Chambana Sun

City of Champaign Plan Commission met Aug. 7

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m.

Roll Call:

Members Present: Cole, Sanchez, Reynolds, Elmore, Barkstall

Staff Present: Knight, Trotter, Black, VanBuskirk, Vandeventer, Fristoe, Wilcock

Approval of the minutes from the July 17, 2024 meeting. Cole: So moved. Barkstall: Seconds. Approved by unanimous “yes” vote.

Chairman Elmore indicates that correspondence was received related to the case, and they will be included within the case.

PL24-0016 S. State and Prairie Planned Development Public Hearing

Elmore: This is a quasi-judicial public hearing on a proposed Planned Development for several properties in the 300 blocks of South State and South Prairie streets. Although the applicant has requested that this public hearing be continued to our next regular meeting the Plan Commission is required to open this public hearing today as advertised. There will be no formal presentation on the proposed Planned Development and no formal action is being taken today. Since the applicant is requested to continue this case to the next meeting, I will first ask staff to provide a brief overview of today’s process and next steps for the application, afterwards I will ask if the applicant has any additional remarks and then there will be an opportunity for public comment. Because we are opening the public hearing today and voting to continue to our next meeting any comments you provide will be included in the record for the case.

VanBuskirk: We send out our materials to the Commission and post them online by the Friday before the meeting. The applicant requested to make revisions to the site plan in response to the neighborhood meeting and the feedback to the Plan Commission Study Session. We did not feel that it was appropriate to post those and have a public hearing a day ahead of those going public. The site plan and the proposed elevations are posted on Engage Champaign at engagechampaign.org or on the City’s website by clicking feedback on the very front page. There will be a revised project description from the applicant and the architect that will be posted tomorrow.

We need to open this public hearing because we advertised with the News Gazette that the meeting would take place today. Really all we need from the Commission today is to allow for public comment and a motion to continue the case. We will do a formal presentation on the application at the August 21, 2024 Plan Commission meeting which is the next regular meeting.

Elmore: Would the applicant like to make a statement about your request to continue?

Collin Collier, Royse and Brinkmeyer: We would like to thank you for considering continuing this case and we will not make a presentation today but will wait until everyone has reviewed the changes and make the presentation at the August 21st meeting.

VanBuskirk: Explains how to access this information on Engagechampaign.org.

Elmore: Would anyone in the audience wish to speak on the proposed Planned Development?

Beatrice Pavia, 509 S. Prairie. I have spoken before at this meeting regarding this project. I would like to say that the people in this area, a lot of us are extremely pleased with the cooperative atmosphere that has surrounded this project. There are many differences of opinion on this but Royse and Brinkmeyer has at least had an open ear and we have appreciated that. I would say that I am not sure exactly what their revisions are but the five-story section of that is what is really concerning people in the neighborhood. It is allowed by Ordinance for them to build that high. They are not asking for a variance but that is a very massive building compared to everything that is around it. At the previous meeting one of the Commissioners here said think of the people in the neighborhood. I really appreciated that comment because we all live here. This is a neighborhood that has paid taxes to build the City of Champaign since the 1800’s. We would ask that you honor that long term commitment to the City. We very much like the variety that they have proposed but I would say that the massive five story building structure is what is concerning most people.

Wylder Atkinson, 316 S. Prairie. I live at Prairie Place, and I am here to speak for several people who live there along with myself. Basically, this is a case of affordable housing. The apartments there are between $500 and $700. There are thirty units of families living there. A lot of us are disabled and lot of us are on fixed incomes. The maximum disability payment all over the country is $943 a month. Most of us get less than that. I get less than that and that is everything. Everything must come out of that rent, power, everything. I have to beg to get by every month. This is going to put thirty families on the street because there will be no more affordable housing. There is very little affordable housing available in the entire state. There is like 147 units. That means 300,000 people are without housing. These are families with children. I have brought several people here from Florida because trans people are fleeing there in droves. I have brought them here with the promise of affordable housing and they get here, and nothing is available. There is like one apartment in the whole City of Champaign right now that I could afford, and it is not available. I was put there by Royse and Brinkmeyer because it was the only place they had that I could afford to live in, and they gave me a discount to be able to afford to live there and I still struggle to afford to pay rent every month. It’s the first thing I pay, and I am hundreds behind on electricity because of that. I want to say one in four people are disabled. Statistics are given of the percentage of the population that are disabled and unhoused. This is going to be a housing crisis. The availability of Section 8 is none. The last time the waiting list was open was last year between August 7th and August 11th. It is not open now and they do not know when it is going to open again. There were 1,000 people who were randomly added by a lottery to the waiting list. There were 1,000’s more who were not. I was not added. There is no Section 8 available and very few apartments in the area. Without the ability to pay for apartments and the availability of apartments we can afford. This project is basically going to throw 30 families on the street. What we are asking is for an amendment added that would require low-income housing be added when new apartments are built. We also need more accessible housing. I am here to beg the Council to put in some kind of measurement for affordable housing so that we don’t have a whole bunch of new people on the street and lot of people with disabilities won’t survive. Thanks, Commission for their time.

Elmore: Anyone else wish to speak?

Elmore: I will now ask for a motion to continue to the public hearing on Case PL 24-0016 to the August 21, 2024, Plan Commission Meeting. Cole: So, moved. Sanchez: Seconds. Unanimous “yes” vote.

Downtown Plan Engagement and Plan Commission Input (Study Session)

VanBuskirk: We knew that the case for the planned development was gong to be continued so we wanted to give you an update on the engagement activity around the Downtown Plan update. We presented in February, and we wanted to come back and talked about what we have done so far.

The very first thing we started with was an effort to create a brand and have some swag. It is a great way to break the ice and start a conversation when getting public input. Lily created two great stickers based on locations in downtown that have been a huge hit. It also helps track how many people we have interacted with. We also created a temporary tattoo that helped us keep the kids engaged while we interacted with their parents.

Eric reviews all of the events that his project team has attended and explains what they asked the participants and what types of feedback they were trying to get when they were talking to the participants. One of the very specific directions that was given by City Council was to get feedback from youth. Lily and Dan worked with the Park District and engaged with a summer youth camp and spend the morning doing a downtown tour and exercise to get the youth perspective.

The results of the mapping activities are reviewed. There have been 500 individual public interactions with 240 individual comments and suggestions. An analysis has begun and has been narrowed down to six categories. The number one thing that people talked to us about was the importance of public space and walkability and downtown vibrancy through our streetscapes and our infrastructure. We also heard a lot about diversifying the mix of uses and the access to food. As well as our third section expanding housing choices and opportunities both within the core of Downtown but also throughout the areas around Downtown and the City as a whole. We also heard very frequently making sure that Downtown is inclusive and family-friendly, and that Downtown is a major regional draw. We talked with people for many neighboring communities who come here frequently and enjoy coming here. Another thing that we heard a lot was people wanted the City to continue investing and promoting events and festivals to bring residents and visitors to Downtown. The last thing that more on the negative side dealt with addressing ground floor commercial vacancies and property maintenance maybe some of the lingering effects of Covid.

As we said when we presented doing this Downtown Plan updated with City Council our job is to take this input, make sure we are reaching the right people, are we getting the right kind of input to have an inclusive plan. As we move forward, we are going to change up some of our engagement activities. We are really going to focus on this prioritization of our goals and strategies, getting people to think about what new development looks like in downtown, where are appropriate locations for these different types of uses, whether it is more housing, grocery store, or additional retail.

We need to have more direct interaction with downtown residents and digital engagement to allow participants the time to dive deeper into their feedback.

Does anyone have any questions, comments or suggestions?

Elmore: Any comments or suggestions? I think you are doing a great job.

Sanchez: I think you are doing a great job, and I am very excited. You brought up housing. The people who live here. How do we have a downtown even if it is after five that is lively that has people sitting outside. I have been thinking about how we can encourage more places to have outside seating that would encourage people to want to come downtown. Having people live downtown is how we make people want to visit the businesses at all hours of the day not just at night. It is also important that the nearby neighborhoods are connected whether it is by bike lanes, or appropriately sized sidewalks.

Adjourned at 4:27

https://documents.ci.champaign.il.us/object?id=1leIbt6mBMs84xIaxLomELxtMe35MklVR