Peoria Standard

City of West Peoria Land Use Committee met March 7.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

1. Chair Dohm called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.

2. Members present were: Chair Dohm, Alderpersons Goranson and Siewert. Also present were Mayor Dillon, City Administrator Krider, Code Enforcement Officer Davis and Clerk Barnes. Chair Dohm took the time to wish Officer Davis a Happy Birthday and thanked him for his service to the Community.

3. Addition to the Agenda: For Discussion during Public Comment: Upgrading lighting at City Hall.

4. A Motion to approve the Minutes of the February 7, 2018 meeting was made by Alderperson

Siewert and seconded by Alderperson Goranson. Motion carried.

5. A Motion to receive and file the Monthly Financial Reports for January 2018 was made by Alderperson Goranson and seconded by Alderperson Siewert. Motion carried.

6. Public Comment: Addition to agenda: Mayor Dillon reported: Pricing for changing the lighting for City Hall - inside and out - to LEDs from fluorescent and incandescent would run $5,300.00. With a Rebate of $1,752.00 the total cost would be $3,548.00. This would be an approximated Annual Operating Savings between actual bulbs and maintenance of $26,000.00 over a 10-year period. The Mayor will be taking it to full Council. At first, we were going to do this in-house, but must have a certified electrician to do it to get the grant/rebate. Question: Do we need to let it out for bid? No, because it is under the $20,000 budget threshold.

7. Reports

a. Code Enforcement Officer Davis reported on the following:

i. Permit List - only three have been processed; not many going out right now because of the time of year.

ii. Work Order List - there are no work orders currently.

iii. Nuisance Properties - several on the list are either now Closed or have been turned over to the City Attorney. This form seems to be working to get things accomplished, so please add in another set of properties that should be more concentrated upon. Case Detail Report - this needs another column to indicate when property issues are closed to provide a paper trail. Perhaps it could be fixed before next meeting? Question: How can all the issues be listed as "High Priority"? All our issues are "High Priority" to someone - neighbors included. This simply means that we need to take care of the issue and get it closed as soon as possible. v. Case Summary Report - covered in previous discussion.

b. City Administrator Krider reported on the following:

i. Updates to Fee Schedules: There are issues here as well: Residents who come in and wonder why they must pay for two permits for one job. Example: Hard surface and demolition, pool and fences, etc. where one requires another. Can these be put into one permit so there is only one fee, even if the fee must rise to accommodate the two? This needs to be investigated. There have been no fee schedule changes since 2002, and some of our fees are ridiculously out of date. We need to compare to others' schedules. We may also have to change or amend some ordinances to accommodate the changes. We also must justify the changes. The amount of work done by the office should be included, as more things often have to be done than in the past. Perhaps it's a good time to look at other areas, as well. For example, Hot water heater installations, Roofing and Trade permits should get another look.

ii. IT (Information Technology) Support for the City's computer system is changing and will cost an additional $40.00/month. There are nine (9) e-mail addresses that are never used. We pay for the use of those, every month. If Alderpersons don't use them, perhaps we can eliminate that expense to help pay for the up-charge. We are also looking at getting a new firewall for the system, but there is further investigation needed for that.

iii. Yet another problem that has surfaced is the need for a new camera for recording our Council Meetings. Last meeting the camera did not produce a useable image for GPS TV-the Access Channel that airs our meetings. Videographer Rolland Reinhart contacted a firm about coming in and setting up, but the cost was too prohibitive. We're trying to find another camera, but in the meantime we have borrowed a camera from Bradley University.

8. Old Business

a. Review Vacant Properties List - This does not match the listings that can be Googled. Is this complete? There are many more foreclosures and vacant properties listed elsewhere. Perhaps this needs to be investigated.

b. Home Occupation Ordinance - The proposed Ordinance was shared with the West Peoria Fire Department to get their input as to what they would need for safety should a fire present at a house with an Home Occupation in it. Several notes were taken, including having to list chemicals and their storage in certain types of applications and the need for Fire Department's right to inspect certain Major Home Occupation sites.

The current proposal will be worked on and brought back to Committee next month. C. FY (Fiscal Year) 2019 Budget Draft - this can be sent to Council and taken off the agenda for next meeting. Question: What are these landfill charges? These are charges for dumpsters full of construction materials - usually for demolitions. We have not had to use them, so on the budget the amount has been lowered, but not removed “just in case" we need them. Please note: Some of these, in fact most of the amounts are split with Public Safety Committee's budget. A motion to approve this part of the budget for FY 2019 and send to Council was made by Alderperson Siewert and seconded by Alderperson Goranson. Motion carried.

9. New Business

a. Review of City Maps - City Administrator Krider and Chair Dohm have been working on the City Map updates that must be turned in by March 31 of each year when there have been any changes made within the City or the City Limits, such as annexations or re-zoning. One of the things that Administrator Krider found was the need to mark Special Uses on the Map and whether it was Owner-owned or Property-owned special uses. This took extensive work looking through years of paperwork for up-dates and the history of the special uses. There were at least fifteen (15) mistakes made on the map, and more may still be discovered for this year, but those already found are being up-dated. Maps for the Comprehensive Plan as well as TIF maps must be up-dated as well. This is an expensive project. A motion to approve and move this to the Planning Commission was made by Alderperson Goranson and seconded by Alderperson Siewert. Motion carried.

10. No Public Comment was offered.

11. Motion to Adjourn was made by Alderperson Goranson at 7:55 p.m. and seconded by Alderperson Siewert, Motion carried.

http://cityofwestpeoria.org/files/6415/2295/9776/2018_03_07_Land_Use_Agenda__Minutes.pdf