Peoria approves $25 million South Village affordable housing, school TIF revenue-sharing deal

good afternoon everyone can take their seats we're going to get started [Music] good evening everyone it is Tuesday January the 24th 2023. I'd like to call the meeting of the Peoria city council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone in our city council chambers as well as our listening audience at wcbu I'd also like to welcome the audience watching on cable channel 22.

the council mics are open please call the roll mayor Ali council member Allen council member seer council member Graham council member Jackson here council member Jensen council member Kelly council member Euler council member Reagan back council member rock regal and council member Val Pula present yeah Quorum president Madam mayor thank you madam Clerk May everyone and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance also I saw the obituary of a long time City staffer Billy Ambrose I'd like for you to please keep his family in your prayers thank you thank you Madam Clerk we are at proclamations we have two proclamations today the first Proclamation recognizes the Junior League of Peoria for the little black dress initiative here with us is Heather Euler the chair of fund development and Barbara Mala Donata the chair co-chair of fund development welcome ladies I'm going to read the proclamation and then ask that Miss Oiler and Mrs maladonada make some comments and then we're going to hear some comments also from councilman Euler okay whereas the Junior League of Peoria is an organization of women who are committed to volunteerism and improving the community Through action and Leadership established in 1936 the Junior League of Peoria has contributed to the Peoria Playhouse Children's Museum hosted the popular julep's closet and organized keepsakes for kids among many other programs and whereas with a current membership of over 300 the Junior League of Peoria is proud to contribute to programs that directly impact our community whereas the little black dress initiative originated with the Junior League of London in 2014 to raise awareness of poverty and related issues participants were asked to wear their little black dress considered a staple in the closet of many women or a black outfit for five days to raise awareness and whereas the Junior League of Peoria has joined other leagues around the nation in participating in this initiative while also focusing on food insecurity and whereas this campaign is open to everyone you can participate by wearing the same black outfit through the week of February the 13th through February the 17th to illustrate the lack of options faced by someone living in poverty or you can contribute financially to the initiative additional information may be found at www.juniorleagueofpeoria.org and whereas the Junior League of Peoria will host a cocktail party on Thursday February the 16th from 5 30 to 7 30 P.M to celebrate the little black dress initiative and announce their new community impact Focus now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria and on behalf of the Peoria city council to hereby acknowledge the Junior League of Peoria's little black dress initiative in Peoria Illinois [Applause] foreign behalf of the Junior League of Peoria I'd like to thank you to the city council and mayor Rita Ali for this Proclamation recognizing the Junior League for our work on behalf of the little black dress initiative that will be happening this year February 13th through February 2017.

the little black Russian initiative helps us remember that not everyone in our community have the same ability to make the choices that we are able to make every day during the week of the lbdi we wear the same little black dress or black outfit which helps show that not everyone that everyone that lives within poverty doesn't have the same Choice our choice that's taken away that week is simply what we get to wear we're able to show this by as I said what we're wearing that week sorry although it may be a Simple Choice some mothers are fathers that have to make the decision to choose between putting food on the table or taking their child to a doctor they may have to choose between having money to take the bus to work or give their child a healthy breakfast as the Junior League of Peoria transitions into our new Community Focus of mental health awareness we will be advocating to help with the link between not having access to Mental Health Services or the ability to pay for the best mental health treatment available due to income constraints as well as other hurdles as the city of Peoria has one of the poor zip codes within the state of Illinois many members of our community have to make these choices every day if you're interested in participating as an advocate you can receive your button and training by visiting the Junior League of Peoria's website and making your donation of twenty dollars thank you so much for the acknowledgment to the Junior League that we received tonight and for helping us spread what we're trying to do in making our small part be part of the community as we work towards finding a solution in the surrounding area of mental health we invite you all to join us at our cocktail party celebrating the little black dress initiative week while raising funds to help assist those in poverty we also will be discussing our next Community Focus mental health and how we hope to work with the community and all of our partners we hope to see you on February 16th if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to the Junior League via our website thank you very much [Applause] February the 13th through February the 17th I've got lots of black in my closet so I'll be pulling it out our next uh Proclamation is recognizing the global Fest uh we will hear from Franklin Folger and Sarah Freeland and after I read the presentation we'll also oh excuse me afterwards we'll hear from councilman valpulla but before we go there councilman Euler on the little black dress initiative thank you madam chair and woman I probably won't wear a little black dress but I will wear a black suit I did make my contribution to be an advocate and I have my button on and I've had a few people ask me about that tonight and I want to thank the Junior League for the contributions that they make to our community and the impact awareness issues that they they take pride in contributing to and bringing awareness to and raising funds for it's advocacy like that that really makes a difference and we're proud to have your contribution to Peoria thank you thank you councilman Euler so our next Proclamation is recognizing the global Fest for Folger Miss Freeland thank you for being here whereas Central Illinois has become home to a dynamic ethnic cultural religious and socio-economic diversity that offers numerous advantages to the businesses that open their doors here and the community members who reside here Global Fest Central Illinois is a community effort created to celebrate the diverse array of cultures that exist in our region whereas Global Fest Central Illinois creates the opportunity for diverse groups to work together to celebrate their cultures by seeking to elevate awareness of the dynamic opportunities and talents present in Central Illinois while drawing attention to the rich cultural and ethnic diversity in this region and whereas the community is invited to the inaugural Global Fest Central Illinois on February the 11th 2023 at four o'clock P.M at Five Points Washington located at 360 North Wilmore Road in Washington Illinois attendees will partake in cultural Journeys through Global music dance languages and Foods found locally and will celebrate with a premier annual event I now therefore I read Ali mayor of the city of Peoria Illinois to hereby acknowledge Global Fest Central Illinois [Applause] and all of you for recognizing the significance of this event all too often Peoria and Central Illinois are cast as places that are not welcoming to Outsiders as we know there is nothing that could be further from the truth the central Illinois neighborhood is Rich indeed with culture and diversity eight months ago our committee members created Global Fest to celebrate this diverse and inclusive nature of the real Central Illinois the event on February 11th at Five Points Washington will draw hundreds of people together to immerse themselves in the wonderful cultural diversity within our region with educational booths food clothing music and dance people from all over across central Illinois will be able to immerse themselves in the cultures of the many people who have become home and neighbors for us in Central Illinois thank you for recognizing Global Fest and we hope to see you there thank you very much I remember Mr Folger when you shared that Vision with me maybe a little bit over a year ago so I'm really excited that it's come to fruition uh council member valpulla thank you madam here all I would say is I am a part of this wonderful event and I believe that such kind of events will promote Oneness in the community thank you so much welcome thank you very much [Applause] Madam Clerk we are at the minutes councilmember Euler thank you madam chairwoman I moved to approve the minutes of The Joint City Council and town board meeting held on January 10 2023 as printed seconded by council's member seer any questions I get a screen good morning yes your ballots motion passes unanimously and third 23-013 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria and the Dunlap Community Unified School District regarding the Medina Plains Allen wrote increment financing District Madam clerk would you mind repeating that please sure 23-013 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria and the Dunlap Community Unified School District regarding the Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing District to manager um thank you madam mayor I think that councilman Sierra might have wanted to make a few introductory statements council members council member Sierra thank you madam mayor thank you Mr city manager before I turn over to city manager I'd like to make a few brief comment and also to move a motion first of all this project we've been working on for many weeks and I want to thank and I want to acknowledge a few people some of their one ladies here tonight want to acknowledge her and I also want to acknowledge a couple of my colleague councilman councilman Chuck grab and Zach orler for helping me out through throughout these uh negotiations also we have tonight here in in the room we have the president of the Dunlap School District Dr Abby humble is with us tonight Dr humble thank you very much for being here and and being part of these negotiations the last many weeks so with this I'd like to move to approve the area governmental agreement between the city of Peoria and the Dunlap School District regarding Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park as a TIF district that was seconded by council member Rick Regal discussion please cast your balance oh okay sorry Mr uh Mr manager thank you madam mayor just just very briefly um what we worked out with this intergovernmental agreement with um the the Dunlap School Board is a revenue sharing agreement as part of the tax increment financing district and in it there are four elements of that Revenue sharing that are that are laid out first is if there is an anchor development um that is specific to a couple of parcels uh they would be eligible for 15 of the of the incremental taxes that are generated from that parse that property the rest of the the Tiff area they would be eligible for 22.5 percent of the Tiff increment and then if there's any residential that's built out in this plan where there's none planned and there is that we've there's not been any anticipated residential development um they would be provided 35 percent of the increment because of the impact that it would have on the schools and then lastly if the anchor development doesn't proceed that 22 and a half percent figure would move up to 25 percent so that's really the the terms of the of the arrangement this recognizes I think that the Dunlap School Board is predominantly funded by property taxes almost entirely and so this was uh part of the negotiations that we worked out with the district over the last several weeks thank you Mr manager any additional discussion councilmember Jensen uh thank you madam mayor I just I want to commend councilman sear um for advocating to do this carve out it's something that since I've been on the council for almost 10 years I've been advocating since I got on the council that more of our tiffs carve out school districts and this is very well done as an attorney who has represented school districts for a number of years this is a really well thought out agreement and it gives the Dunlap School District a number of protections so I'm very happy to see this come forward and again I just wanted to thank councilman sear for his work on this as well as I guess councilman grab and Euler this is definitely a tiff that I can support since it does have that carve out for the school district thank you I also want to thank councilman sear for your leadership in this negotiation I thank all the the partners the parties that assisted as well as Dr humbles and those individuals on the Dunlap school board and the attorneys that were involved and I know it took a while to get there but I'm glad that we got there thank you also to council Hayes and city manager Uric for your leadership as well so we're at a good we're at a good point here council member Euler thank you madam chairwoman I'd be remiss if I didn't comment on the fact that we'd talk at length about the fact that we need economic growth and these are the tools that will provide us the ability to have economic growth and a vision to start to do something with an area that hasn't changed and thank you council member Seer for your leadership in this it's incredibly important that we do things like this to move our community forward and create jobs which will drive the tax base which allows us to provide basic Public Services thank you thank you any other comments council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor I also want to Echo the sentiments everyone who works on this initiative as someone who represents constituents that attend both Peoria Public Schools and also Dunlap this is a good thing to see that this school district out in Dunlap will still be supported uh while also sparring some potential economic growth in this area as we look to really develop that area I think there's some good things on the horizon I don't want to say anything too early but I think this is a good step in the right direction so thank you to everyone who worked on this initiative and it's just great to see when different government entities can really sit down talk about the issues and then come up with solutions that are mutually beneficial to all constituents involved thank you welcome any other discussion okay please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you Madam Clerk we have one public hearing 23-002 is a reconvened public hearing regarding the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing District this public hearing regarding the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing District or Tiff is being held pursuant to chapter 65 of the Illinois compiled statues section 5-11-74 .4-5 and public notice we will first hear from our city manager thank you madam in 1993 there were a few development sites remaining within the city of Peoria and that led to an out-migration of of Peoria's population in order to address that Trend the city entered into intergovernmental agreements with Peoria County in the Greater Peoria Sanitary District in order to develop a growth management policy one of the strategies in in that policy was for us to pay for sewers in certain parts of the of the the region in order to try and facilitate growth and development we did facilitate residential development we haven't been as as successful in in facilitating Industrial Development so gross cell 2 was the area where this Tiff is currently proposed to be located was principally designed to provide new commercial development in industrial and business growth opportunities it's predominantly zoned Industrial and since that establishment of that of that growth cell back in the mid 90s we've seen very little Industrial Development that has occurred due to the need for infrastructure such as roads without having this industrial land available in the city we're at a competitive disadvantage and we've seen that over the last several years our economic development team has worked and we've been at that competitive disadvantage of being able to find industrial properties for people to put into the city of Peoria so um this past year what we've tried to do is to create this Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tiff to provide that mechanism to pay for infrastructure improvements and to address the need for Industrial Development inside the city of Peoria what we've seen in this area is that the proposed Tiff District this area that's bounded in black on the screen that accepts those Parcels that are shaded they're not part of the Tiff district has seen a 10.2 percent decline in eav since 2016.

and to put that into perspective the city has seen a decline in eav during that same period of time of 6.2 percent so it's declining at a rate that's faster than the city of Peoria and that's declining at a rate that's nearly double uh the the eav declined that the school district has faced so it is an area that is not growing and it's an area that needs some assistance so we hired the firm of Jacob and Klein to work with us and we have Steve Klein and Herb Klein that are here and her client is is here that's going to talk about the factors uh that show why this area qualifies to be a TIF district and I'm going to turn it over to Mr Klein right now thank you thank you Mr Eric and thank you mayor we've had the pleasure my name is Herb Cline I'm an attorney with Jacob and Klein and Steve Klein spelled differently no relation is the president of the Economic Development Group which is a municipal consulting firm that we've had the pleasure of working together with and with the city officials in the process of establishing this Tiff district and as Mr Urich said the map of the proposed area is is on the screen there uh the idea behind the Tiff district is to alleviate the blighting and adverse conditions that we found present throughout the area to promote private investment and create a financing arm to offer an incentive to the private developers to develop in the area to put the Peoria on a advantage in attracting new industrial and commercially users and also to provide some assistance for the city infrastructure that's needed to support that private development such as the roads that were mentioned when we started the study we were looking at about 141 Parcels 141 unique parcel identification numbers as established by the county and we found that nearly 81 percent of them qualified for inclusion in a TIF district under the Illinois statute uh joint review board was held on December 15 2022 that's a board makeup of a representative of all the taxing districts that have the authority to tax in the proposed area and I'm pleased to report that joint review board recommended and approved a motion to the city council that the Redevelopment project area and plan satisfied the requirements and eligibility criteria as set forth in the Illinois Tiff Act this public hearing initially convened on January 10th and January 12th we placed on file with the help of the city staff a revised stiff plan we're now down to 129 Parcels there were a couple Parcels that we initially studied that did not Annex at this time and that affected their eligibility be in the Tiff District as well as contiguity of a couple other parses the Tiff has to be contiguous it also has to be all the parcels to be included have to be annexed into the city at the time that you adopt the ordinance establishing the Tiff so those 129 Parcels we feel we have very good qualifications and Steve Klein of the economic development group is going to hit on those a little more specifically thank you herb So within the boundary area that you see on the screen and also on page four of the summary that was distributed or is available tonight the boundary as herb mentioned has 129 total Parcels within it that's accepting those that are shaded and the city is making findings within this area that as revised 79.8 percent roughly 80 percent of the area does meter exceed the minimum qualifications for tax increment financing the minimum acceptable threshold on a percentage basis for a Redevelopment project area is 51 percent so we feel very confident that the area is certainly qualified for tax increment financing because not only is the percentage fairly high but we also are required to document and find qualification factors that exist to a real meaningful extent and are distributed throughout the entire area and that is the case of the 129 Parcels that are within that area 83 of them have some type of a structure on them a building they're improved the qualification factors for an improved property is somewhat different than for a vacant property we don't have time tonight to go into all the details for that but I can tell you that's about 75 percent of the improved properties do meet the qualifications and of the 107 structures that are within the improved areas we found that there were about 62 percent of those were of the age 35 years or older which is a an important factor because this means that the Tiff area qualifies not only in part as a blighted area because of the growth and the lack of improvement in assessed valuation for example that Mr Urich spoke to but also because of the age and the condition of the properties it qualifies as what's called a Conservation Area It's a combination of a blighted and Conservation Area in Conservation Area it means that there are significant qualifying factors of deterioration absence of public infrastructure and other amenities to make the properties attractive for development and if they're not reinvested in soon they could be at risk of becoming further blighted on a vacant side there's 46 vacant Parcels 91 percent of those those were making a finding are qualified and the qualification factors are based essentially on two factors one they're based on the large part of the area that you'll see is vacant of the larger tracks lacks storm water facilities and per the engineers a professional engineer's opinion that is also included in the Redevelopment plan we've documented that these areas occurring to require substantial investment with regard to stormwater facilities which adds a lot of cost to Redevelopment of these areas that contributes toward the qualification of the vacant Properties by virtue the fact that they're going to require additional attention with regard to storm water the other significant qualifier for the vacant areas is that the city of Peoria as of August of 2022 had a unemployment rate that was 6.2 percent as it was reported by the Illinois Illinois Department of Employment Security which is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data that with a unemployment rate yet of 6.2 percent within six months of when the city is establishing the Tiff District means that it is an industrial park Conservation Area and the 6.2 percent is significant because it's a hundred percent of what the U.S unemployment average was at the time and being over six percent that's a single qualifier for uh those properties that are zoned for industrial use and as we indicated earlier uh majority of the areas zoned industrial but 36 of the vacant properties are indeed qualified out of the 46 are qualified as Industrial Park Conservation Area uh Mr Uric spoke to the uh the lack of growth in the assessed valuation uh four out of the last five years the assessed value of the area certainly has not kept up with the Consumer Price Index and the area as a whole that we're talking about the 129 parcels the equalized assessed value of that area represents less than one percent of the city of Peoria's total equalized assessed value so as far as an eav standpoint it's a it's a small area and it has a has a lot of room to grow one of the things I did want to also mention is that there were five properties that were annexed recently that are included within the uh proposed Tiff area four of those properties are tax exempt they were city-owned properties that are essentially former Railroad unused railroad properties and there's one private property that annexed recently that is included in the five the four properties that had previously been included in the area that are not annexing at this time were removed that's the change in the map and because of the four properties that were removed for lack of being within the city of Peoria that affected some additional properties for contiguity so with that um this is part of that gross sale number two that we hope will prosper by having the ability to use tax increment financing you know the city's plan is looking at attracting 374 million dollars hopefully of new private investment over the life of the TIF district and that's going to have to be supported with a little over 216 million dollars worth of private infrastructure as well but that is that's the Tiff area in a very brief summary you need more information please let us know thank you for your presentation Mr Klein and Mr Klein at this point I'd like to request a motion to open the public hearing a move by council member Seer seconded by council member Jensen please cast your ballots to remember Jensen I don't have I don't have my line okay can you cash your ballot motion passes unanimously if there are any individuals that wish to provide comment please approach the podium state your name for the record and provide your comments if there are any individuals that wish to make provide comment regarding the hearing on the Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tiff please approach the podium and state your name for the record and provide your comments and last if there are any individuals that wish to make comment please approach the podium state your name for the record and provide your comments thank you can I get a motion to close the public hearing moved by council member Sears seconded by council member Allen any discussion please cast your ballots yes does your button not come on okay sluggish okay you know I have to look at the pictures of the Mayors who have served and I have to take a look at the last board right above Council of valpila's head there is one mayor out of the four Jim Maloof everybody scoffed when he began discussion along with the city manager of that day Peter corn about gross self strategies there are people that were doubters there were people who were saying that it was going to take away from the Heritage historic neighborhoods that this was a bad move it would dilute the strength of our city this is payday I know he would be so proud to see some of the accomplishments that not only have have occurred or are occurring as a result of our actions this evening but have occurred in the past those consuls previous consuls were correct and that mayor Jim Maloof and his city manager our city manager then Peter corn they LED thank you you're welcome thanks for bringing that historical perspective thank you thank you we have a motion to close the public hearing it was moved by council member Sierra and seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Adam Clark we are at the consent agenda 23-014 is a communication from the mayor and Corporation Council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency 23-015 is a communication with a request to approve the sole source emergency purchase from laser Electric Inc in the amount of fifty four thousand five hundred fourteen dollars and forty cents for the sterling in Nebraska's signal Mast arm 23-016 is a communication with request to approve a two-year contract from PS tracks for inventory software in the amount of forty seven thousand four hundred and fifty dollars for the first year twenty four thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars for the second year for a total amount of seventy two thousand four hundred dollars 23-017 is a communication with a request to approve an agreement with crowdstrike to provide cyber security technology in the amount of fifty nine thousand one hundred and six dollars and two cents 23-018 is a communication with a request to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Peoria and Greater Peoria Sanitary District to line selected City sanitary sewer pipes in the low bid amount of 123 720 with an additional authorization of twelve thousand three hundred and seventy two dollars ten percent for contingencies for a total amount of one hundred and thirty six thousand ninety two dollars 23-019 is a communication with request to approve and authorize the city manager to extend the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Peoria and afscme local 3464 for January 1 2023 through December 31st 2025.

23-020 is a communication with request to approve and increase to the intergovernmental agreement budget between the city of Peoria and Greater Peoria Sanitary District to clean and televise the city's combined sewer overflow outfall lines in the amount of fifty three thousand dollars 23-021 is a communication with a request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class ra3 single-family residential district for a short-term rental for the property located at 5006 North Edgebrook Drive Peoria Illinois 23-022 is a communication with request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R for single-family residential district for a short-term rental at 1805 North Prospect Road Peoria Illinois 23-023 is a communication with request to adopt an ordinance amending the the Peoria Urban Enterprise Zone to include the boundaries of Peoria stadium and Parcels in MacArthur Corridor Knoxville Corridor Wisconsin business Corridor and Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park 23-024 is a communication with request to deny the site application for a class C grocery liquor license with a retail sale of alcohol for par-1 Mini Mart Inc doing business as savemore Supermarket 200 North MacArthur Highway Suite 4 5 and 6 with recommendation from The Liquor Commission to deny and 23-025 is a communication with a request to approve the site application to move a Class A Tavern liquor license with on-site consumption and retail sale of alcohol for 8-bit Inc doing business as 8-bit arcade bar from 100 State Street Suite A to 619 Southwest Water Street Suite 1A contingent upon the issuance of all appropriate permits and a certificate of occupancy with recommendation from The Liquor Commission to approve and that concludes our consent agenda thank you madam Clerk are there items to remove from consent councilmember Euler thank you madam chairwoman item 23-019 anyone else are your buttons working council member Bill Pula 23-017 and 23-023 can you try your buttons again councilmember Kelly uh thank you madam mayor 23014-23016 mm-hmm council member Jackson thank you madam mayor uh item number 23-0 I'm sorry 23-0 24.

he has withdrawn the uh proposal say that again the last part the um yes he has withdrawn it so I we could oh he's withdrawn yeah other items to remove any other items to remove yes yes abstain thank you I appreciate it can you try it can you uh signal me yeah it's working now okay is there anyone else that would like to um pull something from consent okay can I get a motion to approve the other items on the consent agenda moved by council member Allen seconded by council member grab please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously I'm Adam Clark 23-014 is a communication from the mayor and Corporation Council with a request to approve the Declaration of local state of emergency councilmember Kelly thank you madam mayor um Mr Corporation Council I'd like to ask you if um among the reasons for an emergency declaration that people can attend meetings remotely if the council passed a resolution or an ordinance that says that people can attend uh remotely for a commission or for the council or whatever is that against state law to state law limits municipalities ability to allow remote attendance outside of a disaster declaration to a limited number of circumstances related to employment or illness of a family member and so those very restrictive elements are council members sometimes can take advantage of but for instance they're not able to attend remotely when they're simply on vacation which they're welcome to do but they can't vote remotely okay so in a disaster declaration if the meeting is if the public body holds that the remote attendance is available then those people can attend remotely just because there's a disaster declaration um it's my understanding that our boards and commissions have expressed a desire because people still are very concerned about transmission of covid some people are not as protected by the the vaccines and they rely on social distancing and not mixing with public in order to stay healthy and so our boards and commissions have expressed to our staff that they would prefer to leave that in place because there is still a declaration of emergency related to covid and some of our boards and commissions are feeling like their members might be more willing to participate if they can do sober more than thank you I was hoping we could make such an exception but I think what you're telling me is that we cannot right the open meetings act includes a hormonal preemption and so we're very restricted in what we can do and within the parameters the open meetings act those restrictions aren't sufficient to meet the request at least that's pending from our boards and commissions I will say that there is has been legislation in the past couple sessions of our general assembly that would liberalize those remote attendance rules and make it a prerogative more of a prerogative of local governments but that has not advanced in the state house as yet thank you thank you thank you madam mayor um I'll I'll not be making the motion though okay can I get a motion uh to approve item number 23-014 moved by council member rickenbach seconded by council member Jackson in the other discussion please cast your ballots action passes with one nay Kelly Madam Clerk 23-016 is a communication from the city manager and fire chief with a request to approve a two-year contract for PS tracks for inventory software in the amount of forty seven thousand four hundred fifty dollars for the first year and 24 950 for the second year for a total amount of seventy two thousand four hundred dollars council member Kelly thank you madam mayor Mr manager uh was this a was this contract uh put out for bid I I did not say anything about that in the council communication thank you I will let the police chief talk about the procurement process that he's gone through with this thank you or the fire chief excuse me sorry Chief vetervery I'd like to come up yeah he started on this process in Spring of 2022 working with Justin danius in purchasing uh karate and Jessica and is and we did put this out for bid in the fall of 2022 and we waited until 2023 so it hit that budget thank you very much Madam mayor I moved to approve is there a second seconded by council member Allen any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-017 is a communication from the city manager Information Systems director with a request to approve an agreement with crowdstrike to provide cyber security technology in the amount of fifty nine thousand one hundred and six dollars and two cents remember Val Pula thank you mayor mayor we just got to know what happens when the Bad actors play and we got frozen speakers and all I'm but then on a lighter note so I just wanted to know you know in a layman terms what this is all about and I read through the communication and there are some obligations that we need to have with regards to the insurance policy which is listed in section 20.

and Then followed by a question where is the software going to be used and what kind of equipment is the contract talking about Mr manager or thank you I'm going to ask our assistant city manager to come forward talk about this item director who should be here but I will try to best to answer whatever I can't clearly answer for you I'll make sure we get an answer to you immediately so we did an assessment a year and a half ago that I told us some of the areas of vulnerability that we needed to address as well as we had conversations about risk management staff in looking at where we need to ensure our our assets as it relates to our digital as well as infrastructure from our standpoint from our IIs infrastructure with that being said we'd begin a process of evaluating what infrastructures need to be put in place in doing so we recognize that we did not have the internal capacity to do that and that's why we're beginning to look at the what procurement process crowdstrike strike was the selected party to assist us with that implementation strategy so we recognize as a lot of our systems begin to be less on premise so right now we house a number of our services on premise through our software excuse me through our server systems we are beginning to see a number of our assets being off-premise through the cloud and so we need to have redundancy and this will allow us to begin to build that infrastructure can you speak about the obligations with regards to that section 20 in that packet I don't remember everything verbatim sir sorry I read it but no problem cannot recall it verbatim as it relates to section 120 I can give back to you because I don't have it in front of me at the second unless you have it because uh mayor or copy as part of the contract section 20 just requires the the uh vendor to maintain certain levels of insurance and that's outlined in that agreement there that just says here's the levels of insurance that they need to to carry whether that's for workers comp or employment general liability Auto liability it's all the requirements that we're asking of them to maintain so that we know that they're a viable entity thank you manager Eric I think that's it thank you madam mayor answers thank you thank you sir sure I think okay I moved to approve item is there a seconded by council member Kelly any other discussion or questions Mr manager did you want to more say no okay don't look like your button was on council member Jensen I just had one question taking a look at it is it it says this book expire in less than a year is that right October 30th of 2023 um no I we'll we'll get that clarified in terms of of the contract date in terms of when that that runs through it shouldn't be for 10 months I believe that this goes for for a longer period of time so we'll get that clarified okay but we're still going to approve it as it is at this point I would I would encourage you to go forward with this it would go into effect it's cyber security work if we need to come back with Amendment we'll come back and bring that for your approval okay because it does say it it says that the contract was effective December 1st of 2019 which I believe is not accurate um the contract both these questions and your observation relate I'm sorry mayor that's all right go ahead right ahead relate to a contract uh from some of the other parties that are part of the team of entities that deliver these services and so the contract terms that we're approving actually are consistent with the with the council communication this other relationship between um the two parties that help the team that puts us together are like that's likely to be extended the contract that you're referring to is part of that team of entities that delivers these Services okay so it's not the contract between the city and the The Entity that contract is going to be consistent with the council communication okay but so we don't have a copy of the actual agreement we're being asked to approve um this uh agreement is based on a purchase order and standard terms and we've reviewed I've reviewed those that thought that they were part of this package but um uh and they're described in some of the later documents but it's not set forth clearly in the council package I apologize for that thank you I I guess I would feel more comfortable than deferring this so we can see the contract but you want to move to defer to the next council meeting yeah so moved is there a second Ed by council member Kelly a discussion uh council member valpulla just following up on City manager's answer so this is uh this contract will be effective for four years because the initial term that they quoted was to 2019 to 2023 no I don't I don't believe it's a it's a four-year contract that we're it's a purchase of software that we're using to provide cyber security software for us so we'll come back to you with that clarification in two weeks think okay thank you Madame you're welcome councilmember Allen uh city manager is there any um ramifications if we do defer this for two weeks that's you foresee sir none that we haven't had already thank you madam mayor vehicle the motion is to defer this item to the next council meeting on February it's at the 14th I think um no more discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-019 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to approve and authorize the city manager to extend the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Peoria and ask me local 3464 for January 1 2023 through December 31st 2025.

council member Euler thank you madam chairman for six years I've pulled these off consent agenda to vote no and this is the first time I'm pulling it off to vote Yes it's no secret to anyone that I'm a huge proponent of the fact that I think staff should live in the city that they contribute to and receive paychecks from and I think it's important for us to all be a part of a collective community that benefits the whole it's important to our businesses and our residents that our officers and firefighters and EMS responders and Community Development agents attorneys all live in our community and are part of our community and I've heard time and time again that we cannot get residency in a contract it will never happen might as well forget it well I'm excited to say that this contract has residency and it allows me to vote Yes so thank you to the union leader Anthony walraven and his team who negotiated this as well as our staff on the management side and HR and legal that negotiated this and set what I believe is is a significant precedence for the city of Peoria and our contract negotia initiations to have our staff living here in our community with us thank you I moved to approve all right is there a second to that motion seconded by council member Kelly any other discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-023 is a communication from the city manager with a request to adopt an ordinance amending the Peoria Urban Enterprise Zone to include the boundaries of Peoria State stadium and Parcels in MacArthur Corridor Knoxville Corridor Wisconsin business Corridor and Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park council member valpulla thank you very much uh Mr manager this is just a clarification question so we say that the Knoxville Corridor voice of Cancer Institute this does this dive into the med tech that we are trying to work out med tech District or the Peoria Urban Enterprise Zone will take over that oh yes I can answer that question for you the area that you're speaking to on Main Street going up the hill is already included in the Enterprise Zone okay so this is expanding the area around the Knoxville Corridor where OSF has been doing some commercial work as well as a little bit further to where the um the hospital is also located so does this Encompass the local headquarters the headquarters of OSF as well thank you so much for the clarification thank you Madame you're welcome do you want to make a motion I move to approve 23-023 okay is there a second seconded by council member Allen discussion uh council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um is it possible to throw that uh well this is in the Enterprise Zone okay so I have one one further question Mr manager on this item um we discussed uh tax abatement uh earlier today uh does the same rule apply for sales tax for the sales tax construction sales tax on construction materials that tends to be a an Enterprise Zone feature and not a tiff feature um when we have them overlapped can you still do it you're sure I'm I'm 100 positive yes you can so so in the councilman Kelly and I had a conversation earlier today about the the overlapping of a tax increment financing district with the Enterprise Zone and within within a an area where there's a tiff overlaid with the Enterprise Zone you cannot take the property tax abatement you can you can Avail yourselves of the Tiff incentive for property taxes but not the property tax abatement what you can do though is you can Avail yourselves of the sales tax exemption on building materials purchased inside the state of Illinois and so that is something that is allowable the ordinance that's included in the packet references that that's something that that you can utilize in addition there are utility taxes that you could be potentially exempt from that in the Enterprise Zone you apply it but that has to go to dco at the state level it's not locally administered and then there's also a sales tax exemption on construction or on material or equipment that will be used for manufacturing purposes and that again is managed by the state and so if you're in an Enterprise Zone and you apply for that you can get a tax exemption on that but it has to be sourced in the state of Illinois in order to get that exemption yes thank you Mr manager thank you madam mayor did you have something additional to add to that assistant manager council member Jensen thank you madam mayor um I don't know if either the city manager or the assistant city manager wants to answer this I I've brought this up before I think when we've been asked to expand this Enterprise Zone can you explain just for the listeners because I don't believe these are all contiguous do they have to be contiguous I I believe they don't they are contiguous there are there are connector strips that are running in the public rights of way that connect all of the properties together to make sure that they are connected in one zone okay because I didn't see that in the maps that we had I couldn't tell it would be impossible to see it on this map it's almost impossible to see some of the parcels on this map because it's so big but they are connected okay and then I another question I have once if we approve this will we be at our 10 square mile limit no we'll we're I think just a little bit over six square miles right now currently and then when we add these what will we be at like just a little bit over 6.5 oh okay okay I thought it was we were adding more than that okay thank you parcels thank you any other discussion please cast your ballots Emulsion passes unanimously 23-024 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to deny the sign application for a class C grocery liquor license with a retail sale of alcohol for parwin Mini Mart Inc doing business as save more Supermarket 200 North MacArthur Highway Suite four five and six with a recommendation from The Liquor Commission to deny council member Jackson thank you madam mayor I just wanted to uh reiterate or mention for those who were not aware that the applicant withdrew this application uh sometime today I received an email from the clerk's office so uh with that in mind I would like to um make a motion that we go ahead and uh vote to deny should we go ahead and vote to uh manager uh the petitioner requested to withdraw the items so I think a motion to just withdraw the item withdraw motion to withdrawal okay okay so I need to make a motion to withdraw yes item number uh Madam mayor I'd like to make a motion to withdraw item number 23024 okay is there a second to that motion seconded by council member Jensen discussion council member Graham does a motion to withdraw a sustain mean that they could come back before one year is up to apply again yes thank you please I think that's the purpose of the motion to withdrawal so that they're not tainted with any limitation on bringing another matter forward so if we were to just deny it they couldn't come back until after a year it elapsed correct that is correct and first history counselor wants to just withdraw it because that means it can come back sooner than one year well withdrawing it would allow them to come back uh before one year is up and I just don't know you know it's I'm going to support you however you want to go on it we'll take that up at that time yeah yeah okay thank you madam mayor uh I have had a couple of conversations as a matter of fact uh two with the petitioner and uh he had two other individuals call me previously about the same project and I had reiterated my concerns about this particular location having been a a chronic nuisance in the past and had expressed my uh interest in not supporting any type of liquor license because of uh some of the problems the city is still trying to rectify with the current landlord so that will continue to be my position on this particular location uh for now and the foreseeable future unless you know we see any noticeable Improvement okay councilman uh regenbach did you have a comment I I'm I'm comfortable with the councilwoman's direction to withdraw I I would assume this would be maybe for Corporation Council if if the petitioner asked to withdraw it would be inappropriate for us to vote to deny would some you're you're correct right yes yes okay thank you thank you thank you council member Euler thank you madam chair and women just for clarification I'm curious can we vote if a petitioner has already withdrawn so I don't know the correct answer to that question so I'm going to ask that that be deferred uh I did not anticipate this discussion I apologize to you but I don't want to give you an uncertain or incorrect response I'm good with the with garages curious for future reference you so the motion is to withdraw by councilwoman Jackson it was seconded by council member Jensen thank you any other discussion the motion is to withdraw please cash your balance motion passes unanimously Adam clerk we are at regular business 23-026 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request for the following a approved the low bid of Illinois civil Contractors Inc in the amount of 7 858.55 for the combined sewer overflow control project year two be approve and execute the notice of intent to award in the amount of 7 854 858.55 contingent upon Award of the iepa loan for the combined sewer overflow control project year two and C approve and authorize the city manager to execute a contract for the combined sewer overflow control project year two and will need separate motions on all three okay Mr manager uh thank you madam mayor I'm going to turn it over to director Powers who is also going to then turn it over to our city engineer and the executive director of the Greater Peoria Sanitary District Mr Brian Johnson but Mr Powers thank you Mr manager thank you director counselors uh actually what we want to do and we took the opportunity to put this on regular business just the sheer amount of the contracts won but two this is the second year that we are working into our consent decree and I you know as I go back and think about the actual announcement when we came to this body and we had that success story I don't recall Brian gpsd we're here so to celebrate that day or not were you here that night when we actually signed the consent decree I'll tell you so but again just as a point kind of leading into this we are now into year two we want to take the opportunity to give you an overview of what happened in year one how it's going what we planned in year two and again I would be remiss not to say we've had a very willing and able partner with upsd and the consent decree and if it weren't for them sitting at the table with us we wouldn't be here going forward as we are so thanks Brian for that and your leadership there and thanks for the opportunity to thank you for that I don't have a great deal to say again I believe this presentation will speak to what we are accomplishing and then what can go forward with the motion and stand by for questions as you want so with that I'll turn it over to deputy director and city engineer Andrea kloppenside thank you for inviting us to give this presentation tonight L-shaped area humans total construction costs for this just a moment yes can you hear me now yes thank you thank you Andrea thank you Mayor Lee Council also like to recognize trustee Steve Morris and director of engineering and capital Tim Leach also in the audience with me tonight I can't do anything by myself I always need a good team behind me so I appreciate their leadership so I'm happy to provide this update on gpsd's side of the CSO equation our site is slightly different than the city in that we we move first on a lot of the projects our deadlines are earlier defined projects that are well underway and hope to be done ahead of schedule I'd like to say within original budgets but covet had a thing or two to say about that so slightly amended um within the first deadline we have coming up is January 1st 2026 which includes the riverfront Interceptor cleaning the Interceptor is just a very large pipe that um city of Peoria and the surrounding area decided to form a Sanitary District in the 1920s along the river and collect sewage that was otherwise going into the river so that Interceptor is in three phases of cleaning we had to adjust our plans from two phases to three phases due to budgetary issues because of supply chain and covid phase one is done phase two is in progress to be picked up in the spring and phase three the year after that spring Caroline and Cedar Fayette and Eaton control adjustments if you go on this map and go from the blue dot in the upper right hand corner all the way down to the orange dot right in the middle of that that's the next phase here that is to be bid probably by the summer of this year so that includes increasing capacity at a couple of those locations including real-time control Gates so that we can determine measures in flow measures within the riverfront Interceptor and adjust accordingly uh and then also make control adjustments in CSO facilities downtown that's all to be done by 2026 and again I hope to have all those projects out to bid by this summer after that January 1st 2029 begins with South Street and also investigation of some of the portions of the Interceptor at that time after we have televised and cleaned the entire Interceptor and then also the consent decree calls for a joint study between gpsd and the city as to what to do on Dar Street then January 1st 2032 is the final of our deadlines Sanger Street capacity improvements at that location and then potential improvements in our street as well total estimated revised costs are hovering for us around 30 million dollars which is a substantial investment City in the core areas of downtown and all of this can be found on our website gpsdnext.com we put monthly dashboards uh you can look at to see exactly where we're at on the status of these projects so thank you thank you Mr Johnson any questions here we have some questions council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor and thank you for your presentation uh tonight deputy director klumpenstein can you do us a favor for The Listener who was still confused about what is the combined storm water overflow what is the storm water utility fee that I'm paying in layman terms can you break it down for The Listener that is saying I'm seeing these projects that are happening for the combined storm water overflow on the southern parts of the town but we all know that there's some storm water utility projects happening in other parts of town can you just in layman terms just for the listeners kind of break down the differences of why certain areas are getting the combined storm water overflow projects and why other areas are getting the storm water utility projects okay I will try to make this as simple as I can so we have three systems that convey sewage so we have the sanitary sewer pipe which is your toilet your shower water dishwasher all of that goes in a pipe from your house all the way to gpsd wastewater treatment plant we also have the stormwater system which are the inlets in the street The Creeks The Ravines that take storm water runoff all the way to the river third system we have is the combined sewer overflow or the combined sewer system and it has storm water runoff so inlets that's capturing water in the street but instead of going to the river it goes into a combined sewer pipe then goes to gpsd's treatment plant on a dry flow day if we get a heavy rainstorm there's too much rain water in those pipes and that's when there's not enough capacity and it will overflow into the river does that make sense no it does and I just wanted to you know put that out there again just because I know it can still be somewhat confusing because this is uh relatively new uh to the constituents of Peoria so thank you I appreciate you let me put you on the spot there uh you broke it down very well and uh we're very excited to see these projects occurring um especially as we've been paying into them now and now to be able to see the fruit of some of that investment is going to be great for our city thank you thank you councilman councilman member Jensen thank you madam mayor I guess first I I want to um say I'm excited to see this finally coming to its fruition like councilman Allen said um my first I think Executive session when I joined the council in September 2013 was talking about the CSO issue and the proposal that the EPA was trying to get us to agree to which was a hundred percent gray solution not green at all it would have cost the city I think at least three times as much it was not sustainable it was not environmentally friendly it would take only laborers from not only outside of the state and the city but outside of the country to build so it took a long time for us to get here and I know it's a big huge project and expense but I'm happy to see it finally beginning and work being done and I want to thank you I know um engineer klopenstein you've kind of been involved with it since the beginning as well as the city manager and all the staff and Mr director powers for working so hard on this um I do have a question about um the last slide related to the the sewer districts present this location yeah yeah um and note you note here Mr Johnson that um these preliminary designs like for darst Street will only be necessary if green is not most effective can you explain that sure so happy to do it all right councilman Jensen so Darr Street was one of those areas when the city and gpsd were looking at this area and said the city coming they thought green was going to be particularly helpful in that area just because of the nature of of that area so we may not have to do the capacity improvements within that area due to uh the uh just the nature of of how the city thinks green is going to work in that area so we made that project contingent uh to be determined at a later date so I I just want to make sure I are you saying that we won't have to do that right Green Solution works everywhere else correct that you know every every area is slightly different in terms of how green may or may not work so DARS just happens to be a pretty massive sewer shed um uh probably the largest in that in the entire CSO area so that was the one area that was the most expensive to do from a capacity standpoint increase of capacity so at the time that when we pushed way far out and decided to move from Upstream to Downstream and then determined our street whether or not that expense would be needed to be incurred or if if green was going to be so effective that we may not have to do that capacity increase at all okay and so the the proposed project though for Dar street is not green is that right right gpsd's projects are all gray in nature they're actually increasing pipes okay pipe capacity and gate controls to get as much as we can into existing infrastructure okay thank you welcome councilmember Jackson thank you uh Madam mayor well I just want to thank you too for your presentation I have been um reading a lot and watching a lot of this and anticipation so thank you for the work I just had one question uh just to follow up with the council council member Alan I got an email uh from somebody asking me when the storm water fee was going to end uh I know it was enacted in 2018 at that time does anybody know was there an end date or do we not know um this is a federal unfunded mandate our compliance with with both the combined sewer overflow and with the the npds requirements to manage storm water inside the city limits is a federal mandate that requires us to spend money towards that so that's the reason why we have those fees in place I don't see them ever going away storm water the storm water utility okay thank you you're going to have storm water you're going to have to manage to manage to comply with the Clean Water Act from now into perpetuity okay all right thank you I was just actually I was going to expound upon City Engineers response to councilor Allen which is somewhat germane to what the manager was just saying because it's going to come up here in a moment what you're actually voting on is the approval for the second year loan the revolving loan which is specifically directed toward the combined or the consent decree and US removing or eliminating combined sewers this the sand excuse me the stormwater utility as an obligation to that for maintenance when it's after it's built a certain percentage I forget the percentage off top my head was at two percent Mr manager three percent thank you so three percent of the stormwater utility fee that will go on into perpetuity will maintain this solution the rest of that fee is outside of this so this is wholly being funded the CSO year two and going forward by this revolving loan that we're taking out through iepa so again they are two separate points two separate funding sources but in the end will be maintained by a percentage of the stormwater fee so I wanted to clear that up with you Council relative to the fee that is not germane to this motion tonight to this this is strictly about that loan and the loan amount that will cover these projects so I just want to make sure we're clear on that point the other projects you see around the city are being funded out of the stormwater Utility Fund Mike thank you uh so thank you I know how to respond to that my second question you were talking about projects for um this coming spring and you hit a slide up showing some of the streets I just had a question what will be the nature of some of the work that will take place uh on streets like how wet Butler Howard in particular because it is a state uh Road and my question is if you spend the money to do this work uh on how wet and say two years from now the state decides to come in and totally redevelop how Ed would that have any impact on the storm water utility I'm sorry on the work that you're going to do this spring on the street like how Ed not doing any of our projects on State State roll over them for maintenance and long term to know what will happen with those roads but also idot won't let us for this to be kind of an experimental type of activity so they don't know how to approve it we're still working with them and we'll continue to work with them so that we can expand their view of the green infrastructure and the more we install the more they can see and the more they can get data from hopefully that will open up the pathway for us to be able to use those State routes through town but at this point in time we are not building anything on State Route so could I see that slide again that you had up prior to this one that had some streets listed so so every street within this area is not necessarily getting a project this is just the the area that projects will happen within year two so we can get you a detailed map of every type of installation that will go along these streets but this is just giving you the general area I would like to know what streets that work is going to take place on because you obviously well what you've named some residential streets and there's uh yeah just for our purposes I mean 7.8 5 million dollars with that and it would be nice to know so that we could at least keep residents informed to live in in and around those areas so that if there are any traffic detours etc etc thank you thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Sear thank you madam mayor and very difficult for me to stay silent on this subject here so I just want to ask a couple questions uh just to maybe Mr Mayor Mr Mayor Mr manager sorry maybe you can uh jog a memory a little bit so this uh this commitment that we've made to the EPA it's 18-year commitment correct because of all the loans that we'll have to make it'll take at least 37 years total to repay this 18-year project is that correct that's correct and so can you tell us again refresh our memory what was the commitment we made how many million dollars did we commit it to the the combined commitment between the gpsd and and the city was over 150 million I think we had over 126 million was ours and the remainder was the Sanitary District so off to up to the 126 million dollars when you look at Material in uh uh um that's just a capital Improvement basically right there's other expenses that will go with aren't 20 million dollars correct well the the capital expenses are the 126 million and then as director Powers mentioned um the cost of maintaining that and and maintaining the infrastructure um is the cost that we'll have to carry on and that'll that'll go on for you know as long as we have that infra that green infrastructure in place exactly thank you for refreshing our memory uh Mr Johnson thank you very much for being here it's been a while since I seen you appreciate you being here I just got a couple questions I mean tell us about the finances a little bit on your side I mean I know you have costs obviously I know you have uh money that you have set aside for many years also the question that I get from our constituent basically is okay our fees are going up every year like everything else correct how and then you just mentioned something about 30 million dollars what is the plan that you have how will we repay or our constituent repay that amount of money especially for people that you really are on fixed income whether it's the poor or the elderly and obviously businesses their costs have gone up substantially the last many years so can you talk to us a little bit about how we'll be able to repay that 30 million dollars you talked about happy to do it thank you councilman sir so gpsd's a special purpose District it's it's a little bit easier for us to manage our one area really well so we have when financing was easy to get and at very low interest rates we did a large Bond issuance to capture the 30 million dollars that was going to be necessary to do this project at that time and predominantly we will be paying that back over time the 20-year Bond issuance um again to capture low interest rates so a fee increases that the district have gone in over time a little bit different than some communities where you try to hold everything as constant as you can which gets you in trouble at some point because then you have to have large increases we've seen that period not necessarily with us but in the area so over time my predecessors have been diligent about modest increases to build up the fund to be able to pay back that uh not only that but for all of our other projects this is just one area of our really three Capital Areas that were dedicated to CSO and then our treatment plant and then all of the other collection system that we have and the pump stations that service the area so um fee increases went in over time uh with this in mind knowing this day was going to come so a lot of our increases have already taken place thank you for the answer and I'm not sure if you're allowed to discuss this in public but tell them about your tell me about or tell us about your emergency funds and and if you have any I mean you and your all the people that came before you did a tremendous job and I was very impressed by how you guys manage your money and the reserve that you have are you allowed to use these reserves to pay for the 30 million dollars or are you allowed to talk to us a little bit about that we don't need to use those since we're fully funded on this but we do have a reserve policy in place our policy we adopt every year pretty consistent policy I would say hasn't really changed much over time we've increased numbers in it as the time has gone by so we set aside and yes I am permitted I mean it's public everything's public transparent so we set aside every single year enough funds to pay for three months worth of operating expenses like cash on hand in case you don't receive another dime in let's say our Billing System goes down and we're unable to send a single bill we have three months cash on hand we have one year's worth of of debt and principal and interest payments particularly important for Bond issuance and bond Covenants and then we keep four million dollars set aside in our business much like city government everything is extremely expensive and when you're digging up roads if you have a pipe burst four million dollars can go very quickly and or if you have an issue at the treatment plant we get in 20 plus million gallons every day that's constant flow so we keep that on hand we have never in my history there 15 years now have never had to use reserves but you never know when you're going to need to use that but we have that on hand thank you very much for your time and for being here thank you madam mayor council member Rick Regal thank you madam mayor um just two questions but I am I'm so glad the council member Jensen kind of kind of walked us back to some of those early dialogues and and uh I think you know for a long time the public kept asking why aren't we signing anything why aren't we why aren't we settling this and I think that she hit on exactly why we didn't settle right away because first of all it would have been a a lot more expensive it would have been the wrong solution and we would not have also gotten the improvements that we're seeing top of mind you know when we see these Street improvements we see them in a lot of constituents see them as a beautification they actually have a purpose there and and I like I like that fact that we've actually kind of gone back to why time and negotiating that and I know everybody around the council uh here in previous Council spent a lot of time back in executive sessions with with these agreements going back and forth so um I I think that's important for the public to remember one question for the city manager is can you um just give us an update loans bonds obviously a very important in this because of the significant amount of money that we've got into it and one thing that you brought forward a while back was the iepa loan and just for The public's information can you talk about why that is such a significant piece to this on the savings of this as we go forward well ideally anytime you're you're looking at doing long-term debt financing you want to try and get the lowest interest rates you possibly can and in this instance as we started to do the analysis and started looking at it a long-term loan with through the iepa at an interest rate that is below almost half of what we would get if we were to issue bonds made the most sense for us and so as we started to look at that our project met the requirements for the the iepas revolving Loan Fund they have money the Illinois emergency or Environmental Protection Agency excuse me has money that they get from the federal government to loan out for water and wastewater programs and communities and and we fit the criteria because of what we're trying to do to address the consent decree and to address this Federal mandate we have to fix our csos so instead of paying four percent interest if we were out issuing bonds we're paying almost a uh I think it's a percent and a half so our interest costs are are more than half less of what they're 50 less than what uh they would have been if we had gone out and just issued debt on the street so it made sense for us to do that um we've got the preliminary approval for year two that's coming up on the agenda here and and we're pretty excited that we're going to continue to be able to to finance this at the lowest possible rate for the taxpayer and for the Public's clarification that is also something that as opposed to getting one big loan for the whole project that one is a staggered loan process correct that is correct but if we say significant Savings in the interest rate that is correct and and my next question is I think again just um for the public as well and it can go to the city manager or for our Public Works director maybe Public Works director you know we see these great improvements that go in and they're beautiful but they do require some maintenance that I think that um we kind of forget about a lot of times when we see him for the first time pavers have to be cleaned you have to make sure that they take the water they're supposed to or we can get to the end of this time period with the EPA and it's not taking in the water that it does can you talk just speak just a little bit about the maintenance that we would need the planting and the cleaning of these pavers and and the upkeep that we would need to do so that people know where that fee is going to be going absolutely yes it does and it by the way Mr manager is 1.24 so actually lower than 1.5 so really favorable interest rate um that is in some cases and again that is why the three percent is going toward that because there's some of the special materials that it requires to become permeable so that water will flow through it so we have to keep them clear so there is a frequency of cleaning maintaining them replacing them even in some cases depending on the type of material we put down on the street even using special plow blades for plowing snow so it's not just about maintaining it's also the operations just the day-to-day operations some of the plantings that take place along the bump outs and some of the materials that we use for green infrastructure will require actual plannings or replantings and the maintenance of the vegetation that we put in those areas so that's the specialty type work that's outside of the norm of what you would see in a public works operations area on streets curbs sidewalks and so on it's primarily where it's taking water taking on its ability to continue to take water and take that water over time long beyond the 18 years thank you very much and Madam mayor there's no other um questions from from any of my colleagues I would go ahead and make a motion to approve um 23-026 number a or letter item a item a second by council member seer uh very good discussion and uh you know I think that we were all more educated about this process and the projects and the work that's being done it took a long time to get to where we are today and it really keeps getting better and better I want to thank you director Powers deputy director Kaufman klopfenstein and Mr Brian Johnson for your work good work we have a motion to approve item a we're going to take one at a time looks like there's no more discussion uh please cast your ballots item a passes unanimously councilman recrigo to to approve 23-026 item or Item B seconded by council member seer any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously council member record thank you madam mayor and to bring this home tonight at 23-026 letter C I would move for approval uh seconded by council member seer any discussion please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you Madam Clerk 23-027 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to approve a contract with green demolition contractors Inc for the Harrison School demolition project Mr manager uh thank you maybe if I could ask director Doolin to come to the to the podium and just explain this item thank you Mr manager thank you mayor thank you Council uh I think uh after another attempt we are ready to move forward with the Demolition Harrison School uh the previous approval we were now not able to come to a contract with the approved bidder due to them not being able to meet the standards of the city standards for bidding and they were not able to meet some of the federal requirements with the money uh Congressman Bustos got us through the earmark process so with this we ask that you approved the contract with green demolition they are the ones who are doing McKinley we have talked to them they can they have the scope to do both projects they indicated that it shouldn't delay the timeline it actually will help them with some business processes by able to go from environmental abatement to one to the other whether staging it so it shouldn't affect the timeline okay councilmember Jackson thank you madamira I would just like to go ahead and move that item number 23.

20027 be approved is there a second second event council member valpulla discussion council member Euler I'm good okay yeah okay any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously 3-028 is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a request to adopt an ordinance to acknowledge and accept changes to the proposed Redevelopment plan projects and area for the proposed Medina Plains Allen Road Business Park Tax increment financing District council member Seer thank you madam mayor I moved to approve this ordinance please seconded by council member Allen discussion councilmember Kelly thank you madam mayor Mr manager I'm I'm looking at the map I'm looking at the map and we I Just for information I don't things I don't understand we have an umbilical that's running up Knoxville Avenue um North and I'm wondering what that's about and while we're at it on the West side just below route 6.

we've got apparently a little umbilical of something else be sneaking in there between two Parcels could you uh let us know what those are about please I certainly can that's that the if you look at the the Medina Plains map the the parcel on the the Far Eastern Edge is actually the Rock Island Trail and that's a public piece of property that we own that we included in the Tiff so if there's any public improvements to be able to be made to that portion of the trail that's included in there so that's not actually Knoxville that's that's the Rock Island trail that it just just so you get your bearings on Pioneer Parkway the far south east corner of this map is where the trail crosses where the railroad tracks cross Pioneer Parkway that that's the trail connection kind of across the street from Barracks cater in the piece that looks like a tail on the on the Far Western portion of the the Tiff is property the city has owned for many years it's part of the property that that was part of the the central Illinois Rail Yard it was the it is the railroad that comes into Pioneer Park it's the portion uh that connects off of um the Union Pacific Line and goes both North and South so that provides that access into and out of Pioneer Park industrial park for rail access into this area and the council just previously annexed that land even though we've owned it for 30 years we've finally annexed it into the City and that property is not it's not paying any taxes because it's railroad land but it is now in the city and that's part of this TIF district as well thank you Mr manager you're welcome thank you Matt and just for clarification uh as Mr Klein mentioned earlier the there are there were four Parcels that we included in some some uh that was south of the intersection of Allen Road and Pioneer Parkway that was included in the original map this new map takes it all out and it's just what is in the city of Peoria so it at our next council meeting on the 14th this is what you will be approving as the final boundaries of the Tiff if you approve this item this evening okay thank you council member thank you madam mayor Mr manager while we have the map out in front of us if you could just kind of highlight the except accepted areas that are highlighted as not being part of the that proposed Tiff boundaries I think we all recognize the Walmart store area there but the others are there some specific reasons so along Pioneer Parkway you have some improved properties that are mostly car dealerships that have been uh improved along the the northern section of Pioneer Parkway moving up you have the existing property for Maui Jim and their corporate headquarters across the street you would have the property that includes what used to be pv2 the restaurant that's there and then moving further north you would have the the Walmart property and the outlets that are included in that so those are the accepted properties that are not as part of the Tiff District thank you good enough okay any other discussion please cast your ballots passes unanimously Madam Clerk 23-029 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff for the following a to adopt an ordinance rezoning property from class R for single-family residential district to a class R8 multi-family residential district for the property located at 939 943 951 and 957 South Shelley Street Peoria Illinois B adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R for single-family residential district for town homes for the property located at 920 926 934 and 938 South Shelley Street Peoria Illinois C adopt an ordinance rezoning property from class R for a single-family residential district to a class R8 multi-family residential district for the property located at 948 952 and 956 South Shelley Street and 1503 and 1507 West Antoinette Street Peoria Illinois D adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R for single-family residential district for town homes for the property located at 921 925 927 929 and 933 South Summer Avenue in Peoria Illinois and E adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R4 single-family residential district for town homes for the property located at 1508 and 1512 West Antoinette Street Peoria Illinois and we will need separate motions on all once again I'd like to turn over the Florida director Doolin to bring some folks forward to just talk about the proposed projects that we have here director thank you mayor thank you Mr manager uh thank you Council um I wanted to provide a little bit of historical context about how these projects came to fruition and how we got here uh back in 2013 uh the South Village Tiff was created uh as a way to Spur some some development in 61605.

at the time the assessed value for the entire South Village Tiff was 49 million dollars the MacArthur plan uh which which one of these properties is is off of MacArthur and then there's another project later in the agenda that's right on MacArthur was further adopted in 2019 that talked about development in this area coinciding with both of those items we formed the land bank in 2021 with specific objectives saying assemble contiguous vacant lots to support affordable housing in the city of Peoria specifically focusing on MacArthur in 61605 and then the last thing in March of 2022 the city of Peoria adopted the South Side revitalization plan as part of that planning efforts uh there was over 30 planning meetings for in-person key stakeholder meetings and 70 community members that plan went to the plane and Zoning commission where it had some more public Outreach and then it came to council for approval and was adopted as part of the city's Consolidated plan specifically within that 149 residents were surveyed to get feedback for the plan that was adopted by Council specifically within that plan some goals and recommendations stations included update the quality of housing by increasing the percentage of new construction with particular focus on the Redevelopment of properties owned by the public entities increase access to stable housing for residents through long-term Leasing and a focus on home ownership ensure that older adults living in the community have housing needs met and pursue adequate housing modification programs and new developments to ensure that older residents can remain in the community so I think sometimes you know the city gets criticized for having plans and not trying to to work towards them and I wanted to highlight how we kind of got here with these projects one of the things with all the plans that specifically talked about the need for public investment in 61605 I think Public Works just Illustrated a significant amount of investment that they're doing in 61605 but I wanted to highlight some other investment that's occurred within the last few years or occur in the future Western Avenue for 14 million dollars was redone fire station for three million dollars on Western MacArthur Corridor the the actual Street we'll get a 10 million dollar Grant we've received 7 million from the state to see some major infrastructure improvements over the next two years three million dollars towards Harrison and McKinley demolition we over the next uh last year in the next two years with the American Rescue plan money will spend about 2.5 million dollars in residential abandoned vacant homes uh in 61605 and we invested about six hundred thousand dollars in tree wind Park and uh because of the Congressional earmark we received we'll have about two million dollars in sidewalk improvements in 61605 as well so all of the plans highlighted a specific need for public investment in this area in hopes of spurring additional development I think you know one of the things that really speak to the need of all these projects so I mentioned that in 2013 with the South Village Tiff was adopted the total assessed value of all the property in the South Village Tiff was 49 million dollars in 2021 it had decreased to 41 million dollars there's been with the exception of one building which is the Dollar General in Western the Tiff has not seen any new construction since it was adopted in 2013.

furthermore uh you know the city has has unfortunately I think uh because of the need helped in uh decreasing some of that assessed value in the last 10 years we've demolished over 400 residential structures in 61605 uh and in that same time frame we've added zero new housing units so I think it speaks to the need to add additional housing units going forward from the 2000 to 2020 census uh the area saw about a 21 decline um I think then in the South Side rehabilization plan it also talks about housing someone who's cost burden for their housing which means they're spending more than 35 percent of their income specifically for housing but since census tract five which is the northern part of 61605 and the this I mean the northern part of the South Village shift and then census track 50 is below it census track 5 is 76 housing burden with the cost of housing and census 50 is about 64 cost burden for their housing so I think it speaks to the need for affordable housing specifically in that area the the last thing I I want to point out is with the Census Data we're also able to look at the age of structures being built the city on average has about 25.6 percent houses that were built before 1950 as a city as an average specifically in 61605 it's about 50.2 percent of The house's bit were built before 1950 so I think it speaks of the older housing stock as well so with all these planes in place we really have work to put together uh contiguous vacant Lots as the landed Bank objective stated to really attract affordable housing developers to really address the need for housing that that we hear in the community we reached out to some of the senior housing that currently exist in the area three of the four had an over six month waiting list for residents uh to to live at the properties so that's kind of addresses the need and how we got here I kind of wish you know councilman rickenback asked for a uh some information back on affordable housing and I I wish we had the timing was was better so we could have talked to that information but I think as a city staff and Council we need to continue to work to kind of break this stigma of affordable housing being a detriment to a community affordable housing simply means that housing is Affordable it doesn't Define who someone is or what they're going to do you know specifically 80 of my area immediate income which usually is what qualifies you for these programs for a household size of one that's forty seven thousand dollars and for a household size of four that's sixty eight thousand dollars and and I think that's what you know that's you know a better term is Workforce housing it's people who who might be living paycheck to paycheck and having that stabilized income in place that doesn't go up uh you know because the landlord raises the rent I think is important for our community so with all of that said uh we we reached out by Peoria opportunities Foundation who had a partner uh pivotal housing about some potential projects in the city of Peoria we talked about it a few different sites that were ready and not ready and we eventually landed on these two for now uh a little context for there be applying in February for the Illinois housing tax credits through the Ida program specifically for those tax credit programs you have to have the zoning approval in place and that's specifically what these cases are in front of you they you know unfortunately the way the process works that doesn't mean these are a guarantee they still have to go through a competitive process Statewide we feel based on the location the need the work we've done previously the public infrastructure we're making we are making they score really well and we're hopeful uh that they can contribute to adding some development and some assessed Valley assess value to our community these two projects alone will equate to about a 10 percent increase assessed value in the South Village Tiff going forward which means additional Tiff increment being generated an additional future projects being made so with that I mayor I'd ask permission to hand it over to Jane genzel the pure opportunities Foundation who will talk a little bit about the project and then I'm happy to answer questions afterwards as well yes thank you let's cancel foreign the director of Perry opportunities Foundation here in Peoria and we're an affordable housing developer um a couple in August I was contacted by the lawyer in Chicago that we work with and he connected me to pivotal and and to Willis man and I trust the lawyers that we work with in Chicago have all they do is affordable housing and just as an example in the last project that we did because of all of the challenges with that project they donated two hundred thousand dollars in legal fees to that project so it's somebody that I trust and respect and when they connected us to pivotal and then I met Willis I was like this is a good partner for Peoria so I'd like to let Willis take over and give you the overview of the project thank you Mr Mann greetings thank you Mr mayor council thanks for having us I'm going to try and fit this into four minutes so I won't repeat a lot of what's said but I do want to underscore uh that we came to the city in this very building I had one of the best first meetings I have ever had with the city staff and I also knew that this was a great fit not just for pivotal but for the kinds of projects we're proposing um as Mr mentioned we've tried to align these projects as best we can with the plans that exist the hard work that's been done by the city the nonprofit organizations and the residents here in town and we wanted to honor that we we aren't able to deliver on absolutely every goal in the plans that have been made because there are a lot of ambitious goals out there but we hit on three for the uh what we call the South Village or the MacArthur corridor plan and we also hit three goals from the near South Side plan to update the quality of housing increase the access to stable housing and to ensure in the case of the senior building to ensure that older adults have a chance to continue to live in the community and have the right kind of housing as they age in place um I always like to talk about the location and context when I'm talking about it obviously you guys know the city of Peoria well but I show this map for a reason this shows the city and county owned Parcels we looked at arguably all of these to come to these final two that we're presenting here for you today and you can see we had a lot of choices so we spent a lot of time evaluating the options and the the projects here today represent the end of a long road of work the first one Church food garden homes is a scattered site project it is a tight knit set of housing units a mix of town homes and two-story buildings which I'll show a rendering of in just a bit the site is very tight it is still called a scattered site for the purposes of our Ida funding but in this case we're very close in there we're able to share amenities make the management office the community areas and the playground accessible to everyone you'll also note on this site we're really excited to be so close to the Saint Anne's Garden of hope that in some way is is a community amenity that our residents can take advantage of by the nature of being so close was one of the first things that attracted me so it has sort of a special place in my heart because I'm an urban Urban Gardener as well um and so you can see this rendering shows both the two-story product in the front and then farther down the road the town homes we're hoping to fill in almost all of the vacant Lots on those blocks uh there and I think that will have a catalytic impact on the neighborhood as you may or may not know there are not a lot of blocks that have a hundred percent contiguous development from one end at the other and I think this will be a place where we can jump off and start that kind of development uh in the South Village so a lot of community benefits that are obvious from housing but I I did want to point out that we'll be creating construction jobs as well as the increased assessed value that Joe talked about we'll also have two permanent jobs per project that's a property manager and a service tech making sure that those are kept up to our standards uh they'll be on site five days a week from 9 A.M to 6 p.m um and then I also wanted to highlight that we're going uh we're building green this will these will be state-of-the-art energy efficient buildings uh in addition to much of the rental housing stock in the South Village being somewhat outdated and perhaps in need of some deferred maintenance very little of it is energy efficient so this gives a chance for residents not only to save money on their rent but also on the bills on their cost of living and I just barely made it to my questions slide before the timer so I'm sure you have some thank you Mr Mann director did you have anything before we go to council discussion and I do have some comments to make but I certainly want to defer first to um council member Jackson and then anyone else on the council that wants to comment councilmember Jackson thank you madam mayor just a couple of quick questions before I I go to my comments uh Mr Man um you I think in the meeting we had with you in December you talked about the fact that you are not just the kind of a developer that puts up a project then disappears uh will there be a continued Presence by pivotal Partners um you know we've seen uh projects go up and developers leave and 10 years down the line you know the properties just declined terribly uh are we going to see something like that with a project like this is a long-term owner we've developed a portfolio of almost 16 000 units in 17 States we've only sold two buildings in our uh in our 29 year now history there is one that we're contemplating selling right now that might be a third but that gives you an idea that's that's about 120 units out of 17 or 16 000 that we've developed so we are long-term owners always have been and plan to continue to be additionally I think one of the the strongest evidence for our long-term plans for Peoria are the fact that we are already working on a next round of projects and really hope that this is only the beginning of a long relationship we're also working we have a project in Morton that we've owned for uh six years and intend to own for the rest of uh as as far as we can see into the future and we're working on developing a project in Pekin so our commitment is not just of the city of Peoria but to the area you also you talk a lot about seniors many of these areas you refer to have they're just vacant lots and lighting is a serious issue because where there were once homes we now have lots of vacant lots and uh during the night it is extremely dark and unsafe in many instances and some of these areas are bound by alleys and as a result consequently residents on the South Side particularly 61605 are still prone to a lot of illegal dumping that goes on throughout our community we have cleanup after cleanup after cleanup let these same people come back and dump garbage in our community usually at night in areas like where there are alleys where there's no lighting and it's just an easy target with this new project how are we going to deal with that issue because I I've been involved with the litter summer litter Patrol programs I've walked around with young people I know where these hot spots are many of them are in some of the same areas you've referred to and I don't feel comfortable moving forward with new projects if we don't address our lighting issues and our illegal dumping that goes on in and around our community so I would be really concerned about putting older people in in these areas when we've got safety issues and things of that nature could you talk a little bit about how you're going to address those concerns of course um I think there's there's two components that play into it obviously we'll have site lighting and we have a photometric engineer who knows all about you know sort of light fixtures and light candles and all that stuff and they can work with us to make sure that we light you know both the areas uh inside our property lines and adjacent to without bothering any of the neighbors um you know at this at this stage they have the technology the cut off blinds for the lights to make sure that we can work with staff to light the areas that we want lit without creating like pollution in the neighborhood so in all honesty I don't know how to do that but I know how to hire someone who does know how to do that uh and I know we've discussed uh some of your needs I think we'll be able to bring light to the alley without uh impinging on any of the neighbors um the other thing that we'll be bringing is exterior security cameras that I think will address some of your concerns we will have eyes on the parking lot and exterior cameras facing out from the building 360 Degrees we can again work with staff to make sure that we have coverage on the alleys and those kinds of things so that you know we can see perpetrators in real time and potentially help with prosecutions for any illegal dumping we find that the cameras are absolutely crucial for not just providing security but also making sure that from a management standpoint we can we can identify any Bad actors within the building okay thank you thank you madam mayor just had a few comments um when Jane genzel uh called me months ago I was initially uh not in support of a project like this but after thinking about um everything that's transpired over the last 40 to 50 years on our 61605 neighborhood this process of disinvestment has taken a long time and um I've come to the realization that while we want we've lost almost 4 000 residents and and we have people who yes obviously we need housing for some of our older citizens we also want home ownership to become once again a part of our community with that in mind I I realize that we may not always get those things uh in the order that we would like them but I do understand that you know we've got to when there's an opportunity like this with the private developer as hard as it is sometimes to get that type of funding we have to take advantage of it and this is just in my mind a piece of the puzzle uh that we are involved with in terms of uh you know bringing all those critical component components back to our community uh as we seek to Stop The Exodus and and increase our population base in uh 61605 so um Mr man I appreciate your interest in our community I do support your project and um with that Madam mayor I will support this uh with the thought in mind that this is just part of what our long-term plan is to revitalize our community in 61605.

thank you great thank you any questions that the council has for Mr Mann or Miss ginsel Mr Mann can you come back up just I want to just give a little bit of History taking the Chuck Graham approach here councilman um so I grew up in south side of Peoria 61605 and when my family came here in the 60s there were 33 000 people that lived in that area in the 50s there were something like 45 50 000 people and it started to decline over time but uh in the 70s it started to decline and there were I think in the 20 000.

today there's less than 14 000 people that live in 61605 the south side of Peoria so that 4 000 plus people that councilwoman Jackson was speaking of was just in the last 10 years there's continual Exodus to North people are moving to Northern parts of the city and with that loss of population we've seen we've seen grocery stores it's a it's a desert at you know a grocery desert food desert we've seen schools consolidate we've seen businesses and pharmacies leave so we've seen you know retail leave along with the population because it takes a population in order to support commercial and business Industries right there have been people that have wanted to move back to the south side of Peoria but they couldn't find enough quality affordable housing I know that I've heard it over and over again I also know that 50 of the homes on the South Side have not been maintained so you've heard all the data right you've seen the negative data associated with this area which is still I mean my mother still lives in this area right it's still got a good number of homeowners not enough there's still people that choose to live on the South Side there's people that have moved to other parts of the city that want to move back to the South Side I'm wondering with you know there seemed to be risky factors here what drives you and your company to want to invest in a in an area like this and and have you done it before successfully we have we've done quite a bit of it and in fact our mission uh in some ways is on our name we we like to be a pivotal part of the change in a community um there's a lot of real estate developers that want to ride the wave as it as it grows right we want to be the developer that helps start the wave we know how hard that is it it takes the subsidies it takes the unique types of funding that we go after that we have developed a niche a special set of skills to be able to secure that funding and deliver these projects in a you know unique uh heavily regulated environment um but but those are the kind of projects that can be catalytic in a neighborhood like the south side of Peoria and we've done it before we we've done it in Archer Heights on the south side of Chicago uh I I would argue that we've done it in Morton to a certain extent by preserving a nursing home that had been derelict and left behind uh in the crash of the 2000 the financial crash in 2008 um and and we've done it several times in Iowa in in Muscatine just now we've finished uh two projects much like Peoria where we worked one multi-family and one senior project to really deliver much needed units in a town that uh hadn't seen new construction in over four years any type of new construction in over four years so we really like to be part of that we like to work with municipalities to find the places where we can really make a difference it leads to Great projects it leads to Great relationships with the municipalities and it leads to Great residents so we hope that this will be another example of that kind of catalytic change well I applaud your interests in wanting to develop in this area we don't have developers lined up yet but you know you're the experts and I I know Miss ginzo and her work the work that she's been doing for many years in the East Bluff primarily of Peoria just beautiful housing homes for families in this area and so you know it just brings me a lot of confidence that you're involved you're a local Jane we love you you do good work I you know the fact that you're the experts and you're very passionate and interested in developing this area gives me a lot of confidence I think it's it can be a game changer a transformative opportunity uh life-changing opportunity for a part of our city that has great need for quality affordable housing so I just want to say thank you I'm glad we have the opportunity any other questions or comments did you have a motion to make councilmember Jackson yes I I would like to make a motion um should I do it before the discussion it's uh item a yeah okay uh Madam mayor I would like to make a motion uh that item number 23 I'm sorry 23029 uh a v adopted seconded by council member regenbach discussion council member Kelly thank you madam mayor um first of all I would like to uh criticize director Doolin for saying that things that were developed before in 1950 are inferior I I take that personally uh but uh Madam mayor I am uh not in favor of this development um and there are several reasons number one um very much like in the North Valley uh when things like this were being uh bubbled around the homeowners there did not want it I attended a meeting on the on the south side uh with homeowners and renters uh and they were many of them not all of them many of them were very much opposed especially the homeowners they did not want to have subsidized housing in their neighborhood some of them said things like we don't want to Taft homes in the middle of our neighborhood now these brand new structures uh uh with subsidized rents will be filled as soon as they are built because they're going to be all new all shiny Etc we have over a hundred units and uh which says to me that we will have around a hundred more abandoned homes in in our city that we'll have to deal with um this is like if you're driving a little Fiat and somebody says to you well you can have a Cadillac you know the demand for Cadillacs would go through the roof you know nobody would want to be in the Fiat anymore so so the fact that these places fill up Etc as you know is obvious but what do these neighborhoods need the people who live in these neighborhoods now and who own in these neighborhoods now need help and we're going to help through itis programs and there are other programs from HUD and whatnot we're going to help those investors I have nothing against out-of-town investors not at all but what about the people who are there we tend to have lots of money for things like this and not very much money for down payment assistance for Rehab assistance those are all secondary there's no sex appeal to them or something the legislatures don't seem to care the the feds don't care the things we're doing and proposing here we've been doing now for 60 80 years and it hasn't improved neighborhoods it has with other things harmed neighborhoods and this is a public policy problems I don't blame this on the people the people are totally capable I recall I don't recall this is a little before my time director doing but with the GI bill after World War II all these GIS could get a mortgage then they changed it at the last moment only for new construction it was very harmful to cities they finally in the mid 70s changed that back um we have I I think most of these problems are public policy problems but let's not compound what we've been doing that hasn't worked with something new and shiny again I just don't think these things will work we need to invest in the people who are there we need to increase home ownership that's what these people want more home ownership not more rental um so I and and if we look at all these programs that are designed in Washington and designed in Springfield and whatnot over a long period of time they've failed they've failed and our cities are deteriorating we need to change course and so I will and I don't by the way I do not question the character or of of any of the of any of the folks who are proposing this I I think everybody wants uh uh real progress in housing I just think it's been proven that this kind of thing does not work thank you madam mayor councilman I'd beg to differ with you you know I served on the Illinois Housing Development Authority for a while before I was removed because I was elected to this role but I see these types of I saw these types of developments all over the state of Illinois heavy investments in housing quality housing for seniors for families multi-family new housing developments we have homeowner down payment assistance programs right now that's happening in that area we have projects that provide resources that provide for roofing repairing roofs there's programs that provide doors and windows I think we need more of it like the East Village Tiff provides but this is a 25 25 million dollar investment in an area that has not had significant investment in housing in a long time I think that director Doolin talked about no activity with a tiff since 2013 or so hardly no opportunity but but I I think that you have to look at what is working and I know these types of developments are working all over the state all over the country and it's it's an opportunity that for me it's a no-brainer it's it's time to support the the families that that want to live in this area council member uh regenbach thank you madam mayor and I enthusiastically support this project uh I've had the opportunity to work closely with Peoria opportunities and Jane genzel for the last probably 10 years with various projects in the East Bluff and if there's something that this woman in this organization is passionate about it's providing more opportunities of affordable housing for our citizens you look at the situation we were just coming out of we're still in for some people and I see um one of the residents of a Darwin home in the in in the gallery um tonight um that the if we don't approve more affordable housing opportunities which is one of the few things we can control I think it's literally a slap in the face to those people who have been asked to vacate their their residences you know you talk about what what do the people want and this isn't my Council District this is my city though but as councilwoman Jackson said there's been a number of studies going back to the South Village Tiff to the um I can't even think of all the names of them now I'm so excited about it but I mean there's been opportunities and opportunities for public input for the last going back to 2013 I believe was the date first date that director Doolin mentioned so so nice to see something happening and not just asking for another study I think when we look at the number of residential demolitions that have taken place we see that there is a dearth of housing opportunities on the south side when you look at the um the the I'll say this again respectfully councilman Kelly the the number of houses built before 1950 I mean that that percentage is disproportionate for the houses on the south side so looking at a couple of the various reports we had and studies that we've done we heard loud and clear from the residents of the South Side to increase access to stable housing update the quality of Housing and these two projects will clearly do that so I could go on and on you're probably tired of hearing me pontificate but I I really think that this is so critical for us that we don't pass up the opportunity and you know this this isn't a done deal even with our approval tonight this has to go through the Ida vetting process so this this is just us giving it our full support so that they can go for that funding and I would just encourage my colleagues to to be supportive of this and be supportive of the residents of the first district thank you thank you uh rock regal Madam mayor thank you for your comments about the South Side how important it is and why it's important that we reinvest time energy and money and with that also investing of a vision that actually can be what we all the residents of the South Side what Peoria wants it to be and a couple of thoughts that that hit here tonight and I wasn't going to say anything um but you know we talk about affordable housing affordable housing is I think we need to remove that word from our vocabulary it really is Workforce housing and housing costs we have we see the the media every single day tell us it's rising and and you can't keep up and we need to be able to write another option in there what's interesting is I don't know of a project because I know there isn't one the Jane genzel doesn't touch that isn't quality and not only do we talk about affordable housing but we talk about affordable quality housing and it's about choices being able to give residents choices of what if where they would like to live options when we talk about seniors many houses and I I had a senior call me this afternoon who's living in their house because they don't want to leave the south side but they don't have an option it's not the right house for them and they want to stay where they want to stay but they don't have an option we're creating an option and I think council member Jackson's words that she started with were extremely important because this is a plan that was vetted she was very clear she wasn't necessarily in support of it in the beginning and through reflection through being able to look at the fact that this is not the project this is a project that in the multitudes of other things that we have done recently and that we hope to do in the future is going to help the a building block and I think that those comments that councilmember Jackson said and how she came to this are extremely important because this I don't think is it's not like a plan was set down here and boom let's take it this thing was vetted through and the other part that's kind of lost in some of the discussion is we talked a lot when the land bank was put in about what it could do and something that was mentioned and I forget who mentioned it was we want to see be able to see results this is the first project coming out of the land bank when people say you don't want when you're you're not investing in we've we've invented time energy money and we've got some more to come and there's going to be a lot more projects I have no fear that this is only one of a multitude of projects that can come there because it's about building a vision when we talk about lighting it's going to have lighting I love that question because this is going to be a lit spot maybe this becomes the way that we end up investing other City dollars be able to like the areas cameras and I think those are all valid questions and they help make wipe this project here will be successful quality housing everybody deserves it everybody should have it it should be around the area within our whole city and then let's build our home ownership programs around this as well and the home reinvestments yes the city we've got some great tools let's put them all into the bucket so um thank you for letting me talk I know it's it's a lot of comments and a lot of different ways but this project and the one that we're going to be talking about after this I think are important for our city thank you thank you council member Jensen um thank you madam mayor I'll try not to be redundant but I appreciate councilman rodrigle's comments um I'm very supportive of this as a member of the land bank I mean this has been our mission and one of our our primary goals was to put together Parcels of land that are vacant where some of these buildings were that have been demolished of them all in together and we bought up some properties too that the county owned so that we could make development happen so we can build affordable housing and then other housing and businesses and as councilman ruckriegel pointed out this is just this is the first one to come to us and we've only had the land bank really for about a year so I mean this is just one the first step in it and it's really important to see this through I'm very excited about it um I think you know it it does a number of things it provides affordable housing which we have seen study after study I think we had a policy session on it a number of years ago and we had a notebook this big and I don't know what the numbers are anymore but that's a huge need in the city of Peoria and this will address some of that and that's very important and again as the mayor pointed out we're going to be investing 25 million dollars in an area that has seen no investment in a number of years except for I think uh director Dooley mentioned the building of the dollar store and that's the only thing that's been built on the south side in the last 10 years um so I'm very supportive of it I am glad to see that Jane genzel is a part of this she's been very successful in the East Bluff and I look forward to hopefully partnering with pivotal on this project and others in the future thank you thank you for Alan thank you madam mayor I'm also in support of this project I think it's important as we look to raise the economic floor of the 61605 we address those basic needs and part of that is affordable housing I love the comment made about how these homes will be energy efficient with ryzen Amarin costs and things of that nature being a homeowner right now is very challenging as someone who just got my Amber Bill last week but knowing all seriousness though when you think of the cost of replacing your furnace replacing your water heater replacing some of those other amenities that are very expensive and we have a very old housing stock in the 61605 many of the homes all the although yeah you could be a homeowner but it's very expensive to upkeep that home and so we can provide quality housing in an area that needs investment and then also too when I think of the future I think of the the children that are going to have a great place to live a place that will be safe and will improve their quality of life and we're preparing the next leaders of this city so I would definitely be supporting this thank you council member Graham uh yes um just a couple of questions first of all um does the occupant of this development once it's built out do they pay rent only at a lower scale because it's affordable quote unquote things there one is I mean everybody always pays rent and oftentimes a person's rent if they have a voucher um then they pay a third of their let's see um a third of their income because that's just the standard the HUD standard of what people should be paying for housing um and then I mean that's part of the thing with the tax credit um process is that because you have the funding you know you have a lower mortgage on the property and therefore you can charge lower rents more affordable rents so they will be paying rent but it will be uh probably not at the market level that's right it's not twelve hundred dollars uh now do you prefer that we refer to this as the MacArthur Flats project this one is search for your Gardens Church view guard right MacArthur and churchview okay great thank you very much and I just want to get clarity on something as I looked at a b c d and e and these are ordinances were being asked to adopt or rezone a requires eight votes since we have 11 people voting uh C requires eight votes the ones that are adopting a special use and I don't believe we're gonna have any problem with the votes but how many are we talking about their Corporation Council this is for you so the you're correct the rezoning is is a eight vote requirement two-thirds yes vote which is eight given the members that are present here some of these call for rezoning but we have here for B we're asked to approve a special use for D we're asked to approve a special use for E we're asked to approve the special use what's the difference between that and the other two which involves rezoning the you're changing your zoning map by rezoning and so there's a special requirement there whereas the special uses when you pass your ordinances you've essentially said if they meet certain criteria they're appropriate for that area so you're changing in a rezoning what's appropriate for that area Okay as opposed to a special use just granting it unconditioned so are we going to require out of 11 here tonight we're going to require eight for a b c d and e no eight four just eight for eight and C excuse me um and then for b d and e those are just uh simple majority of the corporate authorities which is six thank you and uh you know occasionally somebody has to enact the role a mechanic however mayor thank you for putting a historic frame on this whole project and what's been happening to our city and I think for that reason and many others articulated by by my Council peers uh this is a good project and I'll be voting in the affirmative thank you councilor Jackson for your vision on this thank you councilman council member valpulla thank you madamir first off I started hating the word affordable housing so the reason is that the moment you speak about affordable housing as director Doolin mentioned and councilman broccoli you'll mention there is a negative stereotype that there's a stigma that is surrounding that it is something to do with poverty something to do with marginalization of residence and increase crime rate then we are actually speaking the same narrative again and again and if we are trying to impart the people that this is something called an affordable housing I don't know why you call it as an affordable housing because I would like to call in as Workforce housing that's one way to look at it the thing that I'm I'm really wanted to press here is that the what we speak here is what is resonated outside so the more the more we speak about this affordable housing most of the common people think that oh this is something to do with um I would say low income housing we want to bring more people into that but in reality we are trying to help people to get an affordable lifestyle and having a proper house is pretty important for a normal person and we are as a city you are providing that why not you change the narrative to say this is not something to do with low income and totally banned that saying it's not an affordable but it's a Workforce house I mean there are several theories that float around but I like to see this as as a progressive approach which probably will bring more people more residents to that area and then see it as and especially when I spoke with uh director Doolin yesterday it says majority of the workforce would like to embrace that so that really helps us tell a story in a very positive way I support this thank you so much thank you and I know there's issues with the terminology the stigma associated with the word term affordable yet some people understand it it's housing that I can afford it's hard to completely get away from it some people don't understand Workforce housing what that means it's it's very complex but I think that we have to get away from thinking that affordable housing is always low income housing or that affordable housing means the projects of the 50s and the 60s because it doesn't it doesn't but then we don't address the stigma surrounding that regardless and even in this console we speak about yeah the same thing over and over and over so how do you get over that and come up with a term that is not appealing but it is real right which solves the purpose yeah is challenging because even the funding that's offered through the state through the Ida is still referred to as affordable housing and uh so it's it's a challenge and I think we all try to get around it but it keeps coming back to that word affordable too so I think we just have to keep working on it council member Jackson thank you madam mayor I just had a couple of quick comments I I wanted to remind my colleague council member Kelly this is just a part of the puzzle we have not abandoned our commitment to bring um to make home ownership build new homes once again on the south side of priority our challenge our needs are so dire we've got infrastructure needs that are that have to be addressed and I think until we are able to begin the process of addressing some serious infrastructure needs then it will be challenging but this is just a small part of the process I believe the mayor's committed to it I know I am and this is just a small piece of the puzzle and I might mention that since I've been on the land bank it's been about a year and a half I've got an article coming out but 2021 to 2022 I think my number was for my article 126 demolitions out of those 98 were from the first district and I think the vast majority were on the South Side so many of those homes down there council member Kelly or Beyond rehabbing uh you're you're talking spending 70 and 80 and 90 000 so you're you're better off building brand new structures which is what uh I would like to see done so um that sort of puts everything in perspective uh when you talk about rehab some homes are just not worth rehabbing and we've gotta we've got some structures a lot of structures around like that as a matter of fact before I end my comments I uh had taken a picture of a house and had sent it to the mayor and I was uh criticizing I said I don't know why the city hasn't torn this down look at the front look at the back of it um and I was just informed about a month ago that there was a couple living in the house um and I I was just appalled and shocked but um and here I had put it on my list for demolition but here and again you know um they've been there a long time and so I I feel bad that people feel like they don't have options but some of these homes are that bad sir I wouldn't live in one you know I'm fortunate my parents constantly upgraded but people just the housing stock is some of it is just very challenged so with that in mind uh and what the land bank has been doing and identifying we just don't have enough money to tear them all down sir uh but you know we'd be in better shape leveling a lot and rebuilding so um with that in mind I I see this as some the right direction for us to move in and um we've got to bring some Redevelopment to our new community thank you madam miracle councilmember Kelly thank you madam mayor and thank you all for your comments I I do respect your comments as far as the last part my problem is not that this is one of a number of solutions my problem is that most of the time things like this end up being net harmful even though they're full these these units are about two hundred dollars a square foot um fraction of a tiny fraction of that kind of money redirected into rehabs not those places that are Beyond hope of course and and and home ownership would all of a sudden it is our people who are empowered our people who are building our city our people Built This City Springfield did not build this city Washington D.C did not build this city the people did we are we keep taking from the people their power because we know better and it is apparent to me when you look at this city and you look at cities all across the country we do not know better thank you madam mayor a motion on the floor to approve item a please cash your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly council member Jackson thank you madam mayor I would like to make motion that item number 23-029 uh be be approved seconded by council member Rick Regal discussion please cash your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly councilmember Jackson Madam mayor I'd like to make a motion that item number 230-029 uh C be approved seconded by council member rock regal any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly council member Jackson Madam mayor I'd like to make a motion that I item number 23-029 number D be approved seconded by council member record any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly councilmember Jackson Madam mayor I'd like to make a motion that item number 23-029 uh letter e be approved by council member rock regal any discussion please cast your balance action passes with one nay Kelly thank you thank you director Doolin Clerk 23-030 is a communication for the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class CN neighborhood commercial district for the property located at 901-903-905-909 and 911 West McBean Street and 900-904-906-908-910-912-914-916-918-920 West Johnson Street all in Peoria Illinois it's a manager uh thank you madam mayor I'd like to turn it again over to director Doolin director Doolin uh thank you manager thank you mayor thank you Council I won't repeat a lot of the comments I made uh with the first item this is the second project we are referencing this is specifically a multi-story building on the Frontage of MacArthur uh the only thing I do want to point out specifically is that uh part of of this project includes some first floor commercial I think that in a lot of the planes that talked about mixed-use development they have within their plan identified commercial safe space hopefully to attract a good commercial tenant that is a valuable to the neighborhood um and so we would ask for use your support of this uh one one thing I would just like to add based on the discussion that was had to completely agree with council's direction that we see both of these projects as uh just one of of the the projects that we're undertaking with our department I think that it's important to note that you know homeownership is a big I think that's why when we had the American Rescue plan money we specifically put money for down payment assistance last year we approved 24 down payment assistance grants for the city of Peoria five of them were in 61605.

so so you know it's a small step but but that's five homeowners in 61605 with their down payment assistance program um and I think you know with both of these programs uh and even the public infrastructure that I mentioned um I want to mention the work of other entities that are doing work in this area specifically offering programs to homeowners me Tech has done a fantastic job over the last years of going out and getting Federal uh funds to improve households in 61605 they received a very large Grant through the Edwards Solomon for healthy homes they were actually just a recipient of the same Ida Grant we got for whole house rehab for homeowners and then pcco has worked very hard over the years for for doing some Tiff programs where they applied from federal home loan bank money to specifically do housing rehab programs and interesting that the city of Peoria has housing programs with their matching program with their American Rescue plan money and our roof program that we recently launched an additional 300 000 will have it coming to us in June that we usually in addition to what we spend previously so these adding additional rental units to this area is not kind of a oh we Mission successful we're going to stop looking we understand the value in home ownership we need to promote it we'll continue to explore with all of our partners all the rehab opportunities that exist for people to stay and live and age in their homes um and the last point I I want to address is that I think that you know I appreciate councilman Kelly's comments about you know possibly creating opportunities where people just move into nicer units um I know you know he thinks of that as a disadvantage I challenge that as an advantage I think we have a lot of fantastic landlords in our community I meet with some of them on a monthly basis but then every other Tuesday my code enforcement inspectors meet with a lot of other landlords and administrative hearing officer where we're forcing them to make corrections to their properties and if this challenges them to improve their property so they can compete with newer nicer properties I don't think we should look at that as a negative I think we should look at that of them having if if they want to attract a resident to their property and compete with newer projects then they should invest in their projects and unfortunately we just don't see that as much as as we need to and I think you know having property projects like this you know I think the counter to that is maybe it could create some abandonment they could walk away but I think we've developed tools the last few years to specifically address when they do walk away and abandon properties of how we can try to obtain them quicker with the land bank and hopefully then get them into hands of someone who willing to correct them so with that pure opportunities foundation and Willis have uh some few slides to specifically talk about this project as well okay uh and I will skip some of the introduction pieces here and just uh head straight to the site plan to give you guys that little bit of orientation I think the thing that's unique about this project is the commercial space and the fact that it is right on the MacArthur Corridor Frontage I think that adds to the catalytic nature of this project the mixed-use development will help that neighborhood in a number of ways I think by bringing residents to that area you have a chance to spawn more uh mixed development and Commercial development along the corridor it's quite consistent with the plan not not exactly with the MacArthur Corridor Plan called for but very close and I think this will have that same effect of helping the entire area move towards the goals that were there and then we do have a visual here it'll be on that corner of McBean and MacArthur and I think we'll show how that moves that forward um the other thing that I wanted to highlight in this that we that I didn't touch on earlier is just the timeline as has been alluded to here this is the first step to get the zoning in place so that Ida will review our application we've done a self score and we believe that it has a very very good chance of being funded at least one of the projects quite possibly both of the projects but at that point the hard work just begins so we still have to go through permitting we still have to finalize the design of the building make sure that it fits with the aesthetic of the community there's a lot of important steps between now and when we break ground and even then there's a year of construction before anyone will be moving in so this really is the first step and I really hope you'll support this project the way you did Church View any questions for Mr Mann councilmember Jackson thank you madam mayor um well um that is a great location a lot of people travel that area I'm excited to see some Redevelopment that would come to MacArthur one of our major thoroughfares so um with that in most Madame mayor I'd like to make a motion that item number 23-030 be approved that's seconded by council member rickenbach any discussion please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay Kelly thank you Miss ginzo thank you Mr Mann good luck and Clark 23-031 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance approving a special use in a class R for single-family residential district for a short-term rental at 813 North Douglas Street in Peoria Illinois manager maybe I'd ask director Doolin or assistant community development director Allison to come forward to talk about um this proposed scr ipt thank you Mr manager and councilman we'll give Joe a break here from this talking so this is a request before you for a short-term rental at 813 Douglas it is a one bedroom it is proposed to limit the residents to two uh there is no off-street parking available the there is a small detached garage with a very small driveway that doesn't really make it conducive to provide parking there is Street on street parking um with the limit to the two residents we feel that that may also kind of be conducive to helping with the parking situation with this this is in actually two neighborhood districts in the cottage district and the Moss Bradley neighborhood association um this would be the first in the cottage district and the second in the Moss Bradley residence Association are there any questions specifically that I can answer were you thank you very much does it look like a councilman Grant um Matt and Lynn the owners are sitting to the back of the chamber there and I'm sorry you had to be here for such a lengthy meeting um I am going to move to approve this with the stipulation that was just uh alluded to by assistant director Allison no more than two adult occupants and no more than two cars and I think we have taken care of any objections coming from the neighborhood because if this were to be a long-term lease not a short-term lease uh we could not enforce such a stipulation but with the special use which councilor Jensen and I pushed for really hard to be sure we could put some stipulations into place I think this this makes sense and it's actually a positive for the neighborhood I've moved to approve second seconded by council member Euler any discussion councilmember Jensen I guess I just but my understanding was that there were some neighbors that were concerned about this going in this space but it sounds to me like councilman grab may have met with them and addressed those concerns if that's the case then I'll support it but my understanding from the last time I spoke to councilman grab and the neighbors there were some people in the neighborhood that had concerns and did not want it approved council member grab do you want to respond uh yes and you can see in the text what the objections were stipulations I've placed on this are responsive to their objections and if we didn't have a shirt from rental approved with these stipulations this young couple done a remarkable job by the way look at the pictures of the interior would not have to be bound by these stipulations they could have more than two adults they could have more than two cars so I think this is the best defense mechanism for the objections as stated by the people who came and participated in the pz hearing and that is why I'm moving to approve it as all of you know I'm very very empirical I evaluate each of these on a case-by-case basis and I find this to potentially be a far less intense use of the space in our Cottage District okay thank you [Music] motion passes with one nay Jensen Madam Clerk we are at unfinished business is there any unfinished business I don't think so yeah then we are on to new business okay okay does anybody have new business council member regenbach thank you madam mayor director manager Smith don't leave yet I just I just wanted to make sure that everybody heard one of the comments that Mr Mann made as he began um his presentation tonight he said that the first time he met with City staff was one of the most productive meetings with City staff that he's ever had and I don't exactly know how many of those he's had but their portfolio was is pretty significant so I would imagine he's had many so I just think we need to acknowledge our community development team director Doolin assistant director Al sun and I was going to call out land bank manager Matt Smith also but um and I I don't I don't know who all was at that meeting but I know those three folks were very instrumental in getting us to this point so I I just think when people say puree is a hard place to deal with maybe they should talk to some of the developers who actually do development here so thank you thank you that was worth repeating yeah councilmember valpulla thank you very much just as we heard this evening about global Fest So This Global Fest is going to be happening on February 11th and Five Points Washington so if anybody's interested to support or go and have good food yeah that's a good place to go thank you councilman council member sir thank you madam mayor excuse me uh one request for Mr manager uh every day now lately I'm getting phone calls and everywhere I go in the city Peoria I'm getting comments about the rivermen I think it's time to have a conversation a public conversation about her or her hockey team here in Peoria so I don't know how we well I know how it would be nice to have you on the agenda for February so we can have a public conversation about whether or not we want to make an effort to keep our hockey team here in town or just turn close the book and let them go so I think it's time to have that conversation thank you Mr manager thank you madam mayor you're welcome is there any more new business from council member regenbach yeah for those of you that are high school basketball fans my son just texted me that Richwoods beat Peoria High tonight with five overtimes oh my God five overtimes two great teams wow great teams in indeed thank you boy that's unbelievable remember Graham well and and thank you for mentioning uh two of our great high schools as a matter of fact on Valentine's Day we're going to be seeing the uh pride of our city here the Peoria High Lions who came in second place in our football tournament Statewide so you know we've got a great tradition in the city of Peoria and we're going to keep that going wow five well the Community Development Department has asked me to announce this as a reminder to those listening that the 2023 roof program Lottery is currently accepting applications this is a fantastic program that provides income eligible owners homeowners with roof repairs city is accepting applications for the roof program Lottery until Friday February 10th at 5 pm this Lottery will be held on Valentine's Day at 10 in the morning it's the 14th of February for those of you who aren't a valentine and City staff will contact all applicants in the days following the drawing to let you know where your number was you can apply for the program and see what you need to qualify what the criteria are for assistance at the city's website on the Community Development page if you do not have access to the internet applications are also available in person at City Hall in the development center or Community Development staff can mail you a paper application if you call them at 494-8600 and ask for a roof program Lottery application thank you thank you councilman I have one last new business item and it's called strategic planning now I know I've been talking about this since I got into this job 18 months ago but we haven't really moved forward in um an actionable way but we do want to begin to move forward now in strategic planning in a comprehensive way that engages all of the council certainly but also engages our key stakeholders within the community our residents our neighborhood organizations our businesses our not-for-profit organizations those key stakeholders who are all a part of our our community service providers and so forth we want to inform the budget process we want to engage citizens in this process I've had a number of conversations and I'm sorry that it's taken so long to get to this point but a number of conversations uh with both the city manager and the assistant city manager about a process that will be take over several weeks but complete before we begin our budget discussions which usually start around late September early October in order to do it we need a consultant or a consulting firm to help us to move the process along and help us actually develop a process that engages the people and the council over a period of several weeks so we're looking to put out an RFP within a couple days to hire a consultant firm there's been funding for the last couple years that's been set aside for this that's been approved in the budget but we want to put out an RFP within the next few days with a timeline of RFP opening around mid-February that will be around February the 26th and presentations by the selected firm would have to have a small committee I've asked a couple council members council members Sierra and council member rickenback if they would join that committee for the presentations that would bring back a recommendation to the council around April the 11th to get the council to approve the The Firm that will help us out but I want to ask assistant city manager Kimberly Richardson if she would come and talk about that RFP process thank you mayor and I'll be very brief yes so we are looking to go out to the bid process this Thursday and in doing so we're looking at if there's any individuals and not only just within the city of Peoria but outside the community we will be reaching out to them to um submit their RFP proposals so that we can then have a breadth of applic of Consultants to be able to review we are looking for this experience to as the mayor said to be very inclusive of our city council our employees as well as the residents as other stakeholders So within the RFP one of the things that we recognize is that we're going to be involving some training of our staff to help facilitate conversations as well of other stakeholders to help facilitate conversations because of the condensed time frame for which we will be doing this process and I say cadence only because we are also including the budget process within this discussion and so in doing so we want to make sure we get as many voices in the community to get feedback to help inform the council and the mayor as part of the excuse me the strategic planning process with that being said if there's any questions from the council I'll be gladly to be able to ask answer those questions and we can also share with you a copy of the RFP that will be going out to the public this week and in addition to that um if there's any question from the public as well we are welcome to answer those questions in the city mattress office I just wanted to highlight too that part of that strategic planning process is taking on inventory of all the Strategic or plans that we have within the city there's a lot of different plans there's a Riverfront plan there's the downtown development plan there's the plans that have been done by I think downtown advisory Council there's a number the warehouse District there's a number of different plans that we have within the city there's a neighborhood reinvestment plan for certain areas I think the East Bluff and the South Side that have been approved but there's lots of different plans and there's other plans that are taking place within the city um so plans are going on all around us we want to knit those together and so that we can really paint a picture of what's Happening uh and what's being planned for Peoria and and in terms of investment as we prioritization I think councilman Seer doing the budget process mentioned with the Strategic plan that would give us staff clear direction as we build the budget for our next year fiscal year so that is the reason why we want to make sure we get this done before the budget process starts questions thank you thank you thank you mayor Madam Clerk we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council and I believe we received one card I do miss Darice coaster my name is my name is Rebecca Billings and I live at 1016 East Fry Avenue and I was promised by Joe Doolin that he would help us move at a recent meeting that was witnessed by Kirsten mirchord and other people we are a victim of Darwin homes we have nowhere to go no money to move nowhere to go and it's all part of a project for you all to move forward with your affordable housing I worked for a living my husband's on disability he just recently had brain surgery and we are expected to move on January 31st there is no way we can do that there's no physical possible way that we can do that and he promised moments he would help Joe Julian did say that and he never called us can you stick around yeah because it's not right when we went home on the Block thank you stick around please Mr Reese coaster Madam mayor city council members and man and peers I'm hi hi tonight I hope there will be both an end and a new beginning the reality is our city is facing gentrification I feel like we're exactly where San Francisco was about 30 years ago foreign of the people and groups who want to improve the South Side I believe at least some should come from the south side I humbly ask you to work with those who have a demonstrated commitment to District One that includes tax paying homeowners like myself Peace church Southside Community Center scuc Mike with the Ann Street Gardens you guys talked about earlier nourish and other non-profits as well as neighborhood associations I am hoping that everyone will be allowed to be seated at the table I humbly State this isn't the table it will have effective communication Mutual goals holistic answers and accountability now when I say this isn't the table it's because it's not complete yet but you guys are a vital important part of the answer no no please don't interrupt I came tonight uh riding the wave of misinformation I was told I would be able to speak to the council before you voted and I felt like I had valuable enough information I'd like to give it to you now in hopes that maybe it will inform your trajectory going forward I had two basic reasons for objection to the plan um one of one of them being communication I learned not four months ago not four weeks ago but four days ago that this plan even existed and I pride myself on being pretty well connected in the community so I'm safely saying there are a lot of residents who will will find this plan going forward haven't been voted on a complete surprise um the other reason is because of the type of structures that pivotal is suggesting they are not healthy for the area with time they will eventually detract from the neighborhood not contribute to or sustain it in 1990 the associated colleges of the Midwest spent thousands on pointed research of public housing there was a 100 Year survey of every public housing um that has been completed Across the Nation I strongly suggest you either get a copy of the findings or you can just ask someone from the south side of Peoria about it namely me because I let the research there is simply not enough Green Space around these proposed housing spaces to make people feel that they um are not just a number are not just the financial opportunity are not just wearing the happy badge that says I'm the recipient of affordable housing if you look at the history however many years I've only been here approximately 20 I'm a happy transplant but um if you note the efforts to try to help the South End are often thwarted because it lacks this key component Buy in by the people who live there thank you for your time and for hearing my um my thoughts good night Madam Clerk we are at executive session I would like to invite a motion to adjourn and to convene in closed session immediately following a German of the city council meeting pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ilscs 120 Slash 2 C 11 to discuss pending litigation and pursuant to the open meetings act 5 ILS ilcs 120-2c21 for approval by the body of the closed session minutes um I think we need a motion move by council member Sears seconded by council member Euler please cash your ballots thank you and thank you for your service