August 2018

This historic railroad turntable in Riverfront Park is now saved from private development.

On July 24th the City of Peoria sent a letter to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to withdraw the application for sale and development of 6.3 acres of park north of the RiverPlex.  Years of public outcry and efforts pointing out flaws in the City’s proposal and land swaps for public park land have all made a significant difference. The River Trail Development agreement for four, four-story luxury apartment buildings instead of open park, is over.

The City of Peoria must still respond to the National Park Service regarding errors in earlier public park conversions from 2012. Research by Friends of Riverfront Park raised questions regarding appraisals and a possible shorting of public replacement land for previous City of Peoria federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) park conversions.

Thanks to the amazing public response and your ongoing concern and actions. Volunteers kept up the over three year battle to stop the sale of Riverfront Park off of Morton Street at the northern end of the park. Issues raised by Friends of Riverfront Park, after extensive Freedom of Information Act Requests and research, resulted in the National Park Service giving only conditional approval for the land sale in late October, 2017. The City must still respond to several conditions and remaining issues from earlier LWCF public land swaps by October of this year.