Closing of 16th Street another planning mistake

Mattoon recently voted to close 16th Street in front of the YMCA. The move was to assist the YMCA in their upcoming expansion. There was a public meeting before the vote for public comment. There was little to no comments, the motion passed 5-0.

Closing 16th street is another planning error made by the City of Mattoon that contributes to its demise. And another reason they need to get a professional planner on staff to advise them on such matters. These decisions are made in good faith and are thought to be for the good of the city, but they contribute to the downturn of Midtown Mattoon.

Like the closing of Prairie for County Market, this closing is made to specifically address one project without regard to rest of the neighborhood. The County Market parking lot put a huge open space fronting the retail on Western Avenue. The lot is so oversized they sell storage sheds, garden plants, hay, mulch, landscape rock, and anything else they can fit in. This is hardly the sight you want when driving or walking through your business district.

The closing of 16th Street decreases the connectivity to downtown. Traffic will divert through the proposed YMCA parking lot. The open ground south of the YMCA becomes less marketable.

The layout discourages YMCA visitors from continuing downtown. The natural traffic pattern away from Y will steer traffic away from downtown. This hardly goes towards the recently implemented midtown redevelopment plan that suggests using the YMCA as an anchor downtown.

When I first saw the plan, I knew it was bad. But I was in no way prepared to defend my position. The first it was widely publicized that the street closing was a possibility was in the media reports the day before the meeting. And it was policy 5 minutes after the public hearing closed.

There was no mention of the closing in the media reports surrounding the Planning Commission and Zoning Board meetings where the measure was discussed and voted. The media reports surrounding those meetings simply said that parking layouts were being reviewed.

Not only should a City Planner be on staff to make professional recommendations on such policies such as this, but also the process of setting such policies needs to be changed. Even though proper procedures were followed, those procedures leave little chance for a fair public review. The layout should have been published and put on display for 30 days prior to the public meeting. Voting on the policy should not be allowed at the same meeting as the public hearing to allow decision makers to fully comprehend any points brought up at the meeting.

The current policies and procedures give the impression of back door deals and good ole boy politics. This goes for any topic that goes before the city that requires a public hearing. Measures should be set to break this impression and give one of open government.

Hiring a planner still a good idea

It was said before the FutureGen announcement that Mattoon could use a City Planner even if we don't get FutureGen. I tend to agree. The cities I deal with that have a planner seem to be far better off then those without.

We have four TIF districts and two businesses with no system as to what gets approved or not. The downtown redevelopment plan has basically been shelved. There was a lot of talk at the redevelopment meetings about themes for downtown, making sure one building matched the next, building to building, block to block. Instead, no one is guiding the redevelopment and we still are getting blocks of buildings that don't fit well together. The buildings in the 1400 block restored their existing facade; Bob Walker is replacing the Broadway Video facade with a similar looking one. Friesmeir tore the front of his building off and replaced it with a modern look, and Little Mexico left the 1960's facade on the Broadway side of their building. I'm not saying they should be forced to do something different, but I will bet no one even suggested anything different to them.

Now we have an entirely separate committee deciding what murals to be painted downtown. To the best of my knowledge, they have not considered the recommendations of the redevelopment plan in their decision. How will their choices fit the plan? Who with the city is overseeing this? Who best understands how the choices made will affect downtown activity? A good city planner understands that a misplaced or bad chosen mural could cause as much harm to downtown as a good one could help.

The biggest reason to hire a City Planner is the City wanting to rewrite the zoning and subdivision ordinances and redo the Comprehensive Plan. Is the building inspector really the right person to be in charge of this? He has even said he isn't qualified. And he is most concerned with the building aspects of the sites, not the planning. The planning mistakes made in Mattoon contribute to Mattoon's problems at levels most people don't understand.

A planner would be also be in charge of plan review and making sure sites follow the zoning and planning codes. The planner and not the planning commision, zoning board or council, would review minor variances. No more decisions based on "he's done a lot to clean up that side of that side of town so we will give him a break"

Change does not come easy in Mattoon, and if a planner does his job correctly, he will not be well liked by those wanting to build in town. The days of no longer following code and building what you want because what you propose is better than what you have now should be over. Codes were written for a reason, if the city has no intention on following them, they need to change them to what they intend on following. A planner should streamline this and be able to set the code to meet the city's goals. The building inspector, Public Works Director, City Administrator and City Attorney are either to busy with there other duties, don't understand what needs to be done or plain don't care because that is not really their field.

As for the funding for the position, I am not completely sure. Except, a planner should also be able to complete a lot of the duties that the city now hires consultants to do. The TIF districts, business districts, and downtown redevelopment plan all could have been done in house if we had a planner. I believe the City paid around $60,000 for that downtown redevelopment plan. Most of it was cut and paste from other reports. I had just as much information in my counter report and spent 40 hours on it. Even at a charge out rate of $250 per hour that is only $10000.
A City Planner is as important as a City administrator, City Attorney, and Public Works Director. It is another piece of the professional staff that the city began hiring in 2001. People complain about the rut Mattoon is in and how nothing changes, but when the city proposes a change to help the situation, they complain then too. Hiring a planner is the right move and the City should move forward with it, with or without FutureGen.