Peoria Standard

City of Peoria Housing Commission met Sept. 14.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

I. CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Shah at 11:05 AM.

II. ROLL CALL

Present: Vice Chair Boswell, Commissioner Uhlenhopp, Commissioner Genzel, Commissioner Hayes, Commissioner La Rue, Chair Shah and Commissioner Crowder via virtual attendance.

Staff Present: Liaison Nicole Morrow.

A quorum was established with those present at the start time of the meeting.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion to approve the minutes made by Commissioner Genzel. Seconded by Commissioner Hayes. All in Favor.

IV. PUBLIC COMMENT

There were no members present from the public at this time that wished to comment. 11:15AM Commissioner Peterson arrived.

V. NEW BUSINESS

A. City Council Update

Councilman Riggenbach was unable to attend the scheduled meeting of the Commission. Comments were sent from the Councilman for the Commission, presented by Staff Liaison Morrow, to consider related to the public’s reaction and comments to a project proposed by Dream Center Peoria that would have resulted in the rezoning of a residential property on Sheridan Road. This item was removed from the Zoning agenda due to the negative comments, which Councilman Riggenbach attributed to NIMBYism and a lack of public awareness.

The commission cited reasons as to why this project might not have worked or been the best idea but that more information would be needed. In addition to more information, there were not other examples available for those making comment to see where this model might have worked before.

11:22 AM Commissioner Morgan arrived at the meeting.

The commission agreed that more education was needed in the community to work towards changing the perception. A marketing campaign to bring more information to the community about fair and affordable housing is going to be needed in the future to ensure that projects can continue forward.

The Commission requested that more information be provided and to be utilized as a case study. Additional information was also requested on what the property would have to be zoned to for the unrelated individuals to live together and building code information for occupancy fire safety.

VI. REGULAR BUSINESS

A. Approval of Nuisance Ordinance Recommendations Language

The Commissioners present reviewed the draft nuisance recommendation to Council. Staff Liaison Morrow referenced the presentation that was heard by the Commission in April 2023, the cases that were cited for the year in this presentation, and additional presentations that have come before the Commission. Discussion related to the language surrounding the Just Cause Ordinance recommendation as subset item (c ) to the second recommendation. This was determined to be relevant to affordable housing but not necessarily to nuisance abatement. Concern was also risen that the recommendations should be supportive of staff and help them leverage the existing resources and provide them the opportunity to make recommendations that would work for them, and not to make recommendations that could not be implemented due to infeasibility of time and staff existing resources. The staff departments discussed included the police department, legal, and code enforcement specifically with their role in resolving potential nuisance issues. Additional recommendations that were focused on code enforcement and fee structures needed more information to determine their relativeness to the nuisance ordinance recommendations. The Commission determined that the goal of the recommendation, and the affordable housing plan, is to stabilize housing in the jurisdiction, and support staff to resolve the issues appropriately and as they need to.

Staff thanked Commissioners for their input and feedback. The next steps were determined that a small group would recraft the language of the ordinance recommendation and that more information would be gathered from staff to assist in this recommendation.

B. Review of Housing Case Trackability- Housing Coordinator

Staff Liaison Morrow briefly commented on the printed chart that was made available to Commissioners at the meeting. This chart reflected housing related calls/issues that had come into the office of the Housing Coordinator or into Community Development through referral or encounters with Code Enforcement. A copy of the chart will be emailed to all Commissioners and included in the next meeting packet, along with a slide deck presentation. Staff Liaison Morrow encouraged Commissioners to take a look at the subject areas being tracked and the number of calls coming into the office, and to think about additional departments and staff whom they would like to hear from to add additional tracking information.

VII. OLD BUSINESS

A. Commissioner Updates

Commissioner La Rue discussed the ProHousing NOFO through HUD that was due on 10/30/23. Numerous issues were cited with this application process including the timeline from the release date of 9/5/23 to the due date, and the requirements for partners to sign on and commit funds/staff time. In addition, part of the scoring for the grant is points based on need, as determined statistically by HUD. The desired statistics/results relate to the number of individuals/households at 100% AMI in comparison to the available housing stock in the Peoria area. The statistics show that Peoria does have enough housing stock for this income bracket, therefore the 10 points for that section would not be awarded. The City of Peoria determined that without those points and due to the timeline that they would not be in favor of pursuing this opportunity.

Commissioner La Rue and Staff Liaison Morrow stressed the importance of pursuing funding for housing planning in the area and collaborating. The commission agreed that this would be beneficial as well as requested that Staff Liaison Morrow keep them apprised of any opportunities. Staff Liaison Morrow challenged Commissioners to also be aware of opportunities as well.

Additional updates from the Commission related to American Rescue Plan funds and their utilization within our community. With the abundance of economic development dollars available from the pandemic, what could the City of Peoria be doing to better enhance workforce development and job/career preparedness. A future presentation from the Economic Development department and grants management team could be heard at a future meeting. Increases in income can impact housing affordability.

B. October Meeting: Staff Liaison Morrow will invite Dream Center Peoria to present upon their project and experiences with community comment. Additional information will be gathered related to building safety and the project’s zoning classification that was requested.

C. Additional Community Comments

Community member Nicholas Hall was in attendance. In response to the discussion on Just Cause Eviction, he requested that the Commission consider including, should they move forward with that recommendation or ordinance draft in the future, a review of and inclusion of extended notice provided for an eviction to accommodate the length of time that someone was a resident or scenarios where a property was sold.

VIII. ADJOURNMENT

Commissioner La Rue made a motion to adjourn at 12:45PM this was seconded by Commissioner Peterson. All in Favor, meeting adjourned.

https://il-peoria.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09142023-470