by Alderman Ganson and seconded by Alderman Dohm.

ROLL CALL VOTE – Ayes 8 Ganson, Dohm, Dwyer, Mathewson, Meismer, Roberts, Thomas, Venzon

Nays – 0

Absent - 0

Motion Carried

6. COMMUNITY POLICE REPORT

Peoria County Deputy Jason Buckley attended this meeting in place of Deputy Watkins who was on a special assignment. Deputy Buckley commented that he had been the Deputy for West Peoria; he said that he didn’t have any details to report on, but he will be here if anyone has any questions, concerns or problems.

7. MAYOR’S REPORT

Mayor Dillon thanked everyone who worked at the September 5th, Night Out Against Crime.  He also thanked everyone who donated money for the bicycles and made the comment that there were two kids that won bicycles that have never had a bike.

Mayor Dillon said that he would like to make a few comments on the purposed Heading Avenue Project. This is not on the agenda for tonight’s meeting, but I realize that is why everyone is here.  I truly appreciate the public interest in West Peoria and its future.  The West Peoria City and staff and I are always eager to discuss issues on their merits.

Brief description of the status of the project:

            Special Use Permit Application – is not on the ZBA agenda as yet.

PUD has been passed by he Plan Commission but not by the City Council because we pulled it from the agenda after the last meeting.

            Developer’s plans – still preparing documents

            There is nothing on next weeks Plan Commission agenda in regard to this Heading

            Avenue issue.

            Initially we were moving this project on a fast track to accommodate the developer’s

            construction time schedule.  The completion date has now been pushed back to 2010

            this provides us additional time to resolve issues.

             Another council member and I plan to visit another Oxbow project to see for myself.

            Section 8 housing – full occupancy:

            Based on the findings of an in-depth feasibility study commissioned by the

            developer, they are confident that all the available beds will be leased to

            Bradley students.

            The developer will not lease any beds to individuals in the Section 8 program.

            In addition, the developer is NOT required to lease to individuals in the Section 8

            Program and will agree to add this language to the PUD.

            THIS WILL NOT BE A SECTION 8 HOUSING PROJECT.

            Traffic on Heading Avenue:

            In 2002 according to the Illinois Department of Transportation the traffic count on

Heading Avenue was 3350 per day – (at that time St. Joseph’s Home employed approximately 140 people)

We will have a current traffic count done in the next week or two..

According to Bradley 44% of their students have cars at the rate of 250 residents x 44% = 110

cars.  In addition, 3rd party studies indicate a national trend - 40% to 60% of

students have cars.  Most students will NOT drive to campus.  

“As your Mayor I have always looked out for the “best interest” of West Peoria.   This project will have tremendous economic benefits for our city.  The Land Use Plan for West Peoria provides clear direction for most of the property in the City. The property in question has great development potential; however the structure at 2223 W, Heading Avenue contains a substantial amount of asbestos.  The property will require a special type of redevelopment plan. The property currently does not generate any real estate taxes. The approximate three hundred thousand a year that this property could generate for the City:  Real estate taxes (approximately $300,000 per year) will provide funds for police and maintenance, street department equipment and much needed street repairs. Tax sharing from the State of Illinois and the Federal Government, Sales Taxes, New Business for the City and new jobs possibly for the City.”

Mayor Dillon gave a short history of the expenses and revenues from when the City incorporated the first year until the 2007.  He thanked everyone who has worked with the City to bring in new development.   Unfortunately the St. Joseph’s Home has been closed and something will happen there, I can’t say because the City does not own the property.   There is more than one person looking at the property now.

8. TREASURER’S REPORT

A.) Alderman Mathewson made a motion to receive and file the Treasurer’s Report for June, 2008. Alderman Dohm seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE – 8 Ayes Mathewson, Dohm, Dwyer, Ganson, Meismer, Roberts, Thomas and Venzon

Nays – 0

Absent – 0

Motion Carried

B.)  Alderman Mathewson made a motion to receive and file the Treasurer’s Report for July, 2008.  Alderman Dohm seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL VOTE – 8 Ayes Mathewson, Dohm, Dwyer, Ganson, Meismer, Roberts, Thomas and Venzon

Nays – 0

Absent – 0

Motion Carried

10. MOTION TO APPROVE THE PAYMENT TO AUPPERLE & SONS, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $34, 618.00 (LINE ITEM NO. 01- 11- 928) was made by Alderman Mathewson and seconded by Alderman Dohm.

ROLL CALL VOTE Ayes – 8 Mathewson, Dohm, Dwyer, Ganson, Meismer, Roberts, Thomas, Venzon

Nays – 0

Absent – 0

Motion Carried

11, COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. FINANCE COMMITTEE – ALDERMAN MATHEWSON – CHAIR

The Finance Committee met on September 2.  We went over the bill from Thomas N.

Jacobs it will come to the council. We went over the Aupperle & Sons, Inc. invoice, which we approved for payment tonight. The committee discussed the pre-development agreement with Oxbow and we will start going over it. We also went over development agreement with the Bailey Group and we will continue to discuss it. The email at City Hall has not been working well and Economic Development Coordinator Gene Pratt is looking into a different service. We reviewed all our bills.  Our next meeting will be October 7, at 5:30 at City Hall.

B.  LAND USE COMMITTEE – ALDERMAN DOHM – CHAIR

The Land Use Committee has not met since the last City Council Meeting.  Our next meeting will be September 17, at 6:30 at City Hall.

C. PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE – ALDERMAN DWYER, CHAIR

The Public Safety Committee met.  We discussed the Waste Management Curb side pick up and Polk Weed. Polk Weed is an unsightly weed that is all over Ward 4. Abatement for the weed has been done on Manor Parkway and Sterling Avenue.   The test area for Waste Management is going well. We did have three residents that have never been on the billing cycle. They now are.

Our next meeting will be September 17, at 5:30 at City Hall.

D. TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE – ALDERMAN VENZON, CHAIR

The Transportation Committee met on August 14.  Market Street Project is in the process of going now. The pre work is completed with our target date still in mind.  The Sterling Phase I Study Report is finished. This is to prepare for PPUATS again. Alicia Hermann says that she will have the report in our hands in a few weeks.  We received the Ordinance about the procedures for sign request and we are working with Public Safety to make sure it goes through the right channels to get done. We are not going to Seal Coat this year; we did not receive any bids.  The City is going to do Micro Surfacing.  You can see that the spray patching has started and as soon as that is completed, street markings will be moved and the Micro Surfacing will begin.  We went over our goals and the yearly calendar.   Our next meeting will be September 11, at 6:30 at City Hall.

Mayor Dillon: 

Mayor Dillon said that for anyone who lives in any of the areas that the Illinois American Water

Company has replaced the water mains the Water Company is two years behind in hooking up some of the services.  This is the reason that some of the streets have not been blacked topped or resealed.  Ashland is in bad shape. Please bear with us until the water mains are switched over.

We will continue with the Public Comments.

Item 9.  Public Comment and Item 12. Public Comment will be consecutively on the next ten pages.

9. PUBLIC COMMENT

Resident:  A month or two ago  at a meeting it was explained to us that because of Federal Laws and other issues you can’t keep Section 8 Housing out of certain places because you just can’t  make a rule or clause or a contract to keep them out. Now, I just understood you to say that the developer was going to put that language in his contract that he would never build a Section 8. I understand that you don’t have a comment and that you don’t have to answer that but, that’s ok, I just don’t understand how you can actually have a contract that says can’t go Section 8.  What happens if that developer builds it, sells it and now his contract with the City is not valid and I own it, what stops it from going to Section 8 then?

Attorney Connor:    The second one I can more readily answer:  The Special Use Permits runs with the land, so it goes with the property. The repeat binding on later owners.

Resident;   So in that Special Use Permit you can write that it can never be a Section 8?

Attorney Connor and Mayor Dillon;   That’s what the developer said.

Resident: What does the Federal Law say? So if this guy has a contract, (I understand that this is just a comment) He gets the zoning and builds it, and it is not profitable and my contract with the City says that I cannot bring Section 8 Housing in, so it is sold off and then the new owner does not have a contract with the city bring in Section 8 Housing, can this happen?

Attorney Connor:  With this being a Special Use Permit whatever that provision would be,

Section 8 Housing and the Fair Housing Laws are not necessarily one in the same.  Fair Housing says that you cannot discriminate against folks and housing on various basis, including discouraging folks in various protective classes from renting or entering your area.

 Resident: Is that’s scenario feasible?

Attorney Connor;   The one you just described about the builder selling to someone else? Not if it is in a Special Use Permit it would run with the property

Resident:  Will the Special Use override the Federal Law?

Atty. Connor:   No. If it’s legally permissible what ever you put in that Special Use Permit runs with the land.  Where you go from there – ok saying it can only be students, if it was the City saying that, we can’t do that.

Resident:  Is this Fair Housing?

Atty. Connor:  Yes

Resident:   The contract with the City, whoever own it cannot limit, if it says R-1 Special Use and the allows single families or multi families what ever that allows, then you can put multi-families in there.

Attorney Connor;     From the City’s standpoint, there is a use in the middle of the neighborhood you will want to put as many protections in as possible for whatever effects go beyond that.  In the Ordinance, as part of my job for the City is; whatever the vote goes on a particular ordinance whether it is favor of a developer or against a developer my job is to make sure the vote stands. So I try to make sure we don’t impose things on a developer and then vote it down and then the developer claims the reason we voted it down because we wanted to do something illegal in our ordinance

Resident:   My understanding is the ordinance cannot override the Fair Housing Act. Once it is the Special Use goes into play, there is no way to stop this.

Attorney Connor:  That is correct.

Resident:  I respectively request that you deny the request for rezoning. This is quality of life

issue, two hundred and ten cars a day are going to impact Heading Avenue. It will impact the sewer system, there are not enough sewers to handle the waste management we have now, and our streets are constantly flooding.  Our streets are constantly flooding.  I asked you to look passed the dollars, how much is it going to cost for the hook and ladder necessary for fire department as  to part of our services for that piece of property?   I think that ideally it should be rezoned for single family residential development, possibility a cul-de-sac like Bluffcrest Court. There is asbestos in there and that seems to be a part of the puzzle, the litigation of asbestos. That is the church’s problem and I don’t see why the City of West Peoria should get in the business of litigating their situation. I ask you respectively to look passed the dollars, this is about a quality of life, and this is a great community. The money you described for law enforcement protection is just a bargain, one officer you are looking at around $50,000 you are talking about $140,000 for the community. This will be impacted by the development. I am a life long resident and I respectively request that you deny the zoning request.

Resident;   You talked about 210 cars. What is you plan to accommodate the cars? Are you planning on expanding Heading Avenue?  If so, are you planning on removing the sidewalks? Or getting into peoples property?  I use Heading Avenue all the time and I always have to stop for other cars. There is not enough room to accommodate our vehicles for what’s there now.   So how are you planning on accommodate 210 additional cars?

Mayor Dillon:  I stated earlier that there will be a Traffic Study done.  The street is wide enough now for a bike lane, two lanes of traffic and the parking that is already there. But there will be another traffic study done to see how many cars are traveling Heading Avenue now.

Resident:  Is there a bike lane there now?

Mayor Dillon: No. This is something that was requested right away from the developer.

Resident:   I am sensing that you have already made up your mind that you are trying to appease us rather than work with us with what we planned.

Mayor Dillon: We have to work with every developer that comes here, whether it’s this particular developer or the other one that is supposed to be here tomorrow.

Resident:  What is he purposing? Same thing?

Mayor Dillon:  I don’t know. I would have to talk with the real estate agent or the church.

Resident:  It is not that we are not opposed  to development, we are opposed to that type of development. If in two years, if not three years, if not five years from now it might be great.  But if Bradley decides to buy up all the rest of the property and build their own dorms, in ten years or fifteen years from now what are we going to get stuck with? Maybe we should start crunching numbers and see what it would take for a tax increase for us, raise my taxes to help offset your cost.

Mayor Dillon:   It isn’t just the tax revenue or the other numbers.

Residents:   That is what a big part of it is, is the income.

Mayor Dillon:  We have a developer or developers that have come forward that are pushing to put a development in the church. This was St. Joseph’s Home for years. Whether it goes to this particular developer or the next developer, there have been a lot of different people in there that have looked at things. Until they come to us we don’t know who has looked at it or what their ideas are. I can’t really tell you, we don’t that much about the other person in town that is supposed to bring someone back to meet with the church on Thursday. But I can’t really tell you what it is, because I don’t know. This particular developer, Oxbow, has been in and has jumped through every hoop that we asked.

Resident:  It is a gold mine for him; in the long run we are going to have more rental properties is West Peoria and that is just what we don’t need.

Mayor Dillon:   What we were told by the developer that in every municipality or city that they have never met any opposition. As far as the rental property, right now we are battling parents buying houses for the Bradley Students or students in general, every week at City Hall we get more complaints about what can be done with the kids living in these houses.   I think that if there is an apartment type, especially if it is the type of resort style living is what they are promising that will cut down on the number of houses that the kids are living in.  You are just assuming this as of now, and you should, but unfortunately last year we did have student die and no one wants that to happen.

If someone is willing to come in and invest fifteen million dollars in a building, I would love to

see a cul-de-sac put in there. I worked with a developer a few years ago about putting in twelve condominiums in there for senior citizens; financially this is not feasible, because of the cost of the property, the cost of asbestos removal, currently right now, between the cost of the building, the cost of asbestos removal, to just tear down the wings that need to come down and leave the center section is close to four million dollars.  This is a big expense and overhead that no one can recover by putting single families or duplexes for senior citizens on this property. This is very unfortunate, but it is very expensive.

Residents:   I am a resident of West Peoria not only a homeowner, but also have rental property. I have a comment and a question.  My comment is:  I think the Board here looking for the best possible scenario for Oxbow coming into West Peoria, but I feel that we should also look at the worst possible scenario. I am not just concern with Section 8, because I have dwelt with it. I am also concerned about Oxbow deciding they can’t make it here, they leave and then it becomes subsidizing housing, which in my opinion is worst then Section 8 Housing. We do have to look at the absolute best and the absolute worst before we decide what to do.  I do know that there are other developers interested in this property. I know there are developers that would like to do something like assisted living and senior housing, my request that you not make any decision until you have heard from all of the developers, and we the citizens have some kind of input.

Mayor Dillon:  The unfortunate thing is that this developer has an option with the church.  We have nothing to do with the real estate, with the church, who they sell it to, all we can do is the zoning and answer the questions when they come into town. If there is another developer who wants----

Residents: Who does another developer need to submit their plans to?

Mayor Dillon:  They would have to call Jim Maloof Realty who has the option on it. That is the listing agent. There is a gentleman from Jim Maloof Commercial; I believe it is on the Website.

Resident:  So do I understand that it is between Jim Maloof and the Cross Church?

Mayor Dillon:  As to whom they are selling it to yes. The City does not have any money in that building.
Resident:  No, but you have control over the zoning. That’s our point.

Mayor Dillon:  The City cannot discriminate on different things; they can sell it to whom ever they want.

Resident:   But no one would buy it if it wasn’t zoned correctly, right?

Mayor Dillon:  That the gentleman has the option on it right now is that it is all contingent on everything falling in line. But in the mean time someone can come in and buy it out right from underneath them.  All they have to do is to come in an offer them more money. And in the mean time it is basically in his court because he has to get back with us with a sight plan.

Resident: Is this going to be put into a TIF?

Mayor Dillon:   The TIF is to work with the developer for blighted area, it is called a statute, I didn’t write the statute. The statute is an economical tool for the City for re-development and what it does it locks up the money for twenty three years, especially that piece of property, it has never been on the tax roll so one hundred percent of this will go into a TIF. No matter who the developer is the City enters into an agreement prior to anything and this is another thing that is contingent that the developer request a certain percentage of the money that goes into the TIF, but that doesn’t mean that they will get one hundred percent they are putting into it. This way the City can get some money out of it that they are not getting. Not all TIF’s go, it depends on how many dollars this project would be eligible for as to how long he could get TIF. If they determine he was eligible for 10 or 15 years there will be a percentage that would still come back to the City. If the City would see a need for extra fire equipment, even though we have nothing to do with the fire protection, they are their own taxing body. Some money out of the TIF can be set aside over a period of time to help the Fire Department purchase fire equipment.  If there is a need for extra police protection, the money can be set aside over a period of time to either provide extra police protection, buy the county a car that is basically dedicated full time for the City. This will be money that the City would have not gotten elsewhere. This is the tool that municipalities use for economic development.

Residents:    First Comment:  I think what we all need to understand is to realize that the developers are working in collaboration with the church at present, but by making the property a TIF District that means our tax dollars as well, so we do have a vested interest in that how our tax money is being spent and whether this is a project that we want to see and spend our tax on.

Second Comment; With regards to : you had stated that  TIF District was to build up blighted areas and if that is the case do you know what the purpose was to include Edgehill Court in that TIF District? As far as the preliminary information that we have heard is Edgehill Court the street itself is to be included in that district and in that mapping it doesn’t seem to fall into your explanation about what the TIF District would involve.

Third Comment:  With regards to Oxbow doing studies, have we done our own studies or have we had interaction with Bradley University to understand what their long term goals with regards to student housing?  My understanding is that they still have plans to build two more of their own phases of St. James Apartments. If that is the case, what would therefore push the need for student apartments housing over here when Bradley has stated some of their long term goals were to pull all of their students out of neighborhoods in general?

Fourth Comment:  I am on the Planning Commission.  We just brought forth to you all and you all just voted upon the Long Range Plan for the City. In that Plan it states that we want to discourage multi-family housing and we want to encourage senior housing and single family housing and that we also want to promote neighborhoods such as: Edgehill Court and the rest of the neighborhoods here and make this be a cornerstone of what we want to build up our neighborhood to be. So with the document that we just passed we want to see in our long range in our future, why we choose to put our tax money behind a project that diametrically opposes that long range goal that we look to seek.

Mayor Dillon:   To answer the questions that was just presented, I do not know if they have every determined the boundaries for purposed new TIF, I know that there we a couple of things that floated around.  There was a very in depth study that was done by the developer to the tune of between thirty to thirty-five thousand dollars, which is privileged information. That set the numbers where determine the feasibility of the student housing and the numbers.

In the plans Bradley had two new dorms planned, but what I understand that if this particular student housing went through, Bradley would only build one dorm.

Gene Pratt:   The purpose for including Edgehill Court in the TIF District is because the back side of that property and even beyond that over to where the cemetery property is, there is some erosion that needs to be corrected with the TIF money. Those will qualify under the TIF guidelines, so that those erosion issues can be resolved. That is why Edgehill Court is being included in the TIF.

Residents:  I have the West Peoria Action Plan that was put together by over seventy people. I will speak on one section tonight and one section only. The high priority target is:

Option One:  Explore more options for senior housing

Option Two:  Expand and better utilized Franciscan Center

Option Three: Develop neighborhood activities, develop more youth activities.

I commend you Mayor Dillon and City Aldermen and women for having accomplished Option two and Option three.  You have taken care of the Franciscan Center; I have never seen so many activities as we have seen there in the last two years. Everything is being done except Option Number one and that refers to senior housing.  It is my opinion that the Oxbow Development Project, for the former St. Joseph’s Home property on Heading Avenue does not support the Vision Statement of: beautiful, clean and safe. Those were three things that were put in here. while the City has succeed in addressing two of the high priority strategies you  have not address the Number One high priority strategy, which is: to explore more options for senior housing.

In addition I would like to point out that the high priority  project include exactly what the residents of Edgehill Court, Heading Avenue and some additional 250 West Peoria residents have tried and are still trying to do as you can see us here tonight. Specifically, work collectively with other groups to develop senior housing  and  emergency response and homeowner mentoring.  We are try to mentor and we are trying to response on what is going on at 2223 W. Heading Avenue this is the site of the Cross Baptist Church and we will continue to do that. I will give this to the secretary and you will have a copy of what I just said.

Mayor Dillon:  Thanked the resident and said that he appreciated her thoughts on the Franciscan Center. Mayor Dillon said it was the foresight of John Seabeck, who is not with us anymore he push this idea and he worked with the nuns to turn that into the Franciscan Park John was the Township Supervisor and deserves the credit for the Park.  His daughter is here tonight.

Resident:  the second high priority target area states: “West Peoria has a diversified tax base and reputation as a business friendly community.”  I have heard mentioned on several occasions in the last two month that West Peoria does not receive any tax dollars from the property at 2223 W. Heading Avenue.  According to m understanding the word diversified means difference or variation.  The property mentioned has never received tax dollars in the 66 years that I have lived in West Peoria.  Will the fact that it remains exempt from taxes break the City of West Peoria?

Are we that poor that we need to lower our standard as a community? And would the specific property really bring in that much money to the City of West Peoria? The fourth high priority strategy refers to improving residential properties; I am the homeowner or a residential property that will abut the property at 2223 W. Heading Avenue. I have continually improved my property during the 45 years residing on Edgehill Court. It is my theory that my property value will go down some $68,000(this is going from the high end of real estate to the low end of real estate in West Peoria). According to the high priority projects the very first item mentioned is: “look into rental registration and review codes”. Consider starting rental grievance committees. There appears to already be a known problem with rental property in West Peoria which I what is being proposed by the OXBOW Development Project.  One last thought on the high priority projects:  The last of the projects mentioned “Investigate flood plain:  indicates to me that there must be a problem with flooding in West Peoria.  Would the disturbance of the landfill that was put in the back part of St. Joseph’s Home property be a possible problem with flooding and erosion of the back part of the property? Yes I am in favor of change, but not this change.

Resident:   My question is, you have talked about multitude of dollars required to get rid of asbestos .Who is responsible for the asbestos removal from the property at 2223 W. Heading Avenue?  Does the City have any obligation to pay anything toward asbestos?

Mayor Dillon: No. Whoever owns the property.  There is no Federal Money and no State Money that would be available to help them.

Resident:  Second Question.  Life long resident, Back in the forties and fifties the area we are talking about. Half of it was a corn field and the other half was pasture. What happens if the City says lets zone this agriculture and go back and who ever is responsible for asbestos abatement let them pay for it.  That way we don’t have to worry about TIF District and go back where we were. Then maybe we can start with, which some one was talking about putting in cul-de-sac and residential property, start over.

Mayor Dillon:   You cannot legally do something like that. The person who owns or buying the property has to request the zoning change.

Attorney Connor: If we did roll the zoning back - to gain the use of it like that we would have to pay them. If we said that\ this was going to be a cow pasture we would have to pay them for the loss that building.

Residents:   Would we still have to pay for the asbestos abatement?

Attorney Connor:  If we forced them to tear it down, that would surely be a potential, I am sure they would sue the city for making him tear his building down.

Resident: So if we changed the zoning the City would be responsible to buy the building?

Attorney Connor:  I am not saying that, but if you roll it back where they can’t use the building, there are previous law suits in other cities where they file suit against the city and see to be compensated.

Resident:  I have heard varying reports on the cost of removal of asbestos. In the amount of four million dollars.

Mayor Dillon:  This is the cost of purchasing the building, removing the asbestos and removal of the wings of the building.   They are trying to save the chapel part. The developer is working with the local trades to lower the cost.

Resident:  People are going to move out.

Mayor Dillon: I don’t plan on moving anywhere; I have lived in West Peoria for thirty three years. My son lives across the street from me and my other son has a house in West Peoria.  All of the City Council lives in West Peoria I just doesn’t make sense.

Resident: Is it the money? Is this the big thing?

Mayor Dillon:   It is the developer that is pursuing the option at this time.  But we could be talking with another developer Thursday afternoon, we don’t know.

Resident:  That would be great it was a senior housing. You are going to have some happy people sitting here.

Mayor Dillon:  And what if it isn’t?

Resident:  Then here we are.

Mayor Dillon:  That is the option.

Resident: If we all have to turn in our houses on Heading Avenue into rentals, there goes West Peoria. I don’t really think a lot of people will stick around.  That is the general consensus

Resident:  Is it correct that you make the decision to change the zone?

Mayor Dillon: Yes

Resident:   This project depends on you.   You said  that it is Jim Maloof and it is between the developers. Don’t you have to rezone this piece of land?

Attorney Connor:  The City does not have to rezone anything, but if they apply the City of West Peoria has to rule on it.

Resident; But with the project you will have to approve and rezone the property, correct? So therefore, it is you responsibility and it is your call to put up this project, because you can say we are not going to rezone this piece of property, Correct?

Mayor Dillon:   We will have to have a Hearing and they would either vote it up or down

Resident; But it is ultimately in your hands.

Mayor Dillon:  Yes.
 Resident:   Will that Hearing be made public?

Mayor Dillon:  Yes.  We will have to wait for the plans.  All our meetings are open to the public and they are posted 48 hours in advance.

Resident:  You said that they have moved their building date until the year 2010.  When will the public meeting take place for rezoning?

Mayor Dillon:   As soon as they get their paper work together.  The reason they moved the date back is because they could not meet the time frame and it needed to be met. They decided that it would be better just to get everything together and then proceed. The meeting will also be posted in the Peoria Journal Star newspaper.

Resident:   We are here tonight as your friends and neighbors.  We have entrusted you to represent us – not some out of town developer. Tonight you are hearing that we all would like to express is that we would like to be pro-active and work together to attract development that would enhance our community and encourage people into the City and not move out.

12. PUBLIC COMMENT

Resident:  The house in the neighborhood with Bradley Students living there are local students living with their parents to save money. The cost of Bradley is high and they could not afford to live in the new complex it is too expensive.

Mayor Dillon:  The City did not pay for the study that was done by the developer.

Resident:   Tonight’s Meeting.  Everyone knew that this was not on the agenda.  What I am asking is at the next ZBA meeting can we have a different venue?  Where we can seat a lot more people?

Mayor Dillon:  The next meeting of the Plan Commission, there will be nothing on the agenda. As far as the ZBA that will be on the availability of a building.  When we called yesterday this facility was available. The park was available but it is only for one hundred people and that is not adequate.  Not knowing how many people will show up the next meeting possibility will be at the new City garage.

Resident:  This was just a request.

Resident:  How often do you update the Website?

Mayor Dillon:  All the time:

Clerk Stephens: The City Council Agenda always goes out on the Friday before the City Council Meeting on Tuesday. All the meetings with the agenda are posted on the Website on the same Friday. They are also posted on the bulletin boards at City Hall and Haddad’s.  Office Assistant Maroon puts all the monthly meetings on the Website, she also post them on the bulletin boards at City Hall and Haddad’s.  We do not change our agenda after 48 hours.

City Administrator Carlson:  Stated that all Public Hearings and Special Meetings are posted in the classified section of the Peoria Journal Star.

Mayor Dillon:  Introduced the new Principal Tom Blumer of Calvin Coolidge to the residents of West Peoria and thanked him for allowing us to use the school building for our large meeting tonight.

Resident: Tonight we had a change in fact three or four from the developer.  We got the word that the developer contacted and met with many the alderman and alderwoman individually.  This is frustrating to us; we must know a way to communicate with you.  Are any of you reading my email?  I only received one email back.  What can we do?  What is the proper procedure?   Action Plan?

Mayor Dillon:  I have never been privilege with any email except for Jeff Dutro. And I have never received yours. Most of the email has been addressed to the alderman and I only received them after the fact.  All you have to do is to call the alderman or alderwoman and they will talk with you, just like the developer called and asked meet with them individually.

Alderman Ganson:  If you sent my email to City Hall I am not getting them.

Resident:  Are the address listed in the City Directory accurate?

Alderman Ganson:   Yes, but I do have a problem getting mine.  This is one of the problems we are having with the email at City Hall.  The Finance Committee is looking into this.

Mayor Dillon:   We are looking into getting a new service at City Hall.

Resident:  So we should look into sending you a copy at your home, or call you?

Resident:   Is it possible to move this in form of a referendum for the public?

Mayor Dillon:  A referendum for what sir?

Resident: Zoning Change

Alderman Dohm:  We are not changing the Zoning.  The R-1 Special Use is not a change of zoning.  That is an R-1 zoning with parameters allowed.

Resident:  What is it now?

Alderman Dohm: R-1

Resident: So you want to make it an R-1 with Special Use?

Alderman Dohm.  Yes.  The one thing we could do without having a meeting is if the decided to sell it to Waste Treatment Facility. That can go in with no meetings happening.

Resident: I appreciate you changing the plans for the meeting tonight. For the larger crowd and taking our comments and let us field our questions.  It sounds like we could have the meeting here every second and fourth Tuesday, if it has to be.

Resident: I have called four aldermen and only one has called me back.

Alderman Dohm: Did you call me?  I am the alderman in that ward and I have returned every phone call that I received.

Resident:   I don’t know.

Resident:   We voted you into office s our representative, now we want you to do the right thing.

Resident:  Does any of the Aldermen live on Heading Avenue?

Alderman Roberts:  I do, this will effect me, not as much as the people on Edgehill Court.

Resident:  Is there a chance for a referendum to come up for the citizens to vote?

Atty. Connor:  You can have an advisory referendum on things, cities can do that.

Resident: I mean if we do want or we don’t want.  How does Home Rule work? Are you under Home Rule?

Atty. Connor:  No

Mayor Dillon: If they petition for a referendum, from what I understand. It would be an Advisory Referendum to the council. Normally when there is zoning change the citizens that surround the property are notified.  The rest will be notified by newspaper, news, Website and Haddad’s the agendas are posted...

Resident:  What is the procedure for an Ordinance?

Mayor Dillon:  If you are asking about the  City Ordinance and City Regulations all you will have to do is stop by City Hall.

Residents: It is oblivious that the church wants to sell their property.  Let’s bring in a bunch of developers and work together.  Is that possible?

Mayor Dillon:  Anything is possible. For a long time the church kept telling us it is not for sale. People kept calling us. They even had the City look at it.  The City of West Peoria is not in the real estate business.  Normally we work with people that come into the City looking for a business here. The City has gone to some developers to try to purchase property for redevelopment.  This could be why when someone is interested in purchasing property, they come to the City.

 Residents: To change the zoning, you don’t have to put it in the TIF, do you? You can still negotiate.  Could that be put one a referendum?

Atty. Connor:  The council has to vote to create a new TIF District. I do not know if there is an IF referendum?  The City has a TIF expert; I don’t speak TIF very well

Mayor Dillon:  Most of the major projects like this depend on the TIF or some type of tax money.

Resident:   I remember when the Cross Baptist Church bought the property.  There were going to do student housing. Did Bradley or the City not approve this?

Mayor Dillon:  The plan failed because no one approved it. No one knew anything about it except the pastor and his wife. As I had stated before, we has asked the pastor when he came for the zoning change, we suggested that he talked with the neighbors, but he was too busy.

Residents:  He did not approach us.

Mayor Dillon:  He did not approach anyone, so when this particular developer came to us, we suggest that he go talk with the neighbors and he did.  This is the reason we had the neighborhood meeting at City Hall.  He did try to accommodate everyone. The minister proposal was to try to put twenty Christian girls from Bradley in a student housing setting. He had a pamphlet from another school in southern Illinois that had that program, but he just never followed through. No one really knew what was going on; even Bradley didn’t really know what was going on. It either went to the ZBA or Planning Commission, but it didn’t pass.

There is a lot of thing going on over there and I don’t think anyone knows what is going on. My concern is the condition of the building, the lack of heat.  When we had the elections there, they had kerosene salamanders running to heat the building. Even the computers would not run first thing in the morning because the building was so cold.  The election will not be held there this year; it will be held at the Franciscan Center and at the new City Garage.

Resident:   There are 105 matures on that property, many of them seventy to eighty years old. My neighbor and I walked around the property and looking at the site plan  probably 80 of the trees will have to be cut down to replaced by an asphalt lot about five times the size of Haddad’s and a three story building. Right now the property looks like a park setting.  So my plea is: we need to get this right; this is a life time decision and we have one shot at it. Once the trees are gone we don’t another chance in our lifetime.

Resident:   This is a question for Gary Dutro.  I heard the developer say that thirty percent of the trees are dead or dying. Do you have a comment on that? I looked at them and I don’t believe that this is true.

Resident: Maybe one to two percent not thirty percent. Walk around the property, we walk around it.  Go back in there and look at it.  There is a green space with rolling hill behind that place, it is not level, and you cannot put the trees in a little pot at the end of a parking lot. We stand at the end of our lot and look out and try to vision what this will look like if this project goes through.  This is a major throughway. It is right there for everyone to see, this will change the character of our city forever. It will have to be the right project, we don’t feel this is.

Residents:  I have heard that the reason the developer is not showing up is because he doesn’t have the site plans quite ready, is that correct?

Mayor Dillon:  The Site Plan in not finished.

Resident: Ok, so what is the point of the City putting him on a fast tract? If he doesn’t have the plan ready, isn’t that like putting the cart before the horse?

Mayor Dillon: If you heard by comments, we originally stated that it was on a fast tract, but it is not on a fast track now because the developer could not meet the 2009 and the 2010 deadline, therefore he has time. To the council, what I would remind you,  if you do want to go over to the Cross Church and  I would encourage you, but please talk with the pastor before you trespass on private property, because that is not a park it  belongs to the church.  We have to be respectful to the owner. If you do go over ask permission. 

Resident:   The council does not have to ask permission to walk around the church. I talked with the pastor and his wife. I told him that I would like to walk around the property and I know several people who would like to walk around and walk their dogs and kids around there. The pastor said: “we are a friendly community church and we invite anyone to walk around the church property. I have never asked permission that’s what he told me and I see other people and kids ride their bike around. You asked the council to ask permission. I don’t know why they should no one else does. And also sir, there are not one third of the trees that are dead.  I would like for some one to show me nine trees that are dead. This is not true. There are about nine trees that are stressed out or diseased, but not thirty three.

13. ADJOURNMENT

Motion to adjourn was may by Alderman Roberts and seconded by Alderman Dohm.   Motion carried unanimously by voice. Meeting adjourned at 8:39 p.m.

Carole Stephens, City Clerk