EDITOR’S NOTE: The TIF District and Downtown Redevelopment plan were also discussed at the 4.23.2019 EDC meeting. That information is still to come for readers.
Bill Peithmann, a member of the Village of Mahomet Economic Development Commission, voiced concern over the boom of multi-family housing being erected along the IL-150 corridor at Tuesday morning’s EDC meeting.
“I have a lot of concern that this high-density, multi-family development may be more of a strain on the infrastructure on 150 than is probably a good idea,” Peithman said. “I am also having a really hard time trying to figure out how high-density, multi-family development, especially with the school, is in this community’s interest.”
Community Development Director Kelly Pfeifer said that the 2016 Village of Mahomet Comprehensive Plan, which was put in the works in 2011-12, guides the Village’s vision.
According to the Comprehensive Plan, key persons were selected to be interviewed after being identified by Village staff and the Comprehensive Plan Steering Commission. The Village also gathered community responses through an on-line survey and mapping feature.
A Community Vision Workshop was held on May 1, 2012, according to the document.
Houseal Lavigne conducted the outreach and surveys.
Pfeifer said the previous and ongoing planning of the Village has stemmed from community members identifying the need for multi-family, affordable housing within the Village.
“While we would be primarily single-family residential, they wanted the community to enable everyone at every stage of their life to live here,” Pfeifer said.
She said the constituents wanted to see the availability of more townhomes, apartments and multi-family units at the time.
“It was very specific,” Pfeifer said.
Pfeifer continued to say that it is the Village’s job to identify spaces where multi-family units could be developed. The Village changed the zoning of residential land to commercial zoning in recent years, eliminating the possibility of 85 multi-family units downtown.
The Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2016, but by 2014 the Village had to relook at some of the plans because of “bad maps,” according to Pfeifer.
But she said that the plan showcases, “what does the community want(s) to be, what does it want to do?”
Peithmann introduced a motion that “it is the sense and the recommendation of this committee that the Village put an immediate moratorium on any further high multi-density multi-family development east of the Sangamon River.”
In order to proceed with discussion from the members, Peithmann waited for a second, per Robert’s Rules.
“I wish one of you folks would at least give me a second so we could talk about it,” he said.
Board member Ryan Heiser said he didn’t “understand why we couldn’t talk about it without having a second.
“For me to support something or to throw out a second, I need to better understand,” Heiser said.
Peithmann said he sees the strain on IL-150.
“The references I hear to green space seem to be synonymous with drainage, and that what green space is,” he said.
“I’m sure there is a wonderful history as to why the McDougal property was not incorporated into parks and Rec, but it was a terrible failure by this community. That’s going to turn into a massive development across the street from Barber Park.
“It’s bad planning.
“And I give Kelly all the credit in the world for implementing what she was told to do. But I think what you’ve been told to do needs to be re-examined. I think it needs to be re-considered right away.”
Peithmann said he understands zoning does not turn around overnight, but he believes the Village has “too much in the pipeline for too little infrastructure.”
He then referenced the Mahomet-Seymour School District feeling the student population strain on classroom availability.
Board member Darwyn Boston chimed in, saying he felt that “we” should have been way out ahead of the infrastructure surrounding the development around Middletown Prairie to deal with traffic.
“But even now to say we don’t have a traffic light, we should be out in front of that,” he said.
Village Administrator Patrick Brown explained that there are traffic studies and engineering that go into all traffic decisions.
“With all due respect, they don’t care about engineering,” Peithmann said. “They’ve seen what they’ve seen, they feel what they feel, they can’t get off of 150. And these homes aren’t even built.
“All I’m saying that is that if this is your blueprint, the Village Comprehensive Plan based on the notion that every man, woman and child should have the opportunity to live in Mahomet through every phase of their life, that notion needs to be reconsidered, in my opinion.
“There are a lot of families who are going to look at this and say, this was not well-considered.”
Heiser said Peithmann had a lot of valid points, and that there are going to be problems with traffic running through 150.
Boston said that he’d rather see the Village be proactive than reactive.
Brown said the Village has been working a long time to bring the South Mahomet Road extension to life.
“That is not just serving a neighborhood. It is a road that will relieve pressure on 150; get traffic to the school sites … and will eventually go all the way through to Prairieview Road. That road will be heavily used,” Brown said.
The Village looks at Prairieview becoming a bypass for traffic from Mahomet’s southern subdivisions and Seymour traffic.
Boston asked if that would be done before the apartment developments were complete.
Both Brown and Pfeifer said no.
“That’s what needs to be done,” Boston said. “What he’s saying is we are going to develop first, and then we’re going to have a problem for a period of time, then we are going to react. And I know it’s a timing thing.
“But what he’s saying is a valid point. 150 is congested.”
Brown said the Village also hears about parking congestion downtown.
“I’m here to tell you there is enough parking downtown,” he said. “I, like everyone else, would love more proximity closer parking. We’re used to certain things that we don’t like to change.”
Brown told the story of dropping his daughter off at Mahomet-Seymour High School, and believing that there should be a turn lane to help ease congestion.
“Let’s just say I was laughed off by a traffic study that showed for 10 minutes in the morning that does not warrant a turn lane,” he said.
“Just like out on 150. Just like you, Bill, I drive that route every day to and from work, and it does get bad for about a 10- to 15-minute period.”
Pfeifer said she is not trying to challenge perceptions.
“This is a lot of change really fast because it’s a held-up demand. All this stuff started way long ago: ‘08.
“All these subdivisions, they were all approved at some level by an engineer in ‘08. Now they are just coming out and getting done now.”
Peithmann asked for clarification.
“Why is all this high-density housing in the community’s best interest?” he asked.
“It’s a strain on infrastructure. How are those in this community’s best interest when it aggravates and exasperates the strain on infrastructure?
“And trust me, I’m the modest voice.”
Pfeifer said she doesn’t like to defend some of the decisions that were made, but she cited that the development at Solace (IL-150 and McDougal) has “less trips per day than what had been planned there for 15 years when it was commercial and residential.”
“A first-year business student could look at this model and tell you who is making money, and it’s not the community,” Peithmann said before he withdrew his motion.
Board Chairman Kyle Jordan asked what residents the Village and developers expected to live within the apartment complex.
Pfeifer referred to a conversation with the developers.
She said that the investors believed that the multi-use dwellings would be ideal for hospital staff who want to travel down the interstate to home after their shift. They also believed that with high divorce rates, the complex could be ideal for single parents who wanted to continue to be close to their children.
Pfeifer said that at $1,239 a month at the low-end of rent, the complex would not be a place for students to live while they are in college. But instead, she believed they could be dwellings for professionals or for families who need a place to stay while in transition as their home is being built.
Heiser asked if 150 could be expanded.
But Brown and Pfeifer believe that once South Mahomet Road is completed, much of the IL-150 congestion will be eliminated. They also stated in the 2010 census, the Village showed 56 percent growth and now they believe the 2020 census will show closer to 20 percent growth in the last decade.
Peithmann again stated that he believes the Village should consider re-visiting the Comprehensive Plan with its constituents to gauge what a new vision might be.
Pfeifer and Brown agreed that it may be time to do that.
