|
|
|
It was a packed house at the Washington City Council meeting Monday night as many local officials came to pay their respects to the retiring City Administrator Bob Morris before the council moved onto the approval of a sewage tax increase, an amendment on a signs and billboard ordinance and the entering into an agreement with Sunnyland Plaza LLC.
Sherril West from the Washington Area Community Center, Dr. James Dunnan from Washington Community High School, Doug Damery and Jim Bremner from the Washington Park District and Pam Tomka from the Washington District Library all spoke of their working relationships with Morris and how much he will be missed when he retires Thursday.
“No matter what we needed, what questions we had, you were always there to help the Washington Area Community Center,” West said. “After we had (Five Points) built, there were so many times where I didn’t know what we were doing or how to get it done that I could call Bob Morris and he would be there to tell me who to go talk to.”
Rep. Keith Sommer, R.-Morton, was also in attendance and honored Morris with a resolution and plaque from the members of the Illinois House of Representatives congratulating him on a “long and distinguished career as a city administrator.”
“It’s been a good situation here; it’s been the best job of my career to be honest with you ... it’s been a pleasure to be city administrator,” Morris said of his nine-year stint in Washington. “While I’ve clearly had a role to play in a lot of community activities ... it only happens because most everybody is oaring in the same direction and that is one of the advantages of Washington that isn’t appreciated as much in the community as it probably should be.
“Thank you for nine great years. I have no idea what happens on Thursday, but I’m still looking forward to it.”
The city council then quickly moved into its long agenda approving an ordinance that will include a 4.3 percent increase every July 1 until 2013. This increase is supposed to help pay for the work being done to help increase the capacity of Sewage Treatment Plant No. 2.
According to the documents, for a family of four, the estimated additional monthly cost increase would be $2.30 per month for each of three consecutive years.
The city council then voted to amend Chapter 154 entitled “Zoning Code” that will allow small billboards to be placed along the U.S. Route 24 corridor and smaller off-premise signs to be located in any commercial or industrial zone district subject to size location and set back requirements.
It was a packed house at the Washington City Council meeting Monday night as many local officials came to pay their respects to the retiring City Administrator Bob Morris before the council moved onto the approval of a sewage tax increase, an amendment on a signs and billboard ordinance and the entering into an agreement with Sunnyland Plaza LLC.
Sherril West from the Washington Area Community Center, Dr. James Dunnan from Washington Community High School, Doug Damery and Jim Bremner from the Washington Park District and Pam Tomka from the Washington District Library all spoke of their working relationships with Morris and how much he will be missed when he retires Thursday.
“No matter what we needed, what questions we had, you were always there to help the Washington Area Community Center,” West said. “After we had (Five Points) built, there were so many times where I didn’t know what we were doing or how to get it done that I could call Bob Morris and he would be there to tell me who to go talk to.”
Rep. Keith Sommer, R.-Morton, was also in attendance and honored Morris with a resolution and plaque from the members of the Illinois House of Representatives congratulating him on a “long and distinguished career as a city administrator.”
“It’s been a good situation here; it’s been the best job of my career to be honest with you ... it’s been a pleasure to be city administrator,” Morris said of his nine-year stint in Washington. “While I’ve clearly had a role to play in a lot of community activities ... it only happens because most everybody is oaring in the same direction and that is one of the advantages of Washington that isn’t appreciated as much in the community as it probably should be.
“Thank you for nine great years. I have no idea what happens on Thursday, but I’m still looking forward to it.”
The city council then quickly moved into its long agenda approving an ordinance that will include a 4.3 percent increase every July 1 until 2013. This increase is supposed to help pay for the work being done to help increase the capacity of Sewage Treatment Plant No. 2.
According to the documents, for a family of four, the estimated additional monthly cost increase would be $2.30 per month for each of three consecutive years.
The city council then voted to amend Chapter 154 entitled “Zoning Code” that will allow small billboards to be placed along the U.S. Route 24 corridor and smaller off-premise signs to be located in any commercial or industrial zone district subject to size location and set back requirements.
In summary, the types of signs are divided into three categories, large billboards, small billboards and off-premise signs.
Size of large billboards remained the same at a maximum of 672 square feet, but can now only be placed on a corridor with a minimum speed limit of 55 mph instead of the current 50 mph.
Small billboards can be up to 64 square feet, 15 feet high, and can only be located along the U.S. Route 24 corridor with no restriction on setback from residential lots unless the billboard is lighted, in which case the setback is 500 feet.
One exception to the rule is if the small billboards are on opposite sides of a public street, as is the case with the Sleep Inn sign on Cummings Lane.
For off-premise signs, only one sign up to 32 square feet and 15 feet high would be allowed on any commercial- or industrial-zoned parcel.
All billboards and signs will be handled as permitted uses, so long as they meet the new sign regulations.
In the proposal from Planning and Development Director Jon Oliphant to the city council, he said, “It is our staff’s opinion that the amendments offer considerable more flexibility for these signs to be legally placed within the city limits.”
While the ordinance did pass, it did not do so with a unanimous vote.
“I’m kind of concerned about this ordinance because ... back in the 60s and 70s when they originally formed the sign ordinance, basically they were trying to control the amount of signs and size of the signs — they were afraid it was going to turn out to look like University (Street in Peoria) from around War Memorial Drive,” said alderman Al Howerter.
“I’m just afraid everything we do we keep trying to go to make it more lenient again so that you get more signs ... I think really it’s a time we need to be more restrictive with signs instead of more lenient.”
Oliphant said the new regulations were drafted with the Sleep Inn sign in mind.
“That one is exactly 64 feet; that one would be the maximum allowable size for a smaller billboard,” he said. “As Al said, (we want) to try to not allow these signs all along that corridor because I don’t think it’s our intention as a staff to make that corridor incredibly blended in terms of signs popping up there.”
Howerter and Bob Brucks were two dissenting voters, but the ordinance passed 5-2.
In other items, the board:
• Approved the authorization of a redevelopment agreement with Sunnyland Development Partners LLC for the proposed redevelopment of the Sunnyland Plaza property.
According to the agreement, among other things it provides for a sales tax increment reimbursement incentive to defray up to 20 percent of eligible costs which incur in the redevelopment of the property.
The second reading of the ordinance was waived and the ordinance passed.
After the council asked for an update on the plans — specifically the state of the parking lot — Mayor Gary Manier said the developer had a contract with a company to fill in the potholes, but the contractor finished the work on a parking lot that wasn’t actually Sunnyland Plaza.
• Approved the purchase of 13 new phone sets to be installed as part of the renovations being done at the police station.
The purchase and installation of the phones costs $22,897.37 due to the complexity of the lines and systems involved with the 911 system.
Using the old phone system would still cost more than $11,000 to relocate everything from the lower floor to the first level.
• And approved to enter into agreement with P. A. Atherton Construction to construct brick crosswalks on the Main Street sections of the Square for $30,875.
Subsequently, the city approved a change order for the amount of $11,550 to make certain sections of the sidewalks compliant with new ADA wheelchair ramp guidelines.
