Revised plans for a new men’s shelter operated by The Salvation Army of Peoria will receive state money to assist the project.
Peoria Community Development Director Joe Dulin announced the funding award on Tuesday, shortly before the city council unanimously approved an amended special use ordinance that will increase the shelter’s capacity and change the location.
“About a week and a half ago, we received word from the State of Illinois that we will be receiving a $2 million grant that will specifically go towards this Salvation Army project,” said Dulin.
“At the time we brought forth the original special use, we had to have that approved before we applied for the grant. Since then, they have made some slight amendments to what their plan was and how they were going to construct it.”
The changes to the plan will move the shelter from the site of the former Peoria Labor Temple to the south corner of Bryan Street and Jefferson Avenue, increase the facility’s capacity, and avoid a lapse in services during the construction.
Council member Tim Riggenbach celebrated the project and lauded the Salvation Army for its “multiple tentacles” of community service.
“It’s not just the shelter for men; they have many other services, so I am particularly excited about this,” said Riggenbach. “I think with the issues we’re talking about with the unsheltered, we’re very fortunate now. Clearly it’s going to take some time to come to fruition, but this is another good step.”
The original proposal featured a one-story building covering more than 15,000 square feet. The new plans call for a two-story, 19,000 square-foot shelter on a smaller footprint that boosts capacity to 72 beds.
“It’s not quite double, but it’s a very significant increase,” said Riggenbach.
The first plan would have caused an estimated 18-month lapse in services for unhoused individuals during construction. The shift in direction will allow the current shelter to remain open.
“They no longer have to shut down the existing men's shelter while they're doing construction,” said Dulin. “It'll stay in use while they construct the new one, and then take that down after they build the new one.”
The main entrance will face Bryan Street. The agreement also includes parking lot alterations, and required the council to approve the city vacating a 342-foot alley.
Plans remain in place to demolish the shuttered Labor Temple building at the corner of Jefferson and Spalding and turn the lot into green space. A bronze plaque commemorating Peoria laborers who died while serving in World War II will be preserved.
The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the amended agreement.
Supermarket demolition
A dilapidated abandoned grocery store on Peoria’s South Side is now on a fast track for demolition.
The city council unanimously accepted a $100,000 bid from JIMAX to take down the former Adams Supermarket building at 4101-4103 SW Adams St., to prevent it from collapsing onto a nearby roadway.
The city will put up to $200,000 from the Eagle View TIF balance toward covering the cost of taking down the 25,000- square-foot building and turning the property into green space.
“If you've entered the City of Peoria through Bartonville coming into Peoria, you've probably seen the eyesore for multiple, multiple years — boarded up, vacant, it's traded multiple owners,” said Dulin, adding the additional funding will cover any extra costs for potential hazard remediation at the site.
“We might find some environmental issues inside the building once we start,” he said, noting the city does not own the property. “Hopefully in the next 2½ months that building will be removed. Our legal department will then look to lien the property for those costs, and hopefully, in the long term, obtain ownership of that lot as well.”
In recent years, the blighted structure has required significant maintenance at the city’s expense. The building also has a large hole in the roof that has put stress on an exterior wall that is now leaning toward Ligonier Street.
Police, fire benefits change
Peoria police officers and firefighters may soon get a choice in selecting a health insurance plan.
The council received and filed a first reading of an ordinance that would modify the city’s policy in regard to the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act [PSEBA].
“Recently, the state legislature determined that the members that are entitled to that benefit should be able to select the type of coverage that they can enroll in, rather than allowing the employer to determine it,” explained city attorney Patrick Hayes.
Currently, the law enforcement and fire department employees are designated for the city's high-deductible basic group health insurance plan. However, a state law going into effect on Jan. 1 mandates giving full-time public safety employees an option to enroll in other available health care plans.
Responding to a question from council member John Kelly, city manager Patrick Urich said it’s not yet known how much the state-mandated update will cost the city.
“This change in the law occurred because we prevailed in an arbitration hearing here, where we had told one of our police officers who was eligible for PSEBA that they needed to use the high deductible health plan instead of the low deductible health plan, which cost the city more,” said Urich.
“We prevailed at the arbitration hearing; the unions went down and got the law changed to now require us to have to pay for this. So this is now a state law issue that everyone across the state has to do this. Each one of these changes is a couple thousand dollars annually, is the difference that we're going to see. But it's now the choice of the PSEBA recipient; it's no longer our decision.”
The council is expected to act on the change at its Nov. 12 meeting.
Mossville Road pre-annexation
Plans to formally subdivide a 130.6-acre property near Mossville split by Illinois Route 6 will move forward.
The council approved a pre-annexation agreement for the parcel at 1033 E. Mossville Road. The agreement is required because the plans to subdivide the land would result in a lot that is smaller than 40 acres, and is not currently connected to the public sanitary sewer.
Although the property is not currently contiguous with the city boundaries, it falls within Peoria’s 1.5-mile extraterritorial jurisdictional area.
The proposal would split the parcel into 13.5 acres east of the Route 6, and about 117 acres on the west side. The property on the east would have access from State Sreet.
Since the parcel is not connected to Peoria city limits, an annexation would only occur in the future if contiguity is established. The pre-annexation agreement lasts 20 years, with an auto-renewal for another 20 years unless one party terminates the pact.
The Planning and Zoning Commission had unanimously recommended the approval. A public hearing on the item at the beginning of the council meeting received no comments from citizens.
Other business
Among other agenda items, the council took the following actions:
- Approved a five-year extension of the intergovernmental agreement with Peoria County for animal control through Peoria County Animal Protective Services [PCAPS];
- Amended an annexation agreement for property in the 9600 block of Allen Road, allowing Ameren Illinois to use part of the undeveloped land as a gravel lay-down for the Peoria County Reliability Project that involves constructing a new transmission line between the Alta and Pioneer substations;
- Authorized the appointment of Tom Pegler and Angela Bolden as the new co-chairs of the Joint Commission on Racial Justice and Equity’s steering committee, replacing Tim Bertschy and Mary Peterson;
- Deferred a vote on a redevelopment agreement for a proposed Porsche automobile dealership in the Medina Plains-Allen Road TIF District until Nov. 12;
- Gave permission for the Huck’s Gas Station in the Willow Knolls Courts shopping center to install a new free-standing business sign that exceeds dimensions outlined by the unified development code;
- Approved a liquor license site application with on-site consumption for Rice & Spice at the former Dac’s Smokehouse location in the Campustown Shopping Center;
- Denied a tavern liquor license for Tattabu at the recommendation of Hayes, who said multiple attempts to contact the petitioner following previous council deferrals have been unsuccessful.
