FeedOpinion: Say ‘no’ to Radnor Road enterprise zone
December 10, 2007 in Local Tags: annexation, Double A, enterprise zones, Peoria City Council
Double A Pizza says it cannot afford to stay in Peoria area any longer. So the sports bar wants to pick up shop and move to an area outside of the city limits of Peoria. And it wants the taxpayers to help by giving the developer building their new digs an 8 percent tax break on construction materials.
And the city is considering doing so. Seriously.
This request comes four months after the Peoria City Council Approved a loan for the business. Seriously.
Hmmm …. paying businesses to move away. I imagine this is pretty much how government operates on the Bizzaro World. And more than two years after the “progressives” were kicked off the Peoria City Council, it’s still how government operates at Peoria City Hall.
I tried to find some details on the business development loan, but it apparently never garnered a mention on my blog or C.J.’s. It must have seemed rather innocuous at the time. And it seems that this meeting happened the week before I received my spiffy new laptop, so there was no liveblogging. And, I tried to look at the minutes of the August council meeting, but they are missing from the city’s Web site. I could find no minutes for the months of June, July, August, September and October 2007.
The support documentation (PDF file) sent to the council states that the council itself asked the administration to draft a plan to expand the enterprise zone to what is essentially and brand-new greenfield commercial development at the intersection of Willow Knolls and Radnor Road. This is no decaying urban neighborhood in need of revitalization. This is pure white-flight, suburban-style development, exactly the sort that politicians say they oppose when they talk to neighborhood groups south of Forrest Hill Drive.
Of course, the city is going to consider annexing this land into the city.
The $10 million project should generate about $167,000 in property taxes. There’s no estimate on how much sales taxes it would generate. Here’s something else that’s unknown: Exactly how much less sales and property tax revenue the city’s gonna get because out of what’s already within the city limits of Peoria.
When are we going to learn folks? Taxing current residents to sweeten the pot for developers doesn’t work. It results in urban decay because the “new” revenue generates isn’t enough to cover the extra services that have to be provides, means there’s less money available to maintain the older parts of town. All the “action” happens on the outskirts of town, to there’s no energy or interest in maintaining streets and sidewalks. If the opposite were true, the people on the South Side wouldn’t be still waiting for the city to build sidewalks.
UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter, I figured out that the minutes aren’t posted in chronological order, but in alphabetical order, by month. The minutes show very little discussion, just that Councilman George Jacob abstained because Double A has a liquor license. The motion to give them the $80,000 loan passed 10-0.
The meeting actually happened in July, not in August. I went back into my archives and found that my only post-council post was about the beer garden issue. I also was dealing with computer issues at the time, which limited the number of and length of my posts.
I looked at the support documentation, and it does mention that the it will help them move to Willow Knolls and Radnor, but it doesn’t mention that this area is currently outside Peoria city limits, and that there’s an annexation agreement being planned that includes expanding the enterprise zone to support a greenfield commercial development. The document states: “This loan is being used for the business to relocate from one part of the community to another.” Trouble is, the community is outside city limits and it’s not any community at all, it’s an empty field. The nearest neighbors are shopping centers.
December 10th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I agree.
December 10th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Billy,
All the minutes are there — but you may be confused by the filing system - I often am when looking for minutes. They are listed in order by year (2005, 2006, 2007…etc) but then are alphabetical by month rather than in chronological order.
I’d post them here but have no idea how to link them in. Look at the July 24th minutes. The council communication indicated that they were looking to rent a freestanding building in the area of Willow Knolls and Radnor road - so the plan all along was to move out of the Pioneer Park location.
As an aside, let’s hope that the costly new website the City approved earlier this year fixes this problem and they begin listing minutes chronologically. Let’s even hope that they make the minutes searchable….but I won’t hold my breath for that. I’d even like to see them post all released executive session minutes though I doubt that will ever happen!
December 10th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Here we have 3, soon to be 4 vacant HUGE buildings on/near Pioneer Pkwy. I have an idea…lets build another strip mall that can sit half empty.
K’s merchandise
Shopko
Festival Foods/Kroger
Soon to be Menards
Cant we figure out soemthing to do with these eyesores before building more strip malls?
December 10th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Don’t worry JB….they will be full of prospering businesses as soon as Pioneer Rail starts resuming service on the Kellar Branch again.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
No annexations, no new ‘big’ developments until there is infill for all the empty buildings, strip malls that litter the inner city. Why not locate at Lake & Sheridan? Lots of empty storefronts there. We should be incentivizing people and businesses to move into the Heart of Peoria not out. Creating incentives to move out just speeds the exodus. Stupid.
December 10th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Peo Proud — You should be dead-set against this development at Willow Knolls and Radnor. Do you realize that the Union Pacific mainline goes right by that development? It’s right in their back yard! Obviously, this development is doomed to fail, along with all the $200,000+ houses just to the north of it that are also right next to the UP mainline, which sees several 100+ car coal trains a day. You should call up the developer and warn them that no one can be successful next to a railroad track. Why isn’t this development going in next to the trail a little further northeast?
December 10th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Peo Proud,
You may be on to something. The empty Shopko and Menard’s buildings could be combined into a single property, re-developed into a frozen food distribution center, and a rail spur coming from the west across N. Allen Road could be built to serve it.
Certainly, 150-200 jobs would be created and several hundred annual carloads would be generated (since most frozen vegetables, fruits and frozen French Fries come over long distances from western states, rail transportation is a must).
I’m sure Americold, Total Logistics Control, Hanson Cold Storage and Atlas Cold Storage could take a look for future expansion.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:45 am
See there you go, David…just the type of thinking that is needed.
Au contraire, CJ, my bud….I think that Double AAs locating there just proves the value of the rail line to businesses. They are flocking to locate next to them.
Seriously, I think there is a place for rail and it has a tremendous benefit to it and to some businesses. I’m not anti-rail — despite being pro-trail(s). There is a way to have both for a community and value them equally.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:37 am
In the future, any business applying for a building permit that would construct something over 10,000 square feet has to sign a binding contract with the city of Peoria that for the next 50 years the building can not be vacated until a buyer is found or pay a $250,000 a month fine while the building is not being used for the intent that it was constructed.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Or we could institute Land Value Taxation.