PEORIA, IL -- The final public hearing on the apartments in Riverfront Park was not that exciting. The score was 13 against the project, 7 in favor -- mostly the usual suspects in suits, hoping to make money somehow from the project.
The most moving comments against the project came from Jo Lakota, a Native American, who said the site is "the ancestral homeland of many tribes," including hers.
"There is a spirit to this place. There is a spirit to the river," she said. "It's a huge part of my existence to go to the water. This is a precious treasure to a lot of Peorians. Native American people have gathered there (for) prayers and drums. You need to honor the spirit of this place."
Activist Dave Pittman said the NAACP is opposed, and Joyce Blumenshine, president of the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club said the club has been against the apartments for years.
Here is a recording of the comments.
Comments will be taken by the city for the official record until Jan. 25. Here is the way to send them:
Comments can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to:
River Trail Project Comments
c/o Chris Setti, City of Peoria
419 Fulton Street, Suite 207
Peoria, IL 61602
Here are my comments:
Riverfront Park Debacle: Final Words
PEORIA, IL., Jan. 20, 2016. For almost a year, I and many others have been appalled to watch the Peoria City Council and its staff plunge ahead to give Riverfront Park land, paid for by taxpayers, to a well-connected former Caterpillar CEO Glen Barton, and his developer friend, to create four 4-story apartment buildings in the park with a road and parking lot.
It’s a terrible idea, to place these apartments next to two chemical plants and an active railroad line hauling hazardous chemicals. The buildings will displace trees, monuments, and forever alter the ambience of the park. Thousands of people have signed petitions, written and spoken against the plan, to no avail.
The Peoria City Council seems dead set on moving forward. Four of the ‘yes’ votes received campaign contributions from Barton, a shocking conflict of interest. Details of these contributions can be found on my blog, www.peoriastory.com under the category ‘Riverfront Park.’
The blog posts trace the history of the controversial plan for the apartments. The posts are easily found under the ‘Riverfront Park’ category.
There are also photos on the blog. The requirement of the National Park Service that the lost parkland be replaced has a curious twist. The so-called replacement land is under water during floods. See the photos.
Information about whether some of this land is eligible to become replacement land under National Park Service rules, because it may be defined as public land, also can be found on the blog.
As well, there are photos of vacant, for-sale land nearby the park that would make excellent sites for the apartment development. These would not require a bond issue and other costs to the city taxpayers.
One, the former Greeley School, a historic site with a historic name, likely could be had for very little money or free. It would not need expensive infrastructure development, and would do much to revitalize that area, which is a goal of the apartment plan in the park.
The Peoria School District would benefit from the property taxes on the development there. The city’s plan is to use a TIF District to repay a bond issue which would fund infrastructure for the apartments in the park, and rebate the developer’s cost for the park land. That would deny most of the property tax revenue to the school district for 23 years.
Meanwhile, the city’s application to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service has serious problems:
- The appraisals of the lost park land and the replacement land did not follow the Uniform Act guidelines because the appraisals were received AFTER initial negotiations for the replacement land purchase prices were finalized.
- No archeological study has been made of these lands, which are adjacent to known original French settlements and before that, likely Native American sites.
- The need to disrupt the park has not been established because alternative sites such as the Greeley School site were not studied.
- The so-called replacement land is not comparable to the land to be lost from the park. The park land never floods. The replacement land, shown in the federal floodplain maps, flooded twice in 2015 and regularly before 2015. It is also the site of a combined sewer overflow pipe, where raw sewage is diverted into the Illinois River during heavy rain events, which occur frequently. Otherwise, storm sewer water flows into the river there carrying runoff from the streets.
There’s much more to be found on the blog.
I and others urge the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service to reject the application and rule that enough land has already been removed from Riverfront Park, that this project is not needed, and that the so-called replacement land is not comparable to what is being lost to the citizens and taxpayers.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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