City Council

Today's News-Gazette:

The city council voted Tuesday to convey three city-owned lots to not-for-profit groups that want to build affordable homes on them, including a lot that currently houses a mini-park across the street from King Elementary School.

Council members voted to convey the mini-park lot, at 1201 W. Beslin St., and a lot at 1405½ W. Beslin to Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County, and a third lot at 901 N. Division Ave. to Ecological Construction Laboratory for Affordable Housing Development.

The city is providing the lots for $1 each, expecting that the groups will build affordable homes there, said John Schneider, manager of the city's grants management division.

The minipark lot at 1201 W. Beslin has been the site of large gatherings and concerns about drug use, and council members didn't want those activities near a school, said Eileen Gebbe, executive director of Habitat for Humanity.

Discuss.

Yesteday's News-Gazette (forgive me, I'm still catching up...):

The city is prepared to buy several properties at the southeast corner of Neil Street and Bradley Avenue from the Urban League of Champaign County, with eventual plans to redevelop the property.

The city council will consider Tuesday authorizing the purchase of six properties for $250,000....

The properties include the former Community Day Care center, formerly operated by the Urban League, which is experiencing financial difficulties and needs to sell the properties.....

The city isn't sure what it wants to do with the properties, but will likely seek requests for proposals at some point "to see what developers have in mind," said Greg Skaggs, community development specialist with the city.

Before the city seeks proposals, it will conduct a study this fall of Neil Street between Interstate 74 and downtown, said Rob Kowalski, assistant planning director for the city.

"The zoning of that property is residential," Kowalski said.

"Although it's on a big arterial street, it's located in a residential area."

Multifamily zoning that would allow smaller apartments is a potential future use, he said.

"I don't think we're giving serious consideration to zoning it commercial, but it's still early and we have to study it," Kowalski said.

Interesting.

UPDATE:  The purchase was approved.  Rather than post another thread with today's NG article, I thought I'd just do an update.

City council members aren't sure what type of development will eventually arise on properties along Neil Street and Bradley Avenue that they agreed to purchase Tuesday night.

But they said they believe the city has a better chance of ensuring a quality development by temporarily owning the six properties at the southeast corner of Neil and Bradley.

"We want something attractive for the corridor," said council member Marci Dodds. "We don't want a bunch of junk."

Council members voted 6-2 Tuesday to authorize city officials to purchase the properties for $250,000 from the Urban League of Champaign County. Mayor Jerry Schweighart and council member Ken Pirok were opposed.

Today's News-Gazette:

The study will look at income the city receives from certain types of development, such as new property and sales taxes, compared to costs of serving that development, such as constructing new main roads and hiring additional police and firefighters.

The issue is more than just an academic exercise because Champaign currently has a $45 million funding shortfall for needed arterial roads over the next decade. Champaign is also one of the few larger cities in Illinois that doesn't charge developers impact fees for new arterial roads or require mandatory park-land dedication.

"The goal of the study is for us to better understand the true costs and revenues of development in the city," said Rob Kowalski, Champaign's assistant planning director. "It'll look at existing areas, and areas where we might grow in the future."

The study will also look at the costs and benefits of developing within the established city, called infill development, vs. developing on farmland at the edge of the city.

The study will help shape an update of the city's comprehensive plan, to be called Champaign Tomorrow, by identifying areas where the city can grow at a lower cost. City staff plans to begin work on the comprehensive plan this fall and to adopt it by next summer.

Discuss.

Yesterday's News-Gazette:

The city council will discuss a "sustainability inventory report" Tuesday that is meant to show where the city stands in terms of energy usage and conservation.

The council meets in regular session at 7 p.m. at the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St. The sustainability report will be discussed at a post-council study session.

Sustainability is a popular issue these days with cities across the nation. It is defined as meeting current needs without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs, and involves balancing environmental, economic and social concerns.

Assistant City Manager Dorothy David said the city needed an update of where it stands before moving on to new initiatives.

"We want to know where we started from," said David. "This report is a baseline. We felt as we move forward to really be proactive in sustainability and environmental concerns, we needed to know what we're doing right now."

Discuss.

At the risk of parrotting every WDWS story today (why doesn't WDWS put their stories - at least headlines - online again?), they are reporting that Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing will appoint David Gehrig to the Aldermanic seat vacated by Danielle Chynoweth, who resigned a few weeks ago.

Googling "David Gehrig Urbana" leads to some interesting results, one of which contains a little bit of biography:

David is Acorn's Secretary and a training coordinator for the GRIDS Center, a project of the National Science Foundation Middleware Initiative. He has been at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications since 2001, including three years as part of the NEESgrid project applying grid technology to civil engineering research for studying the effects of earthquakes. He has a degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Good luck to Mr. Gehrig.  I believe this seat will be on the ballot in the 2009 municipal elections, for whatever it's worth.

UPDATE:  I think Mr. Gehrig is also on the NCSA staff, and is a site administrator at UCIMC.org.

Today's News-Gazette:

The Urbana City Council rejected an appeal Tuesday night by Urbana developer Howard Wakeland, who is seeking to demolish a house in a historic district in the 800 block of West Main Street.

The council voted 4-3 to uphold the decision by the city's historic preservation commission to deny Wakeland a certificate of appropriateness to demolish a house at 809 W. Main St., and its decision to deny Wakeland a certificate of economic hardship.

Discuss.

This has been a topic of discussion on here before:

The city council on Monday will consider developer Howard Wakeland's request to rezone nearly an entire block of properties along North Lincoln Avenue.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Monday at the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St.

The properties are west of Lincoln Avenue, between Hill and Church streets, just north of the Illinois American Water plant. The site is currently made up of single-family homes and Wakeland wants to change the zoning from residential to general business-university.

So, um...discuss!

In yesterday's News-Gazette there was this excellent article by Mike Monson about Champaign's Garden Hills neighborhood, some of its history and challenges, and plans for it moving forward:

Garden Hills has a way of getting noticed.

The northwest neighborhood of roughly 1,000 homes – a proud, diverse and working-class neighborhood – has its share of problems. But it's also filled with many longtime residents who say they wouldn't live anyplace else.

This summer, Garden Hills is the focus of an intense city effort to provide activities and guidance to local youths, who alarmed city officials last spring by gathering in large numbers on many nights and sometimes clashing with police.

More than 50 years ago, Garden Hills was getting noticed for a different reason: its sheer unprecedented scale. The dream of developer Cecil Ozier and his two sons, Darrell and Mervyn, all now deceased, Garden Hills was described in a 1955 news article as "the largest single residential development ever proposed here at one time."

Discuss.

City of Champaign Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy, who is asking voters for a property tax increase this fall because she feels she doesn't have enough money to provide general assistance to township residents, somehow submitted a budget which inlcuded several thousand dollars in legal fees despite the City of Champaign providing free legal service for the Township.

Tension was higher than normal as the town of the city of Champaign Township debated their budget for Fiscal Year 2008-09 Tuesday night.

Though the township board eventually passed the budget, debate ensued about a $9,000 line item, of which a large portion was called "a supreme waste of money." An amendment was eventually added re-appropriating the $9,000 of the $688,668 budget. Originally, $3,000 of that money was allotted for professional fees such as membership to the Township Officials of Illinois, while the other $6,000 was appropriated for legal fees, which a number of the Board members had a problem with.

The legal fees were said to be used for outside legal counsel, despite the fact that the city of Champaign currently allows the township to use their attorneys.

"It sounds like there could be a fight on the horizon," said Board member Tom Bruno. "I don't want to suggest we get separate legal counsel if that's not the case. It seems like a supreme waste of money."

Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy said the counsel was not going to be used for any legal action brought up against the city of Champaign but rather to get advice about how to properly run the township and utilize its resources.

"This is not about a lawsuit," she said. "What (the board members) are doing is polarizing the issue."

Sheesh.

From today's News-Gazette:

Faced with skeptical council members and many questions about how it would work, city staff asked for – and received – city council approval Tuesday to define a proposal more clearly to require that garbage containers be screened.

City Manager Steve Carter suggested the move late into Tuesday night's study session, saying the proposal "probably deserves some additional thought by staff."

Lots of good questions in the article.

Champaign's Council has unanimously passed a FY09 budget:

Capital improvement spending is set at $29 million. The budget includes $12 million in funding for a 600-space parking deck at the southeast corner of Hill and Randolph streets that is under construction; $950,000 to improve the intersection at Windsor Road and First Street; and $4.2 million to widen Curtis Road to four and five lanes next year for 2 miles between Wynstone Drive and Wesley Avenue.

The capital budget also sets aside $6.1 million for the Boneyard Creek detention project, also known as the Second Street reach. Work will begin this year on drainage improvements, including underground conveyance of storm water, in Scott Park.

Discuss.

From the Daily Illini:

[T]he Council must also consider how the law will be enforced between Champaign and Urbana and how effective such a ban would be. Acting City Attorney Ron O'Neal Jr. said having a one-year study to see how many traffic accidents are directly related to cell phone use may give the Council a better idea of how effective the ban would be.

"We have to get data from other states and communities to see if such a ban was effective," he said. O'Neal argued that such studies would give the Council a starting point.

That's not going to make the nanny-staters happy.  They're going to have to re-double their demagoguery.

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Sales tax represents almost half the city's operating money, and Champaign has come to expect a 4 percent increase in sales tax revenue every year, Schnuer said.

"This year, it's coming in at 2 percent," he added.

And:

Schnuer said the upcoming year's budget proposal doesn't call for any new taxes or fee increases, but it does recommend two new fees – one a fee on builders for erosion control and the other to cover the cost of inspecting multifamily residence common areas, Schnuer said.

Discuss.

From the Daily Illini:

The Champaign City Council elected Tuesday night to not give the Urban League of Champaign County the property at 208 N. First St., despite its proposal and numerous supporters.

There were six proposals brought to the Council for the property, once occupied by the Lone Star Lodge. The Council voted 7-0 to sell the property to Pekara Bakery and Bistro for $225,000.

The Urban League had asked for the property to be donated,

"We have an incredible opportunity in front of us," said Sandi Jones before the vote, chairman of the board for the Urban League.

The Council decided to give it to the highest bidder because the city has lost money on the property in the past, with the Lone Star Lodge defaulting on its loan.

The Council also made its decision due to problems the Urban League has had internally and said those issues need to be resolved.

Discuss.

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Five property owners who have yet to sell their land to the city for the Boneyard Creek Second Street detention project could be faced in coming months with eminent domain lawsuits to take their property.

The city council will be asked Tuesday night to allow the city manager to file eminent domain lawsuits against the five property owners, if the property owners do not sell to the city within 60 days of receiving a final offer.

Discuss.

As a follow-up to this post about the City of Urbana spending more than half-million dollars beautifying Philo Road while not mentioning addressing the crime issues in the area, this information was included in Council Member Lynn Barnes' email newsletter sent out over the weekend:

Calls for Service and Reported Crimes for the area bounded by Florida, Kinch, Colorado and Cottage Grove.

	2005	2006	2007	2008 (YTD)
Calls for Service	1349	1636	1303	324
Reported Crime	554	513	416	89

Discuss.

The NG had three stories yesterday that touched on the Urban League of Champaign County and their quest for a new building.

First, "Urban League wants to downsize headquarters."

Second, "Deal made to sell current Urban League building."

The Urban League, which ran into financial problems last year after it lost two major state grants worth 60 percent of its budget, has been cutting staff and closing programs ever since.

I guess that's one way of putting it.

Third, "Some officials have reservations about Urban League plan," as the Urban League is asking the City to donate a new building to them.

Council member Ken Pirok also said he "definitely will not be supporting" the Urban League's proposal.

"There's no reason to give something away that truly has some value to the city," Pirok said.

The lodge building was appraised at $340,000 in 2004. Pirok said he would support the city keeping the building and possibly reserving it for future city use if none of the six proposals are attractive enough.

City Manager Steve Carter also said the fact that the Urban League's proposal provides no compensation "is a problem."

Discuss.

Redistricting was several weeks ago, which makes this a strange article to appear now:

Council members Gina Jackson, Dist. 1; Marci Dodds, Dist. 4; and Ken Pirok, Dist. 5, all voted against the plan. At-Large Council member Thomas Bruno was not present for a vote.

"I voted against it because I didn't think we needed to be making wholesale changes to people's districts," said Pirok, who has the largest district with more than 19,000 residents.

"Instead of taking off a part of my district, (McIntosh) took off a lot, and added a lot that wasn't there before."

Dodds had thought some of the other maps presented to the Council made more sense.

"I thought (the new map) was illogical," Dodds said. "I didn't think it was the best map presented to us. It changed two of the districts more than they needed to be."

Dodds also said she felt some partisanship played a part in creating this map.

"I feel very strongly that we need to have a strong centered district in order to have a strong local government," she said. "Now, Dist. 4 has been pushed to be more Democratic. They used to be able to vote both Democrats and Republicans into office."

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

The old Champaign municipal landfill would become a community park offering a mountain bike skills course and a BMX bicycle racing track, a sledding hill, a dog park, a model airplane field and an 18-hole disc golf course under a plan for reuse of the 90-acre site.

But development of the park, which would also include 3 miles of walking trails, probably won't even begin for seven to 10 years and then is expected to proceed in stages, according to Champaign Park District officials. The park will cost between $10 million and $15 million to develop.

The proposed Urbana cell phone ban has advanced in Urbana, with the Council unanimously asking the City Attorney to draft an ordinance for consideration.

Alderman Charlie Smyth, D-Ward 1, who proposed the ban, Ralph Lewis, D-Ward 3, Prussing and Alderman Brandon Bowersox, D-Ward 4, all raised their hands when asked if they supported a ban – though Bowersox only raised his hand slightly and indicated afterward that he's still thinking about the issue.

Chynoweth, D-Ward 2, said she would like to ban use of handheld cell phones while driving, but allow use of hands-free cell phones. Lynne Barnes, D-Ward 7, said she would like to consider strong penalties for someone who gets into a traffic accident while talking on a cell phone.

Dennis Roberts, D-Ward 5, and Heather Stevenson, R-Ward 6, did not appear enthusiastic about such an ordinance.