Residents and advocates concerned about how a potential new TIF district might impact Peoria’s Southside want city leaders to keep environmental and racial justice and equity factors in mind.
The primary issue raised by speakers at a Thursday news conference centered around the possibility of BioUrja using incentives from the proposed Distillery TIF to pursue a carbon capture pipeline or other sequestration methods that could pose a risk to neighboring residential areas.
Joyce Harant of the Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance said they want language put into the TIF resolution that would block TIF funding for any projects requiring state or federal pollution discharge permits, any carbon capture pipelines, or any carbon capture sequestration equipment.
“Basically, we're saying no new pollution; no new air and water pollution,” Harant said. “We're not saying no development. We're just saying, ‘let's not add above certain levels for the pollution, and no CO2 pipelines.”
Public hearings on both the proposed Distillery and Galena Road Industrial Park TIF districts are scheduled for Tuesday’s Peoria City Council meeting.
City Manager Patrick Urich says the new Distillery TIF would include areas along Washington Street in the Southside that are not already included in other TIF districts – generally bounded by Washington, Sanger Street, MacArthur Highway and the Illinois River. That would include the BioUrja plant.
“In this instance, if BioUrja were to make improvements to their property that raised their property values, as part of this effort, they could potentially be eligible for TIF reimbursement,” Urich said. “If it doesn't raise the property value – because the tax assessor says it's mostly personal property, which is not part of the buildings – then they wouldn't be eligible for it. So it's just depends on the nature of the type of development that they're doing.”
Attempts by WCBU to contact BioUrja for a response were unsuccessful.
Harant noted the 2022 annual report by the Peoria City-County Joint Commission on Racial Justice and Equity shows the predominantly minority residents of the Southside have experienced a higher rate of health issues resulting from high pollution.
“They identified that the Southside suffers from tremendous social and health disparities, which means that the lifespan of our black community members who are living in the Southside is much, much less than white individuals in other parts of the county,” said Harant, also noting the area where the TIF is proposed has been designated as an environmental justice area by both the U.S. and Illinois Environmental Protection Agencies.
“We have to admit that zoning decisions and districting and tax relief for certain development all play a role in the environmental degradation that is affecting people of color in Peoria far more than their white counterparts,” said Jonathan Thomas, co-chair of the Joint Commission’s environmental and climate justice working group.
“The language we're proposing here doesn't ultimately stop the pipeline or any other polluting development from coming to this district. What we're asking here is simply that such development is not eligible for tax relief.”
The council previously approved an “inducement resolution” for Black Band Distillery related to the potential Distillery TIF. The inducement measure enables Black Band to pursue an expansion into a vacant Washington Street warehouse, with initial project expenses eligible for TIF reimbursements once the district is created. But that resolution does not guarantee the Distillery TIF will be established.
Speaking in her capacity as president of the Southside Community United for Change, Martha Ross said the Distillery TIF could have a large impact on residents in the 61605 zip code, so the city needs to make sure that impact aids their quality of life.
“The City of Peoria needs to change the way it does business in the Southside,” Ross said. “We do not need pollution that will make living in the Southside less desirable and harmful to our residents here. We cannot build capacity – which is one of our goals, to build capacity as it relates to attracting new viable homeowners or new businesses in the area on to the Southside – as long as we are known as a bad investment or the worst place for black people to live.”
Marvin Hightower, the president of the NAACP Peoria Branch, said the national association has identified environmental justice as a pillar issue.
“We are for redevelopment definitely, and we are not against TIFs,” Hightower said. “However, we do not want our taxpayer money going toward funding a pipeline or doing anything that causes any more environmental hazards to the people or the citizens of this community.”
Warith Muhammad, a longtime Southside resident and community activist with the Don’t Start Initiative, said struggles with violence and food desert concerns already persist in the area.
“With all that going on, the last thing the Southside of Peoria needs to worry about is a pipeline being built underneath where their kids go to school, where their kids go to sleep,” Muhammad said.
Urich said city staff is reviewing the groups’ suggested language and will consider making some modifications to the Distillery TIF plan before it is presented for a city council vote, likely next month. He said input gathered at Tuesday’s public hearing would also be considered in making those modifications.
