The City of Peoria will provide close to a $500,000 to rehabilitate Martin Luther King Jr. Park on the city’s South Side.
The Peoria City Council approved the $477,000 allocation of Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] funds to the Peoria Park District during Tuesday’s 3 1/2-hour session that included the annual Peoria Township electors meeting.
“Over the last two or three years, we’ve been doing this with our CDBG public allocation. We’ve previously funded upgrades to Trewyn Park [and] Logan Park in the First District, Columbia Park in the Second District, and Morton Square Park in the Third District,” said Community Development Director Joe Dulin.
Dulin said while the park district does not receive any funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], the city can use its CDBG dollars for park upgrades that benefit the community.
“Whenever we’ve asked for these amenities, we say we want you to add additional items to the park to increase the experience in the neighborhood,” he said. “We make it clear to them that we appreciate all that they do in our community, but it’s their job to maintain the parks and do what they would normally do.
“But if they’re going to use our funds that are specifically designed to improve the neighborhoods, we want to add additional amenities to what the neighborhood could bring. We feel MLK Park was a really good next park to do, specifically with the work on MacArthur [Highway] with the infrastructure investment we’re making.”
Planned upgrades include the addition of a new shelter with electricity, accessible sidewalks, new swing sets, renovation of the basketball courts, a new drinking fountain, and other amenities such as picnic tables and benches.
The allocation passed on a 9-2 vote, with council members John Kelly and Alex Carmona opposing. Both questioned the need to put city dollars toward an asset operated by an entity with its own tax base.
“My question is, why wouldn’t we allocate this to go to back to the people directly who need it most, rather than putting it towards a park that’s already supposed to be maintained by another taxing body?” asked Carmona, wondering if the funds might serve a better purpose being added to the city’s roof replacement program.
“It’s their job. It’s their job,” Kelly added with emphasis. “I think if we needed more money for streets, which we always need, would we ask the park district to give us some money for streets? Would we ask the airport authority to help?
“I’m sorry, but we have done more than our share, it seems to me, for the park district, and I don’t know where it ends.”
But Mayor Rita Ali countered those stances, suggesting what’s good for the parks is ultimately good for the city as well.
“We cannot move Peoria forward working in silos; we have to work collaboratively,” she said. “We have to sometimes leverage resources, and that’s what this is about in terms of improving our neighborhoods.”
The park project funding coincided with a related budget item redirecting $250,000 in general fund money to cover delays in nonprofit organizations receiving federal funding allocated for 2026 CDBG public service grants.
“One of the struggles that we have with our grant administration is we are on a calendar year budget, and often the federal government is delayed with approving their budget,” Dulin explained. “When we talk about getting our 2026 money, it’s often seven, eight, nine months delayed.
“One of the things we recently were told through our HUD representatives, based on some audits they did of other communities, is that the way we have our CDBG public service grants set up of spending the allocation, even though we knew we were awarded it but we haven’t quite received it, that would technically be against [rules] and we’d get a finding if they came and audited us.”
The general fund amount equals a state grant the city received unexpectedly that was earmarked for capital improvements at the fire training center.
“We had already budgeted general fund money for that, so it’s an additional $250,000 that we can swap out allow our social service agencies to be funded,” said Dulin.
That budget amendment passed unanimously.
Other business
The council unanimously backed Mayor Ali’s request to adopt a resolution advocating for local housing authority, as recommended by the Illinois Municipal League in response to Gov. JB Pritzker’s Building Up Illinois Developments [BUILD] initiative.
That plan calls for statewide zoning standards with minimum lot sizes, increased residential density allowances, accessory dwelling units, minimum parking requirements, and a standardized formula related to impact fees.
“We need to protect our form districts. We need to protect our historic districts,” said Ali. “We need to protect the character and design of what’s being built in our neighborhoods, and without a statewide mandate that creates a one-size-fits-all for everybody, regardless of the city. That’s really what this resolution is addressing.”
In a separate, three-tiered item of regular business, the council unanimously approved a series of updates related to city code for regulation of billboards, nonconforming signs, and wall-mounted signs and lettering.
Items approved as part of the consent agenda included annual salary raises for City Manager Patrick Urich and other city management employees, and a $94,500 contract renewal for administration of fire department captain promotional exams.
Four mayoral proclamations recognized Arbor Day, Fair Housing Month, Child Abuse Prevention Month and the Junior League of Peoria.
