January 2016

City of Peoria Public Hearings on the Riverfront Park BOGUS Land Swap

Heart of Illinois Sierra members are urgently needed to attend two public hearings at Peoria City Hall, 419 Fulton St., in the 4th floor city council chamber.

Public Hearing on Bogus Land Swap - Wednesday, January 6th at 6 p.m.

The City will be taking public comments on their proposed “Land Swap” New Park Area plan which is to allow destruction of 5.84 acres of the existing Riverfront Park public open green space for private luxury apartments. This acreage does not include the amount of public park land that will be lost when the city puts in a new dead end street to the apartments and a parking lot labeled for “Guest Parking” by the apartment complex. These will be built in the remaining Riverfront Park and slice and dice the remaining green area.

Why is this a Bogus Land Swap?

4.39 acres of the proposed replacement land is currently public land held by the Detweiller Playground group and is connected to the Peoria Park District. Much of this property floods during river high water. See more issues with this proposal below.

Public Hearing on Entire Project - Wednesday, January 20th at 6 p.m.

This is the mandatory public hearing required for federally funded Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) “conversion” proposals.  The Riverfront Park was purchased in the 1980's with LWCF federal funds for the specific purpose of being public open space. The City of Peoria “Land Swap” for the existing Riverfront Park land must be approved by the Illinois Department of Conservation (IDNR) and the National Park Service (NPS).

Why is This Hearing Essential ?

IDNR and NPS are to get a report on this meeting. We need to raise as many issues and concerns as possible about the Riverfront apartments project, Riverfront Park land sale and the Bogus Property Swap at this hearing. PLEASE HELP US FILL THE MEETING ROOM! Save the Park signs will be available at the door.

Bogus Land Swap: 4.39 acres the City Proposes As Replacement Park Do Not Qualify

While the City claims is it purchasing approximately 5.8 acres of private property to replace the existing Riverfront Park land that is being sold for private apartments, 4.39 acres of the replacement property does not qualify as private land. LWCF requirements are very clear that only private land can be used for replacement for LWCF grant area being taken out of public park use.  The Detweiller Playground property being purchased for part of the replacement land has been in public use for decades by the Peoria Boat Club. 

The City is also proposing to close the east end of Spring Street and use this.86 acre area toward the replacement park land. For appraisal purposes the City is splitting the street in two and giving a higher land value on the side next to the 1.27 acre Simantel property than the side next to the Detweiller land. The Simantel property is a known brownfield site and was at one time a dump. The river edge side also floods. See the City's Spring Street Parcels Site – Property Map below.

Public announcements from the city state that 8.14 acres of new park will be completed to replace the 5.84 acres of the existing Riverfront Park that is being sold for luxury apartments, however, 4.39 acres of the replacement land are already Detweiler public land, .86 acres is the existing Spring Street, and 1.62 acres is an existing city owned parcel that has never been improved and contains a large depression in the middle that holds standing water when the river rises. The 1.62 acres of existing city land cannot be counted toward the replacement for the Riverfront Park.

Not only is the City short on the necessary acres needed for replacing park, they have scrambled acres to make their proposal look much more substantial than it really is.

Heart of Illinois Sierra Club maintains the best and highest use of Riverfront Park is as public open green space. We urge you to write your opposition for the land swap proposal to the City of Peoria. If you have used the Riverfront Park please indicate that and list your concerns for turning the largest open space in the park into private luxury apartments.

Written comments must be received at Peoria City Hall no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 25th.

Comments can be emailed to  riverfront@peoriagov.org  or mailed to:  River Trail Project Comments, City of Peoria, 419 Fulton #207, Peoria, IL 61602

For more details on the project and HOI Sierra concerns see the Save the Park Background Information Flyer.