Peoria approves $20 million Sham Capital hotel redevelopment with aggressive tax-revenue sharing structure

all e good evening everyone it is 6 o'clock p.m.

on Tuesday November 28th 2023 I'd like to call the meeting of the city council to order I'd also like to welcome everyone that's listening uh on channel wcbu as well as CH uh cable channel 22 and everyone who's attending in our CH chamber come excuse me our chamber audience Madame Clark please call the role mayor Ali present council member alen pres council member sear here council member Gordon young presid council member Graham here council member Jackson council member Kelly here council member Oiler here council member riggenbach council member velpula and council member vesa here we have a quarum present Madame mayor thank you everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance indivis andice Madam clerk we are at the approval of the minutes council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor I move to approve the minutes of the regular city council and town board meeting held on November 14th 20123 as printed seconded by council member graab any comments please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at the consent agenda 23- 385 is a communication from the city manager and Information Services director with requests for the following a accept the fiscal year 2023 Community oriented police policing Services technology an equipment Invitational Grant from the community oriented policing Services of the Department of Justice in the amount of $2 million and B approve and authorize the city manager to ex execute an agreement between the city of Poria and Delta Works under the cops technology and Equipment Grant in the amount of $140,000 23- 386 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 deny a special use request in a class R4 single family residential district for a group care facility for the property located at 104 North Institute Place Poria Illinois 23-38 87 is a communication with request to concur with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning commission and staff to adopt an ordinance amending an existing special use ordinance number 13994 as amended in a class C2 large-scale commercial district for a shopping center to allow the parking of a class two vehicles for the property located at 3225 North Dre Lane and 23- 388 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the mayor's advisory committee with a request to concur of datia pebles and that concludes our consent agenda thank you are there any items to remove from consent council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor uh 23388 please thank you items to remove from consent not can I get a motion to approve move by council member sear seconded by council member Allen please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 388 is an appointment by mayor Ali to the mayor's advisory committee with a request to concur of datika pebl council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor I would just like to compliment you or whoever made the decision to give us a little some short bios on mayoral appointments that's uh very respectful I guess of us and uh we you know generally these are approved but I uh I do appreciate uh that change in policy and I will move to approve okay thank you and seconded by council member Gordon Young I can't take credit for that recommendation I think it came from either the city manager or assistant city manager assistant city manager um Kimberly Richardson thank you and uh have a motion with no comments or questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk we are at regular business 23-3 389 is a communication from the city manager with a request to adopt an ordinance approving a Redevelopment agreement with Sham Pier historic LLC sham non-historic LLC and Sham garage LLC for property located at 501 Main Street Mr ma Mr manager uh thank you madam Maron some of you may be wondering why I'm sitting in this chair tonight I'm actually leaving after after this agenda item and heading to Nashville Tennessee for a conference uh and assistant city manager Richardson is going to be taking over the meeting that's why she's she's in my seat that I'm normally at this evening um as the council communication outlines uh we have new owners of the pure marquet the courtyard and the hotel or the the gar parking garage that is connected to the the courtyard and piure Marquette uh sham Capital uh is the name of the company they operate and own hotels in a number of other communities uh and they recently purchased the properties for just under $20 million and as part of the the 2012 Redevelopment agreement that we had in place where we issued $32 million of bonds for the the construction of the courtyard the construction of the parking deck and the re the um renewal of the the pure Marquette um we still have 20 years worth of Debt Service payments at about a million5 dollars a year that's due and outstanding on that property and with that we have a clause in the original Redevelopment agreement and a clause that carries forward in this Redevelopment agreement that the new owners won't contest their property taxes because that's being used the the majority of the of that is coming back into the Tiff and then that's being used to repay the debt that the city has on those bonds so in working out that agreement with the new owners we talked about that we explained why U we needed to to continue to have this ability to keep the property taxes at the rate where they are and the owners uh the new owners agreed not to contest their property taxes with the the caveat that we would look at at some other type of Revenue sharing agreement and so what you have in front of you this evening in this agreement would provide for sharing the U three4 of the hotel tax revenue because 2% goes towards roads and we didn't want to we didn't want to share in those dollars and then the sales tax the restaurant tax and the Business Development District taxes would be shared they would receive 65% of that for the first five years then they would receive 50% thereafter so that would be the agreement that we would have with uh this hotel operator um in looking at this um we anticipate that of those Hotel taxes sales taxes Business Development District taxes um that roughly in that there would be about 27.4 million of taxes generated over the next 20 years uh and of that about 14.5 would be eligible for reimbursement so a little over 53% um would go back to Sham capital for um this incentive in addition we talked about the importance of activating the commercial space underneath the deck as well as there's 2,000 square feet of commercial space inside the courtyard that isn't activated and so we talked about what we could do to encourage that uh both parties agreed um to commit to putting up $800,000 towards the the improvements to um attract some uh some restaurant tier to that space under the deck um I I don't think it can be understated that that the decision was made a long time ago to to issue the bonds we are tied to making sure that the pier is an active operating going concern until those bonds are paid off it is vital it's vital for the Civic Center that we have a connected hotel to the Civic Center and it's important that we look at making sure that every bit of space on that block that can pay taxes is activated and operating in order to to reimburse and cover those costs that we're looking at so that's the the incentive that we have uh we also felt that this really aligned the city's um interest of seeing that the hotel was up and operational with Sham capital's interest of making sure that the hotel is active and operational and that there are people staying in there um and so that's the reason why that we're we're presenting this uh Redevelopment agreement for your consideration and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions and we do have two Representatives uh of sham with us we have uh lamb and and Tony na who are here with us as well I'll start off with one question Mr manager as a relates to the restaurant that um sham Capitol is encouraging or will solicit to be under the garage will that entity that entity I assume will not be owned by sham probably not but if but the the the the revenue sharing would still be part of of that agreement for that space under the deck okay so that restaurant won't pay separate property taxes or it would not no they would they would pay separate but the the reimbursement it's very similar to a deal we have uh on Water Street with an owner of an Irish bar on Water Street where he has a block and on that block there's other properties that are leased up that pay into that development agreement and then there's monies that are reimbursed to that developer for that agreement okay okay I think I understand council member Allen uh thank you madam mayor and thank you uh city manager uh for your explanation just a few clarifying questions uh for our listening audience and those around the Horseshoe uh per the Redevelopment agreement it lists both uh that this is going to be within a tiff and then also within a business um development or business District development um can you kind of talk about a little bit the difference between the two and and it was a little bit confusing reading it at first and I know me and you talked about earlier so maybe just to kind of provide some explanation to the listening audience please sure so the the hotel is in the hospitality Improvement Zone Tiff in the city and this covers downtown and it covers the hotels that we currently have in our downtown uh are part of that that uh Tiff so the geographic boundaries Encompass the Mark Twain Hotel the Sheridan Four Points Hotel the pure marquet and the stab Bridge Suites are all part of that that Hospitality Improvement Zone Tiff in addition when that Tiff was created we overlaid a business development District on top of that that adds an additional 1% hotel tax restaurant tax um and sales tax if there's if there's any other types of sales other than food um in that geographic area as well the business development District taxes can be used for capit Capital reimbursements so in this instance for this specific development agreement it it calls for that to be reimbursed to the developer um the Sheridan Four Points or the Mark Twain or the stab bridge if they're doing Capital Improvements um they can request reimbursement of those dollars as well out of the business development District taxes that are collected so it it kind of runs in the same boundaries and covers the same area as the um Hospitality Improvement Zone Tiff which is really focus on property taxes alone and then I know you spoke on earlier um that we are providing the various incentives um to combat um contesting the property taxes um which we know that would have been a big loss for us it also States within the Redevelopment agreement that we'll be providing a minimum uh I believe of $30,000 per month can you explain a little bit about that also yeah we talked that U with the developer about what would be a minimum floor of reimbursement that we would put in place and so we left a floor of $30,000 in the agreement um with the 65% reimbursement rate for the first five years that really shouldn't be an issue I think there's going to be sufficient revenues to cover that um there'll be more than that a month coming back to the developer as we look at it when it drops down to 50% um there there may be some times where we had end up having to to make that payment but for the most part we think that it shouldn't be an issue because five years from now the hotel should be uh more fully occupied than it is currently today and then uh just two more clarifying questions Madam mayor um our current debt issuance for the bonds are scheduled to go to 2041 is that correct 2043 43 and that at about a million and a half per year leading up until then correct yeah I mean it's a little bit over it's like one couple years it's a million 509 then it's a million 506 but it's mostly in that that kind of million five range MH and then the last question outside of the $800,000 that we're going to uh invest in an escrow account via our American Rescue plan funds is the city coming UPF front with any additional Financial commitment for this development no thank you sir thank you madam mayor um I just wanted to point out that our um access on channel 22 is not currently working but the YouTube feed is working fine so uh people can watch on the city of Poria TV on YouTube council member sier thank you Madame mayor um thank you for the gentleman from shrier Capital to for being here tonight and for uh investing in the our city here in Poria thank you very much for your interest and your commitment uh Mr manager how you doing tonight I'm not used to see seeing you over there I got a few questions for you first of all I give you n for being creative in this agreement number one number two explain to us how will you uh plug the we're we're getting a million5 is our Is our commitment for the bond uh we'll get a million one in property taxes now we all seen the dollar for property taxes where we only get uh no 12 cents on the dollar at the end after everybody else gets their share is our 12 cents covered in the million one uh thank you councilman that's a that's a really good question I like it when I ask good questions the the um the total property taxes that are paid are closer to a million and a half dollars a year and so in in in a tiff you have the base level of property taxes that are paid and distributed to all the taxing bodies and then you have the increment so in this case what happened is when the hotels were red redeveloped and and constructed in 2012 when they came on the books in 2015 the value went up and that value generates the amount of of about $1.1 million a year of increment that comes into the Tiff in property taxes and that's going to pay the The Debt Service on the city's bonds the remainder comes from hotel taxes restaurant taxes um and Business Development District taxes and sales taxes generated on the Block itself when you said the balance you're talking about the $400,000 difference correct $400,000 difference between that's would be paid from H commitment that is correct correct um other questions I had uh this bond that we still have 20 years to go has it been refi last few years or are we getting what kind of rate are we getting yeah it it it was refinanced um we did that when we uh legislatively extended the hospitality Improvement Zone Tiff and added 12 additional years to try and stretch out and lower the payments uh it was in when it was originally established the the bond payments were closer to $2 million a year um and it was going to accelerate to the last couple of years it might have been like I think it was like four and four and a half million dollars a year of B of bond payments so uh we restructured that and refinanced that about four years ago and then stretched those payments out to end in 2043 if there's any penalty for early uh payment I don't know if I can answer that question directly I think that we can do it after 10 years but I I would want to check with our finance director and then get back to you with that question I'm just asking that question because we both know about seven years from now I mean a lot of these bonds are coming up to books yeah and we would have a a chance to maybe uh uh rethink about this this Bond um what else I was going to ask about was I was going to ask you about financing for I don't know if it's a public information or not uh how did they finance the $20 million purchasing price uh that I can't tell you how they how that was structured I know that they it it was sold for that price and that was cash that was paid to the to the prior owners of the property so okay is there's a way to instead of you or the know next person and the chair to come out with some type of creative uh agreement to uh to whether the new owner existing owner or new owner will fight uh their property taxes can we have some type of agreement for the next 20 years that would say that so that we don't have to renegotiate every so often or every time there's a new owner or something like that is that a possibility well I think that I I I'll probably turn that over to our Corporation councel I think we tried to uh between the agreements that we had both with uh the original redeveloper and then with Sham is to button that up to make sure that that that was in place councilman Seer um the idea that there's a no contest on property tax clause in a tiff agreement in particular has not been tested in the courts there's a divided set of thoughts about that one is that they're unenforcable that those terms are unenforceable I don't know how that would come out in court but we've adjusted our approach to these to tie the incentives to that so our agreements the agreement in front of you today and other Tiff agreements that you'll see coming forward will indicate that if a property owner who's receiving benefits challenges their property tax assessment that the um benefits or incentives either the Tiff payments or in this circumstance the share of taxes other sales and and hotel taxes that are part of their incentive package that those would cease if that occurred without the city's written approval that I know is enforceable and so we've tried to approach some more certainty in these arrangements and not leave to the court system to figure out whether our Agreements are enforcable I don't know how the courts would come down on just a a Shear can't challenge your property taxes I don't know whether that's enforceable or whether we'd be successful uccessful with that thank you thank you very much sir thank you Mr manager gentlemen thank you very much for being here tonight and for your investment in Poria thank you madam mayor and I will be supporting this agreement thank you council member riggenbach thank you Madame mayor um I wasn't aable to be at the ribbon cutting that sham held a couple weeks ago I had a previous engagement so let me offer my welcome to Poria tonight and Mr manager I would just say thank you thank you for um continuing to be creative as we look at at this gift that keeps giving that we call the pure Marquette um and and Mr Corporation Council the explanation on the um lacking in the property taxes I think gives us all um some reassurance that this is really the right thing to do for the city looking at the incentive structure for those that are listen and not familiar with how those things work I think it's important to point out that it's to the redevelopers advantage to fill the hotel rooms to get these retail Spaces commercial spaces occupied because as long as they're sitting empty there's nothing to split so it it's a it's a very simple um incentive tool on the surface which um thanks to our Corporation councel and manager have have have made it very explicit but how many of us have walked by those yellow awnings on monrose street we had Rick Edgar from the Civic Center here saying he wishes there was a place downtown that served um chicken fingers remember you know I mean the things that we need um are are we we can all Point those out so this will actually offer an incentive not a handout but an incentive to the redeveloper to get those spaces filled um I I I think we're all so thankful for what the pure marquet means to downtown Poria and um it it it's been a a long road and it's it's been a bumpy road but um I will definitely be supporting this Redevelopment agreement and is there a motion on the floor yet I would be happy to make that motion okay seconded by council member Kelly and uh council member Kelly uh thank you mam mayor um just a little bit of further clarification uh first of all I I'm very happy that this is happening and hats off uh to creativity um the property owner has agreed through the agreement uh not to contest their uh assessment uh which I think is fine but how can the assessor assess this property for the old value under those rules doesn't the assessor have to uh evaluate property uh as you you know by whatever formula uh but uh to Market it's on oh well it was on uh thank you for that question so um we're very reluctant to put any pressure at all on the assessor on assessed values we don't do that I haven't done that since I took this chair I did have a conversation with the assessor about this property and how he would approach this sale uh make the C Council and the public fully aware this was a distressed sale this building went into foreclosure and receivership and so while there was a competent management staff in there on behest of the rece receiver entity that wound up with this out of foreclosure these are entities that are more in the fin business in the hotel business which is one of the reasons we're happy to have a deal with Sham Capital because they're clearly in the hotel business that said the assessor has agreed with our suggestion without any pressure whatsoever that this was a distress sale and doesn't set the value of the property because it's out of receivership so he'll base he's based the assessment based on the what the value of the of the hotel is not based on this sale and taking into account all the investment in that property which was over $100 million when they did the reinvestment uh the assessor was when we spoke with him comfortable with the present assessed value and so that this sale wouldn't affect that General market conditions going forward may affect the assessed value of the property but this sale will not thank you thank you um yeah I I'm I'm still a little worried uh okay so the sale was a distressed sale so it doesn't represent full value let's say the hotel the whole thing is a success everything is rocking along everything's just fine uh doesn't the assessor then have to say okay what's it worth now and you might come up short of our old value I mean the he he has to conduct himself according to law he can't just arbitrarily you know I I'd like to give him a call and say hey why don't you reduce my taxes you know there's a mechanism for you to do that understand through the Township Assessor but but through the board of appeals there's a way to yes and and the the owner has promised not to do that I understand but the assessor still has an overriding responsibility this This concerns me I don't um well just the history of this property is that the assessor established the present value based on the cost approach so they took into account when it was refinanced and rehabilitated and everything was built out because the Sheron was or the courtyard was brand new cost of that producing that that's a valid as valid as any other means of assessing property under Illinois law and the market value the market transaction would affect the value but a distress sale would not so the assessor year-over-year or quadral over quadral has had the opportunity to adjust this hotel property based on General market conditions starting with the cost analysis they did to establish the original value I'm always concerned about property values I share your concerns about this property but I can offer you no further Assurance other than I don't think this transaction the purchase will affect at least what the assessor told me a month ago the value of this property if any other part if any party on behalf of the present owners challenges the assessment that jeopardizes the um jeopardizes the uh increment flow so I don't think that the owner is going to contest it and I don't see anything other than General market conditions controlling the value of that property going forward and I don't see a dramatic change coming forward on that okay thank you thank you Madame mayor you're welcome I was pleased to attend the ribbon cutting and to meet the new owner who has a lot of experience in this field in terms of Hotel ownership Hotel uh management and I have a high level confidence that this is a new opportunity for this historic asset the Poria um the Marriott piure Marquette and I just I I think getting those rooms filled um getting a family restaurant in that underneath the garage area connecting with Civic Center events will help to bring life to our city and again to this historic asset so I do have a high level confidence with this new RDA I'm excited about the new ownership the new opportunity it brings to Peoria and Peoria's downtown I thank you manager for uh working with the owners on this RDA I think it's strong I think it's the type of um development opportunity that we want to continue to see for downtown um business so I'm I'm quite excited about this council member vesa thank you Madame mayor um I just want to say that I share the optimism I'm here around the Horseshoe uh and um I like these sort of incentive structures uh sort of eat what you kill um I think that's good for everybody um and I do like the way it sounds sounds like uh this you know contract is being put together um they're not going to challenge the the assessed value they're not going to peel it and in return you know um they're going to keep getting a cut of the what H taxes uh that that makes sense to me um I I think this this is a good deal and I'm supporting it wholeheartedly um so thank you madam mayor you're welcome s no more lights we have a motion to approve and we have a second please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you sir safe travels Mr manager thank you thank you gentlemen welcome to Peoria Madame clerk 23- 390 is a communication from the city manager in Corporation Council with a request to approve a resolution to adopt a city of Pua debt hard hardship program would it be Council Council Hayes okay Council thank you madam mayor as the council will recall you Rec recently approved our entry into the local debt recovery program which the Illinois State Controller operates that allows us to submit City debt to the controller for collection and the controller can inter intercept State payments to those individuals that owe the city debt the controller does not charge the city any money for the participation in that uh folks who have debts collected by the controller are charged by the controller a $15 administrative fee uh when we were discussing this with staff and when I presented it to council one of the issues that we were compelled to deal with is the impact that this may have of some of our residents who are going to be faced with a forced debt collection action um and they may have very limited means and so in order to deal with that as I told you when you prior to your approval of the local debt recovery program um that we would develop and present for your consideration hardship loan forgiveness program so we've set forth a program which in Broad Strokes would allow people a single opportunity to participate in this program the application process would have them identify all of the city debts that they owe um there are City debts which won't be eligible for the program those are debts that the city is actually paid a third party and we're just collecting so some of our work orders for things like like demolitions or uh boarding up a property or doing Mo or weed cutting or debris removal those types of debts will not be subject to this forgiveness program because it's not a fine from the city's administrative process we are uh collecting service fees that we've already spent so those debts won't be um subject to the program other debts will be such as um housing and environmental code violations um storm water fees um eventually our parking tickets all those types of items are ideally suited for this collection method because um you know we have seven years to collect or the program doesn't allow you to collect a debt that's older than seven years to bring some sensible completion to things um and so some of those debts we may collect part of uh through this process and not all in any regard um individuals who have less than 80% of the median local income would qualify um to completely discharge their eligible debts to the city um folks of limited means that have um uh less than 200% of the federal poverty limit uh based on varying household sizes which are included in the materials would be allowed to enter into the program at a 50% forgiveness as long as they engaged in a debt in a debt repayment program and and uh stayed with those payments to conclusion um once individuals had made use of this debt program forgiveness on a single occasion they won't be eligible for again in the future because we don't want to deal with recidivism people going out recommitting the same offenses and feeling like the city will just forgive it in the future um we don't know how long this program will need to be in place but we think that in about two years uh it will have run its course and we can we can and repeal the program or take some other action that's appropriate at the time in any regard uh this uh program would allow us to address some of the disparate Inc impact because a lot of folks who have Property Standards complaints and things like that they're they're people of limited means and part of the reason they're getting cited is they don't have the financial ability to address perhaps some of the building dilapidation issues that might have led to the citation so we wanted to be sensitive to that constituency and open to a forgiveness program that would work but wouldn't completely exonerate people who owe the city money and not allow people to again recidivate over time uh my hope is that this uh would uh meet with the approval of the council we're certainly happy to get input and make any adjustments that would be appropriate um just by way of letting you understand we are starting to the process of sending notices that we're going to be sending debts to the local debt recovery program those are in some of our housing and environmental fines we'll soon be doing that with the storm water utility fees we think members of the council will be getting inquiries about this and certainly the public will be inquiring and staff so we'd like to get this program in place if we can uh and we're happy to make any adjustments or answer any questions you have but that local debt recovery program will start becoming a reality to people early during the calendar year next year so we'd like to make certain this is in place and that people who need to make use of it are aware of it we'll publish it through the website and we'll respond to people making inquiry directly um there'll be a cross- departmental administration of this but the recipient of the initial applications are going to be the legal department and will coordinate with finance and uh the police department on the parking side be happy to answer any questions thank you Council council member thank you madam mayor move to approve second by council member Allen any comments questions please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 391 is a communication from the city manager with a request to adopt an inducement resolution related to a potential tax increment financing District generally bounded by Southwest Washington Street Sanger Street the Illinois River and MacArthur Highway assistant city manager yes thank you mayor uh for this item the developer is requesting a deferral until the December 12th meeting okay can I get a motion to defer until December move by council member grab seconded by council member Kelly please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam clerk 23- 392 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a requests for the following a approve a resolution accepting a grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority for the homeowner assistance fund home repair program in the amount of $1,400,000 and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2023 revised budget relating to the general fund to recognize a receipt of the Ida homeowner assistance grant in the amount of $1,400,000 and this requires two-thirds vote of the council member voting and tonight no less than six votes uh Madam assistant city manager yes thank you mayor I will ask for our community development director Duan to speak to this item uh thank you uh this item in front of you is a grant we received from the Illinois Housing Development Authority uh it was competitive Grant process uh throughout the state of Illinois uh we submitted an application specifically for home rehab and were awarded the grant it's specifically for uh grants for residents up to $60,000 for exterior and other repairs to households in 61605 and 61603 um so they require resolution before we actually work out the grant details because that's how Ida works so that's the item in front of you uh and then the item B is just the budget amendment Rel related to that uh one thing I will add that uh just really proud of the Community Development staff when you look to at the three different grants competitive grants we got through Ida in 2023 it's about $2.4 million uh in competitive grants through Ida for uh roofs Demolition and then the whole uh homehouse repair projects uh so really hats off to our grant staff our lande management staff and our code enforcement staff who all work together on these projects uh I think the other thing uh that really makes me proud of them is we often get these grants and we don't add additional staff uh so it's a lot of an additional work on our current staff and they're always very happy to help and and do a great job administrating these programs uh which speaks to why we continue to get them so I would ask for approval thank you director Dulan as you know I did my happy dance once I heard the great news so thank you for you and your team for continuing to find other people's money to help to make the city better council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor um uh director Dulan you said uh this money will go to exteriors and something else are we talking also Interiors of rehabs indoors inside uh we are not entirely sure yet what the program uh requirements will be and won't be uh it's possible but the is the thing with this grant specifically is the Max Grant we can award a household would be $60,000 um when you often get interior into interior properties for Rehab uh lead issues throughout the inside of a property can quickly uh eat away those costs so we are still working out the program guidelines of what will and won't be allowed uh our original intent is to really probably focus on sighting Windows roofs driveways exterior things uh that can really make a noticeable difference in the neighborhood as well um has are are you saying that the state has not come up with the rules yet or the manual has not been published yet okay okay thank you and congratulations uh Madame mayor I move for approval uh second second it by uh councilwoman Gordon young additional comments questions please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you madam oh we have to V oh I'm sorry yes thank you very much that motion original motion was made by council member Kelly that was for item a council member Kelly uh I move to approve Item B seconded by who gave that second uh council member Gordon young please cast your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you council member s Madame clerk 23- 393 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 R3 single family residential district for a short-term rental for the property located at 1023 West Hudson Street Poria Illinois Madam assistant city manager thank you mayor I have assistant director of Community Development um Leia Allison here to answer any questions and provide some additional feedback sure good evening uh thank you so this is a request for short-term rental at 1023 West Hudson it is a four bedroom property and the request is to allow up to six guests to stay at a given time um uh parking is proposed to be available on the streets of Hudson and 12 Oaks Drive um this if approved would be the third special use for short-term rental within the um neighborhood association which is builtmore Heights neighborhood no other special or unique situation with the property it's uh pretty straightforward but I can answer any questions if you have them are there any questions Council member uh Gordon young thank you Madame mayor I I looked at the property and there appears to be like not really many neighbors that are nearby however the back of the property seems to be pretty close to the neighboring house I don't know what side of the street that is on but I wondered if anyone has spoken with those or that particular resident I don't know if the applicant has spoken directly to the resident with the um public hearing at the Planning and Zoning commission there wasn't any uh opposition presented through that uh hearing so I I I but I do not know if there's been a direct conversation with the neighbor to which would be to the north yeah that was the only concern I had because it looked really close because there's no backyard if I'm looking at it correctly correct am I correct okay side yard and front yard available for the property being probably it's a corner property is yeah other than that it looked pretty isolated other than the back thank you thank you madam mayor council member gr well um this is in my district and if you're familiar with this area is one of the most intensely populated areas in the city with the 500 pupil Elementary School only feet away from this proposed short-term rental with all the cars that come to pick up children at certain times of the day all the activities that occur during the school year the transiency of guests going into a mini Hotel not knowing who's going in who's going out this is why we usually don't approve hotels next to elementary schools I move to deny this this is a bad fit for the neighborhood and I've heard from Plenty of the neighbors is there a second seconded by councilwoman Gordon young further discussion okay the motion is to deny please cast your balance motion passes with three Nays Ali Kelly and Oiler Madam clerk 23- 394 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request for the following a approve an additional scope of work for the Downtown parking study with terara engineering Ltd in the amount of $63,000 and B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2023 revised budget relating to the general fund for the additional scope of work for the Downtown parking study in the amount of $63,000 and Item B we need less than no no less than six votes thank you madam assistant city manager oh thank you mayor we have here um our Public Works director Rick power to provide us additional information and answer any questions thank you assistant City Manor mayor counsel um in essence you probably recall and should have in your report back package phase a I think we call instead of phase one which was an on street parking analysis that we entered into with the same group Tara we have on our Master Services agreement and had gone underway and in fact right before the meeting I guess Pro acally I can tell you how far we are on a spend and to that we had $65,000 appropriated for that initial study for on street today through October we've expended $ 24,64174 include Our Deck Parking and what it would look like if we were to make Deck Parking free as well but with a completely different Dynamic um that has been added into this proposal with the additional cost of $63,000 now at a very high level I will say that the reason that it is going out to this point and you look there's an additional partner involved with terara because in essence what we're looking for when you look at what the council has proposed is two intersecting lines when is which is going to take a great deal of financial speculation but having a lot of accountants on the council meaning Market speculation because this is about economics whereas our on andm costs we are known are relatively known what we don't know is what the economy in Poria will do and what adjoining parking garages will do relative to the assess value of the properties hoping rising and some point these lines intersecting to be a net s a net sum gain and they pay for themselves basically through taxation of the adjoining properties that is beyond the scope of what we have within Public Works and frankly what we had within Tera hence we needed the additional advisor on the financial side which is why we put basically the additional amount together to try to answer those financial questions did I cover that well counselor I'm just saying we scrubbed a lot of this with councelor Kelly relative to the desires that he had expressed relative to the additional action for Dex so I'm trying to encapsulate that as much as I can to give you an idea of what the additional work will be done and the cost questions council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor um I want to applaud my colleague councilman Kelly you you always got a good idea but uh I do just have a a quick question about this though um looking at the you know the overview of the proposed work here do we have any latitude to ask you know maybe some different like what if scenarios you know what if we had free parking for a year or two years or just you know what does some Pilots look like you know what would maybe be the economic impact of of us maybe stipping sticking our toe in this you know free parking water you know before we go ahead and commit to it so I don't know is that possible to have a little latitude where we can see some what if scenarios we have the latitude of the will of the council sir that's what we would do relative to a pilot we could engage into a pilot if that were your desire the study would incorporate whatever again we would ask them to accomplish relative to the financial modeling primarily and that could be a model for one year relative to what they would believe it would be I believe the study in projects 10 years is what it would look like I don't know if those would be individual years over the 10 year or year over-year but we could very easily ask them to do that in other words do a year-over-year rather than just a full 10year study sounds good thank you director pars thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member ran Bach thank you Madame mayor I agree coun M Kelly you have a lot of ideas but I I really want to see the results of the first parking study before I delve into this next phase I'm I'm very curious about the on street parking and H how we can incent people to come down I think this is just a little bit too big a bite for me to take it this time without having that background information so I won't be able to support this t tonight thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um before I begin my sloke we uh uh council member Allen uh this is designed kind of as a pilot uh but under under the proposal that I came up with which doesn't have to be the ultimate proposal but under the prop that I came up with the city would go to free parking in its decks but because that's that's a a terribly uncompetitive situation for the private decks we would also purchase all the private decks for a dollar and split maintenance on those decks 5050 for in my my thought was five years um however long a pilot would last there'd have to be a way to get out of it but I think that the the the decks lose enough money that I think we could acquire them that way for a dollar and I think I don't know but I think that the current deck owner ERS would enter into that 50/50 split on maintenance for the length of the pilot um I'm not married to five years I I thought that was a reasonable period of time to see if this uh worked out because the the what would make it worth it would be uh greater occupancy downtown more vitality downtown just more life downtown that isn't going to happen in a year that's that's going to take a while it may not work at all uh but Ju Just just to clarify where we might reasonably put a pilot I'm I'm I'm not a prognosticator I you know I don't know but it seems to me that I look at these decks as um I look at streets in our city our streets cost a great deal of money and we get no direct revenue from them however we absolutely have to have streets I think Downtown parking decks are quite similar they're they're very expensive they do not pay for themselves they do produce some Revenue but I think they keep occupancy lower than it would be otherwise in our in our buildings um and so this these assets are are very much like streets we have to have them but financially they're losers as far as direct revenue is concerned but we all know that streets are worth it they they create an environment where a lot of Revenue can be generated and I I think the same of Dex this is different this is new and it's one of those things that appeals to me because no one else is doing it who knows maybe there's a good reason why no one else will do it you want to put a motion on the floor I thank you Madame mayor I I would like to I'd like to move to approve item a I'd also like to I'll wait for okay can I get a second is there a second seconded by council member Allen any other discussion council member Gordon young um I just had a thought that across my mind as you were saying there's no other City doing this right and I also applaud the creativity if I could clarify that if I clarify that there are no other Central cities that do that okay there are Suburban cities that do it that where they downtowns are retail they're they're not really a Central City so I I should have made that clear there there aren't any Central cities uh that are doing this okay yeah I I like the idea of of drawing people downtown but I'm also concerned about lering you know Ling in our parking decks if there isn't a fee to get in there or to access that and I I get that is not a a money maker but at the same time we want to make sure that we're keeping the area safe and and so and I just thought about that with the additional information that you were sharing so I I'm I'm on the fence I mean I don't know if the additional funding makes sense for the study to research something that may not be beneficial I don't know do you have a a site or any resource where even if it's a different city a smaller City where they're doing this and it's been effective okay I could thank you mad you're welcome council member Alan yeah I'm sorry I didn't mean to I was going to just interject on that point just part of the study would contemplate oversight meaning in some of the questions we have of the consultant is what would oversight of a deck be if it were not a paid deck how would we maintain it operations and meain it so captured within that counselor would be likely your question how would we police them how would we maintain them and operate them without cost to the user so so that would be in place similar to what we would say with on street parking we would just go from a PID system to a Time system that would still have an enforcement component on the back so comprehensively I sort of understand what the counselor's point is it's still we would still have a role a major role because they would all be ours and we would have to infill that operational site of it to ensure there is a safe deck to park in but the study itself and that's kind of what I was think thinking when the council were speaking the study would reveal I think we could actually ask a question is a pilot feasible and they would probably tell us if it were we not because let's face it all of this is Market speculation this is economic speculation there we don't we are not doing something we've done the counselor has come up with a novel idea and that's why we're in the position we're in because we just don't possess the expertise so we are going after someone that will be in a point of speculation if I were to come to you as I said to the council earlier today and said I would speculate you'd probably say why but there are actually people out there that are paid to speculate within the market so that's who we're going after to get their opinion but that's what it would take for us to even attempt to go down this road their advice thank you council member Allan uh thank you Madame mayor director par just a couple clarifying questions so for the initial parking study that we were doing you said we spent about $24,000 in some change thus far yes and then this proposal is $63,000 so essentially Are We Now allocating an additional 40 something th000 or is this 63,000 in addition to the 24,000 that we 63,000 in addition to the 60 the initial amount which was 65,000 so we'll be at about $84,000 about 128,000 128,000 that is correct that's because it was 65 the original study was 65,000 we've expended 24, 146,000 of that we are asking for 63,000 additional to do this phase we have not completed phase one yet of the initial 65,000 so that needs to be completed as well we stopped to determine how this would would impact that study so those are additional funds to that initial allocation so I just want to talk this out real fast so we the initial study was 65,000 we spent 24,000 some change thus far right to finish that remaining study we still need to spend the remaining amount to get to 65,000 and then this is a separate study that's going to cost us another 65,000 or 63,000 correct that is correct sir councilman Kelly this is just a little too rich for my blood sir um I wanted to roll with you but uh I I apologize won't be able to support this this evening we have a motion on the floor and a second uh the motion is to approve item a council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor I would just like to remind the council that uh once we had approved our budget we decided it was really important to add Millions and millions and millions of more dollars $63,000 on something that might not work or something that would make Poria vibrant and stand out and we turn our back on this well we'll never know most of these expenses that that this study will show if we do get more activity downtown Etc it will raise the assessed value downtown all of which goes into the Tiff all of which will cover some or all of those additional expenses $63,000 is a lot in my checking account it's a lot in everybody else's checking account out but versus just a couple weeks ago adding millions and millions of dollars makes us BK at $63,000 thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member vesa thank you Madame mayor um I I'm receptive to this idea I think that there are firms businesses that uh for which you $70 a month uh parking pass in our Dex uh serves as a deterrent uh from operating downtown and I think we we might be able to lure businesses from you know across the river or um throughout our County uh downtown by uh by going going the route you're suggesting I think it's possible I I can see that behavior change um materializing if we go through with this I'm not sure if it would offset the cost um so I mean ultimately I I don't know but I think $63,000 to help us find out I think is a reasonable request um so I will be voting yes on this thank you're welcome council member Gordon young what have we I don't know who they ask the question of but what have we learned what did we get for 24,000 so far the background assessments primarily for on street parking and what ourm costs are a fixed cost we stopped at about the about that point where we had pretty much figured out what our annual revenues were what our maintenance costs were for on street and then the councelor interjected his desires and we stopped to see where they interfaced because part of the first phase was to study the Interac action between on street and off street parking but it did not dive into the decks of off street parking it basically was going to be what is the impact of the deck being paid and the on street not paid so that was in phase one so we didn't want to continue down that road if we were going to make the decks free as well okay so if I'm trying to understand the math here okay with the original dollars that was in invested in the original study that was $65,000 correct correct okay so we have a balance of $41,000 that sounds yes ma'am that sounds correct 4,836 so of the 41,800 and so dollars what are those dollars for to complete the remainder of the study which would also take in econom econom iic analysis relative to the impact upon downtown studies and so on actually if you look in your packet on one of the attached items is the full scope for the initial study and just make sure I have the correct one this is the yes it is so if you'll look the first area was $30,000 for a financial analysis and there are probably 50 separate line items or bullets within that where they're going to study the finances relative to the impact of on street parking becoming free public involvement in the public meetings was another 10,000 we haven't done those yet because again we got to this point and stopped uh technology which would be license play readers in place of meters because we wouldn't need meters any longer if it was free so we would go to different technology that was about they estimated the search for that to be about 5,000 um data collection and Engineering 15,000 we didn't get anywhere close to engineering costs because we don't know if we would be replacing meters with licensed plate readers so again everything is stopped short of those higher ticket items other than the very first area which they did start on which was the financial analysis that's where we've got the invoices for and then there was one other I'm sorry there was one the actual report had a $5,000 cost that was phase one that was the initial 65,000 okay safety I come you know I just think about safety I know that would be incorporated in there somewhere but we have enough Ling places particularly downtown um and that's been a huge issue um you know and and and I just don't want our parking decks to become the Hangouts safy I I I can approve or vote Yes for 63,000 additional dollars and not at this time any other comments questions we have a motion to approve item a please cash your ballots motion fails with five Nays Ali Allan Seer Gordon young and Oiler is there a need to go to B do we need to vote on B okay Madam CL Clark 23- 395 is a communication from the city manager and director of Community Development with a request to receive and file a report back on short-term rental regulations thank assistant city manager thank you mayor I would like to ask um assistant director um Allison but also including this conversation we have assistant and attorney Perkins here as well to provide additional feedback to councel thank you very much so uh about a month ago October 24th of your meeting councilman sear asked for a report back to you on additional ways or additional uh research for short-term rentals and regulations that we currently have in place in maybe optional or additional ways to um add regulations so this is two parts there's the zoning regulation which involves permitted uses and special uses and then Moss will speak to the ler side of short-term rentals and and the changes that we could bring to you for that so currently short-term rentals are regulated through the zoning districts that they're allowed in or not allowed in the type of short-term rental that may be allowed whether it's a um rental of a of a bedroom in a single family home which is a permitted use versus the rental of a whole house which in that situation would be a special use so that's the current setup with short-term rentals single room the owner of the ho of the house is present during the rental stays during the rental that's permitted a special use occurs when the owner of the the home leaves the property during the rental so it isn't present and the whole house is rented out so that's the special use side of this and that's where the majority of this um conversation we'll focus on is the special use situation with a whole house rental um currently rentals for short term are allowed to have six adult guest stay at any given time they have to pay hotel motel taxes and and any change in ownership after the original special use is approved causes that special use to become uh uh void with the change in ownership and a whole new special use is required so that's current the current situation that we're dealing with again focusing on special uses so in your packet of information we have a map showing permitted uses as one color special uses as different color showing the whole city um so once we kind of took a look at the current regulation we've offered some options for changes to those regulations and those are in the table that you have in your packet for you to consider so those first regulations were not suggesting any changes those would remain in place the um zoning regulation that we think you might want to consider changing is the limit on the number of special uses that currently has a cap of 3% in any neighborhood association that's identified if they exist or the same 3% cap in a quarter mile radius that's the current regulation what we're suggesting you may want to consider is changing those numbers reducing them down to perhaps a 1% cap within a neighborhood or for 1% within a half mile radius so we're starting at three you may want to consider reducing that to 1% the current radius is a quarter mile you may want to consider increasing that to a half mile and that can change through numbers that could become allowed as a special use for short-term rental the other suggestion that to add to that that currently doesn't exist at all is to have a separation a minimum lineal distance between short-term rentals as special uses and in the report to you we're suggesting perhaps 1500 feet would be appropriate from any short-term rental that's a special use to another short-term rental that's especially used 1500 feet so kind of got a lot of numbers going on 3% down to 1% quarter mile increase that radius to half mile and then add to all that a separation between short-term rentals of, 1500 ft and that could really change some of the the um allowable locations for special certain rentals as special uses what is 1500 feet look like so traditional grid system of of Street grid block is about 700 ft approximately so two blocks two blocks of a TR okay grid Street system okay um are there any questions so far council member here thank you Madame mayor just one question so far uh can you remind us the difference between uh because on the one we're going to talk the next one we're going to talk about tonight has to do with duplex so if you have duplex which one's half is owner occupied versus maybe a long-term rental can you explain the difference to us please so we have had a couple short-term rentals that are duplex properties where one unit as councilman described is either a long-term rental or the actual owner of the property and we have processed the other dwelling unit as a special use for a shortterm rental when that unit is proposed to have the shorter uh rental so that would still they would be treated the same under as they are today or the current regulations or any proposed regulations looking at that unit and applying the regulations to that duplex unit does that answer your question yes uh thank you very much for your work I I um obviously um in the city of Peoria if you live in a place an area where you have a homeowner association you can uh have discussion and and decide if you want them or not some areas or a lot of areas in PR do not have a homeowner association so I think it's important to really minimize the number of uh strr that we would have in in a specific area especially if there's no HOA so I like the work you've done a lot I mean I I am for the least amount the better and that way we can protect the areas where there's no Homeowner Association so thank you very much for your for your work and if I can make a motion to receive and that would be great you sure can is there a second second by council member grup excuse me Madam May did you want to continue the conversation with the lure side first or we we this is just a receiving file we're going to continue the discussion oh okay yes stick around Council me council member Allen uh thank you Madame mayor uh just a couple of clarifying questions so I would assume that those have been approved thus far even if they're in an area um that allowed the original amount of 3% they would still be grandfathered in with their license correct yeah this would not revoke or or retract any currently approved special use for short-term rental okay and then do we have any Str strs in the queue right now where if we were to approve this at our our next meeting on the 12 it would impact their application um we actually do have uh one short-term rent roll on our December planning and Zoning commission agenda that would come to you in January but so with your direction if this is the direction you want to go with these new changes there would be a text amendment that would first have to be processed through the planning zoning commission's January agenda coming to you likely at the end of January for codification of any changes so there's going to be a little bit of a we'll review the the pending one that's coming before um the planning zoning Commission in January in light of these new changes and we can you know share that the results with them assuming or or making some assumptions that this is approved the changes of codification are approved by you as well so to answer your short short answer I don't know yet but we will definitely look at that but we do have at least one coming and I appreciate your your work on this I think that you know we've we've learned over the last year and some change when the Str strs come on the agenda and to councilman se's point I think councilman greb has made this point as well too some of our older neighborhoods who may not have established HOAs who don't have protected covenants um or maybe just don't have the engagement which that's fine some people are more engaged than others um they need an extra layer of protection you know when we talk about trying to solidify uh home ownership and uh stabilizing our neighborhood so I think this is a good happy meeting so I appreciate you all's work on this thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor um I appreciate the work you're doing and the spirit of the work you're doing it with I I would just like to remind you and remind the councel that if you have a circle that's a quarter of a mile in size a circle that is a half a mile in size has four times the amount of area in it than the original Circle four times in the original Circle the current ordinance allows three short-term rentals in there the proposed uh of a circle four times as large allows one okay so with the current ordinance that half mile circle would be able to accommodate 12 short-term rentals The Proposal says we're going to go from 12 to 1 just want everybody to understand that these numbers are numbers can be funny this is an enormous enormous change it may be what you want but this is huge just to let you know can you want to respond to that I may yes please um and thank you for that comment however it actually depends upon the area of the circle yes for example right okay for example we just did a little test on um I think it was the uh we we ran the numbers just to to test the um actually the next case on your Timothy short-term rental that's on the agenda the area from a quarter mile to a half mile added um from eight special use to nine so it actually went up one now doing the same on the the Hudson one that we just ran a test it dropped that one from 9 to three so I think it depends upon the area depends upon the number of of of residential units in that Circle that it can it can go up and it can go down Council Hayes it's that difference between percentages yeah of the units versus numbers so it's not one short-term rental it's 1% of the units in that area so um there is a question about short uh the short-term rental special uses and grandfathering and I just wanted to point out that when there's a change of ownership correct they start new so a presently authorized short-term run spot on a change of ownership might not meet the definitions uh under the adjustment I I would just like to say that I tried to ask our staff members and you'll see in our licensure as well to deal with some of the issues and with regard to proximity the direction that uh that I sense was that there is a proliferation of these and that we want to restrict the proliferation and that's why we've changed from a quarter mile to a half mile and reduced that from 3 to one because we're trying to respond to what we've been hearing around the Horseshoe based on the majority of input we've received it is not Universal and I can feel councilman Oiler looking at me because I don't know where you're at on this but I think that people should be able to use their property as they see fit but in our residential area is those people are not making Cho these choices and they're looking to this Council to protect them particularly when they don't have a homeowners association so that's where the staff's ambition has been and so I I appreciate that uh Miss Allison and and and Moss have worked hard to try to listen carefully to what's been said here maybe they haven't appreciated so much my input but I've tried to get to where I've felt the sense that Council wanted to go go so thank you thank you so we have a motion to receive and file which we still have to vote on but uh Council still needs to give some direction to staff whether we're wanting this to come back with the proposed changes that have been reviewed council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman um if we vote to receive and file this is this what's going to planning and zoning receiveing file is receiveing file it's not providing guidance to take it to Planning and Zoning or to bring it back that's what I wanted to make sure because I don't think I'm ready for that I yeah I I think are the vote to receive and files that we've received the presentation but but we still need to staff still needs some guidance I I know from my standpoint I think I need to spend some time with staff on this because those numbers especially as councilman Kelly presented them are a large change and so i' I'd like to understand a few more things before we get to that point so and I don't want to take time up here trying to do that but I'm going to set up a time to come in and really talk through this and figure it out thank you yes and thank you for bringing that up because we can bring this back to council for continued discussion we have three council members that are out right now that need to be a part of this discussion so before you know know moving forward I think we should have more policy discussion on this Council hay thank you very much uh director assistant director Allison if Council gives you Direction by the next council meeting are we still able to make the agenda for the January Planning and Zoning meeting if we want to make zoning changes I believe we could it yes the early the first meeting in December yes the 12th yes I believe we could then still proceed with a January Planning and Zoning commission case thank you your question was if Council gave direction to proceed is that was was that your question Council yes if we get input that Council wants to proceed with some element to our Planning and Zoning commission our next opportunity would be do so at the January meeting we've already gone past the deadline for December if Council isn't prepared to direct us at that point that's fine we don't have to do this right at all yeah or in January but I just simply wanting Council to know what the options are thank you right no I appreciate the options I just don't want to rush it without a full Council discussion on it and you know that's something that we could do December 12 council member grup well I'd like the old Council no reference to longevity or chronological age and our new Council to understand that when this all got started we had a rather robust debate about what that cap should be and what the radius should be and I remember uh councelor Jensen and Jackson and I suggested that we were starting with well biting off more than we could really choose that we should start modestly and see how these um would affect the neighborhoods especially those neighborhoods that have none of the protections that neighborhoods have where they're organized into homeowner associations what I am hearing tonight is I think encouraging that we have the strength as a Cil to say well maybe maybe we should reexamine this maybe maybe we were too generous in the number of these we would allow and I think that's healthy and mayor I think you're right we we need to have everybody here to really have a full-throated discussion but but I I I admire the council for saying well maybe we goofed on that but on the other hand too I think I sense that all of us assistant director uh Allison do not want to make it impossible for someone who's already in the queue hence your line of uh questioning um Esquire Hayes that no one would be negatively impacted who's in the queue that if we are going to change our format fora uh that that we should change it clean and not impact people that are already proceeding under the assumption that this would be the law of the city so so I think we're moving in the right direction looking at it and discussing it and councilman Oiler can cogitate on it and talk to staff some more but believe me I'm hearing a lot from all over the city when these start coming into some neighborhoods it was academic when it wasn't their neighborhood and so we need to start thinking about it thank you mayor you're welcome let's bring this back for discussion on December the the 12th again we have a motion to receive and file please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously Madam Clark thank you ladies we are at unfinished business 23- 364 is a communication from the city manager and director of public works with a request to approve the removal of intersections located at West aen Avenue and South Stubenville Street West aen Avenue and North Sand Street as well as West aen Avenue and south duable street from the list of brick maintained streets in the city of Poria maintenance of brick Street's policy Madam assistant city manager thank you um good evening sorry about that I just want to get clarification from um councel councelor a we're going to ask for referral on this item and in addition to that in the packet you will find in the agenda packet report back related to the item in addition to that I'm asking asking for a policy session in the future to discuss the maintenance of the Brick Street policy that would be great um can I get a motion to defer till December 12th moved by council member Oiler seconded by council member Gordon young council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman I just want to ask a clarifying question on that will a potential policy dis discussion affect this specific agenda item should we be tabling this till we have a policy discussion or are we going to be okay voting on it at the next meeting and having a policy discussion later that's that's a good question so I was just told to defer but were you given for Direction so the report back mentions that they're going to find they're gonna identify non brick streets to improve in the CSO project immediately right and then and so that the item doesn't need to move tonight that is correct actually will the council it could actually be removed we have already found alternative locations to work on working with councelor Jackson to leave those bricks alone at those intersections this is CSO year three there was only three components of that overall project so the project can move forward in the first district it's just three alternative locations So Pro so it's not a deferral then it's going to be a removal of this request I'm sorry so you're removing the request that is correct so so we don't need to defer we do not need to defer however we do want to come back to have a conversation related to the brick um maintenance policy um for a policy conversation at a future date okay sorry for the the confusion so I'll make the motion to withdraw this item seconded by council member SE uh let's vote to withdraw this item okay please cash your ballots this is unanimously discussion council member Grant well the assistant city manager is exactly correct we do need to have a discussion as it relates to how we're going to proceed with the uh repair and maintenance of brick streets and this historic city of ours um director Powers I want you to know that I appreciated the uh information provided by our Master city engineer Andrea kapenstein and I do believe our staff has some um thoughtful proposals to make on how we can preserve as many brick streets as possible um and doing it creatively and without breaking the bank and I think I saw a little bit of a preview of what the council might be talking about and I and I really appreciate the briefing that I got because we do want to preserve as many of our brick streets as possible and all of you got the email about the conversation that occurred under the ransburg era and um basically if you think about our city you've been around since that policy session occurred staff councils have been very reluctant to tear up brick streets very reluctant also to tear out brick and then throw down concrete or asphalt it's been kept to a minimum because of the direction that was given uh back uh in the ransburg era between 2001 and and we had a lot of research being done by the clerk's office Stephanie I believe you did a lot of research on it even though we may not have codified this to say you can't touch brick streets the staff got clear Direction from the council uh way back the turn of the century on how we wanted to proceed as a historic City and I think we've got some potential good solutions to look at mayor thank you okay you're welcome council member Kelly oh I'm sorry Madame mayor I had a well I was going to say what uh councilman oer said I'm sorry I didn't okay that's all right all good we've already voted uh let's move on Madam clerk 23- 348 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 R2 single family residential district for a short-term rental for the property located at 615 West Timothy Drive Poria Illinois Madam assistant city manager I believe I wanted to refer this to councilman Seer council member SE thank you Madame mayor uh like to move to approve the special special use uh for 617 uh West Timothy Drive second to by council member Oiler uh for purpose of discussion Madam mayor I'd like to uh have ask permission from this body to give privilege of the floor to resident that lives on Timothy um Drive Mr Steve Baba Browski see no objection Mr Browski thank you I live at 614 Timothy drive my name is Steve barowski I've owned my H I've owned my house for approximately 10 years I I moved there with my parents back in December of 1959 uh at that point in time there were two homes on the street followed by my nextd door neighbors being the third then a house up on the corner which was fourth back in the mid 60s the neighbors and my parents were alerted to the fact that somebody wanted to build a duplex on the street and they opposed it they opposed it because they had invested in that area they assumed that the the street would have been built out like Teton and shason which sandwiched Timothy and they're all single family homes on Shon and Timothy H pardon me Shon and Teton uh back then uh their uh objections were discounted and the first duplex was built unfortunately a second duplex is built followed by a third duplex and finally a fourth duplex so on the street we have four homes four duplexes each duplex has two units and uh recently we've had a change of ownership we had a couple that lived there for probably around 40 years and they didn't even rent out their other side of their duplex they used the duplex basically as a home and everything was fine and uh they were great neighbors they would uh when I wasn't living when I was living out of state they would uh take the garbage out for my mom because my mom became debilitated over the years as she got older and they snow blowed her driveway in the winter time and uh I returned the favor when I moved in into the house 10 years ago for them and uh in uh the winter last winter he passed away and the uh they put the owner's wife into a nursing home so her kids sold the home to the gentleman from Brimfield that purchased the property under an LLC uh I'm sorry I've got retinopathy I've got to try to read my my notes Here uh I oppose this for the following reasons and you've heard them before you know crime nuisance safety uh quality of the neighborhood I live in one of these old neighborhoods there's no Community there's no association I don't even know if associations were around back in the 50s and 60s in this neck of the woods at least uh I also uh oppose it because it might affect my property value I talked to a realer and he told me straight out he goes it's not going to help Steve and he goes your house might Linger on the market longer and a house that lingers on the market longer usually goes down in price uh when uh I went to the zoning commission meeting one of the Gentleman on the I brought up my objections there and at the conclusion of the meeting one of the gentlemen said that you know we should look into how it affects housing values how these BB and Bs affect housing values and uh nothing much else was said about that and I was actually kind of floored at that time because I'm like what you haven't done that already you know I was in manufacturing for 30 years and in manufacturing you have suppliers you have customers and obviously you have stockholders and you're making something and uh when when I did that uh pardon me I'm losing my train of thought here for a second uh anyway our customers demanded data from us you know they constantly demanded data and as a resident of Poria I'm not only a shareholder in Poria because I pay taxes I'm also a customer because you deliver services and I'm just simply asking where's the where's the data on how this affects our property values and our safety I don't think you have them and you should a couple weeks ago uh a lady was here and very well articulated uh she was talking about Equity by allowing this short-term ryal in the neighborhood he is getting an advantage in business we would call an advantage none of us are going to have that none of us will be allow the same thing that you're giving him and he's not even a resident of Poria he's a resident of Brimfield I know he owns the property but you know he chooses to raise his family in Brimfield we're here in puia the zoning in this area has been in place for over 50 years and has worked well no issues all the duplexes basically have been uh owner occupied and it's worked extremely well lastly I just want to mention that the I was given a newspaper because I don't subscribe Journal Star posted an article about East Peoria opposing airbnbs uh the mayor of East Peoria and I'm just I'm not going to quote him but I'll briefly say that he said that he didn't want one AC cross the street from him he didn't want one next door to him he didn't want them period they voted I think four to one to cancel the airbnbs it sounds like sounds like they got the right idea I hope you all would also agree with that I thank you for your time have a good day thank you Mr laosi any questions thank you we have a motion on the floor um to approve comments uh council member vesa thank you thank you Madame mayor um I do like to look at the short-term rentals from the lens of the neighborhoods um and in this particular one we do have uh several uh objections that were raised um in front of the board and now someone speaking here in front of us um I I do want to point out I I think it's I think it's kind of ironic that we we beone our empty hotel rooms and talk about needing to fill up the par marquet well we have so many short-term rentals uh for approval on our agenda I mean these are basically hotel rooms that that we approve and uh every every time we fill up one of those that's one less person staying in an actual Hotel um that we need uh for reasons that have been outlined previously um so so anyway I'll be voting no on this thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council members here thank you Madame mayor I think that's why it's so important the work that we're doing right now for assistant director Allison uh this Timothy drive has like Mr boski just said by the way thank you for being here tonight um and caring uh that's why it's so important that we have we minimize these SDR especially for people that do not have but I told uh that neighborhood it's impossible for me to say it's good for all you guys District because I voted yes for all you guys but I'm going to vote no because it's in my backyard I mean that would not be good for me at all I can't I just can't do that uh I heard a word tonight A word pilot okay we have over 70 of these Str strs right now that were in place before we start making these rules so scr has been in peor forever they were just not they were just out of control now they're under control and this pilot so far that we've been having to my knowledge we had zero zero complaint they've been a tremendous success with the city of Peoria we generated revenue from them and so far none to my knowledge there's we never had one complaint on any of those 70 or 80 that we have so far so uh uh that's that's the reason that's my reason to move in this uh this application forward is because I don't want to be hypocrite about this and say yes to all you guys but no in my backyard I had an Str Str in my neighborhood before before we have all these rules and and it was fine we never had any problem whatsoever uh in my neighborhood so uh thank you very much for being here tonight obviously I made the motion I we have a second I would appreciate your support on this council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor uh I'll be supportive the motion for the same reason I've supported these others and that is that after long and hard discussion for more than a year we came up with rules that they were uh no one was the sole author of those rules these were all compromises and whatnot and but I did oppose the spe the the once somebody follows all the rules then the city council can veto it I I thought that was bad law so I'll be uh supporting the motion I would would like to point out that uh uh the gentleman's uh preview or review of the past uh shows that at some point in time Peoria like so many other cities decided that the people who should control a neighborhood are not the people who have invested in the neighborhood the people who should control a neighborhood are the folks downtown and I don't think that serves the community very well it's a pretty retrograde at this point to suggest uh that zoning is a bad thing but I think it has has been our city and most cities had residential here industrial here commercial here you know and they sprinkled some commercial within the residential areas and these areas controlled themselves and uh but um so so the supposed effect of zoning was already there uh but now we have and I I don't want to take anything away from anybody who's on the zoning board I think they're they're fine and they're following the rules but that they would know more about a neighborhood then the neighbors who actually have their property value on the line I think is a real stretch it's not going to change however and I realize that but this is is tonight is an example of how these people don't have any choice and and I'm voting for it so how's that but anyway thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member grup um the many many many decades of City councils said the load star the guiding principle for our City should be single the promotion of single family home ownership with no more than three unrelated adults under a roof it is this body previous bodies recently that have decided that oh maybe we should allow many hotels in some of our neighborhoods and I have moved to approve some where there's been virtually no opposition as a matter of fact I've moved to approve some where the neighbors really believed in the person who was going to get the special use permit and thought that the property might be better going that route than than it being a long-term rental but we've found there is an ugly side to it and when I hear people saying we don't know if any problems that have existed with these well in the second district there have been significant problems and you should also be aware council members of problems we've had with other investors who have crept into our single family neighborhoods with unclean hands doing all kinds of things thumbing their nose at our attorneys like they're Above the Law like they're running the city so there are problems with some of these so yeah I I think we we can look at this whole issue with a degree of uh Nuance but to say that we didn't back ourselves into a whole bunch of problems it's just not telling the truth truth and as these continue to come down the pike more and more of you maybe not so much the at large District Council people you're going to be embroiled in some of these discussions and you're going to be right there where the rubber meets the road and I'm watching very carefully uh how we're going to resolve some of the legal issues that have crept into our city because of people who are having wild parties violating the law we almost need injunctive relief Etc and all of you should know about some of these so it's time for us to take a hard look at this mayor and I think that's all the more reason why your point to be sure we were all here able to coales as a total group we should go at it again on another evening but but I just want to say that because that's how I'm viewing this it has come with problems these have not always been Einstein's coming here to study at the University of Illinois College of Medicine or some nurse or some other glorious thing we've had The Good the Bad and the Ugly on this and we find that it's very difficult to ctail the ugly once it starts I just got a briefing today on one such situation and you're going to hear more about lots of situations thank you you're welcome we have a motion to approve please cast your ballots motion passes with two Nays grab and vesa Madam clerk we at new business is there any new Business Council okay okay uh we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council we have not received any cards okay we do have a light for new business uh council member Kelly uh just a question Madame mayor yes or uh is there going to be a council meeting on January 2 second no okay okay thank you ma' the next council meeting is December 12th we won't have one on December 26th right and then the next council meeting will be the do we have the date Count Council January the 9th okay so 12th January 9th next two Council meetings you're welcome okay and no citizens to address the council and there's no executive session can I get a motion to adjourn moved by council member Allan seconded by council member Oiler please cash your ballots motion passes unanimously thank you for your service