The City of Peoria is taking the first step in establishing an economic incentive to spur growth on Main Street, while Peoria Township will consider forming a committee to look into the viability of a community senior center.
Before considering the King Zone site application for liquor sales, the Peoria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to establish an interested parties registry for the proposed Main Street Tax Increment Financing [TIF] District.
“As we’ve looked at development along West Main, we really feel that this is a tool that can help us for redevelopment purposes,” said City Manager Patrick Urich.
The proposed TIF area would run along West Main Street from Monroe Street downtown to University Street near the Bradley University campus, encompassing the surrounding residential and commercial properties.
Urich said the interest in pursuing the possibility now made sense for several reasons, including a determination by the Mayor’s Institute for Community Design identifying Main Street as a focus area.
“The Greater Peoria Leadership Council also has presented a kind of a heightened focus of this area, as well as downtown, and then with the efforts that Bradley University is undertaking as well with the campus, so we felt that the timing was right,” said Urich.
The creation of the interested parties registry enables those who sign up to receive correspondence and stay informed about the TIF process and potentially how to seek benefits.
Peoria will hold public meetings and hearings on the Main Street TIF before it would go to the council for approval, which Urich anticipates by late August or early March.
Senior center committee
As part of the special town board portion of the meeting, township electors voted 35-0 in recommending the board form an ad-hoc committee to study the potential use of township funds to provide services for senior citizens.
“The fact that Peoria does not currently have and must create a senior services resource hub for healthy aging is indisputable,” said Peggy Jacques, the founder and executive director of the Graceland Center for Purposeful Aging who served as the designated spokesperson for the agenda item.
“There is much work to do to make Peoria an age-friendly city according to the standards of AARP. The growing age ratio of older adults to younger persons is a worldwide phenomenon playing right here in Peoria.”
Township attorney John Redlingshafer noted that the electors cannot on their own establish a committee, but their vote in favor would place that action on a future agenda to be considered by the board — which is comprised by the entire city council.
“We have the opportunity now to scale up vital aging resources, to promote vitality instead of enabled ability. We must make it possible to age in place,” said Jacques.
A separate but related action seeking a township tax levy for senior services was deferred at Jacques’ request until the proposed committee is formed and returns its findings.
A public hearing on the township’s annual budget for 2026-27 generated no discussion, and the board unanimously approved the spending and appropriation ordinance.
The board also unanimously approved without discussion the certification of a non-binding ballot question in the November general election related to Illinois pension code penalties for businesses that boycott Israel.
