The Carbondale Observer

In yesterday’s post about the possible developments at the old National Guard Armory at Oakland and Sycamore, I noted that almost any use would require rezoning the property – likely to PUD (planned unit development). I expressed some concern that even zoning the Armory PUD wouldn’t permit a wide enough range of uses.

A reader with knowledge of the city code wrote in to suggest that BPL (planned business district) might be a more appropriate option. I took a look at the code and I agree. BPL would allow all the uses Wallace is considering for the property and would also allow residential use permitted in R-3 districts. Click here to take a look at the BPL ordinance and see for yourself.

Thanks to the reader who suggested BPL as an option!

Comments are welcome.

In my last post on the bidding process on the old National Guard Armory at Oakland and Sycamore, I didn’t have any solid information on the plans the top bidder, Andy Wallace of Alpha Rentals, has for the property. Since then, he and I have corresponded via email and, with his permission, I’m posting some of his ideas.

Wallace has several ideas, which I list below. In some instances I’m using Wallace’s language, in others I’m paraphrasing. Wallace’s ideas for possible uses are:

• North Maintenance Shop – This could house an old car club (middle aged gentlemen who own and restore old cars), two radio controlled car clubs (both clubs use electric cars, which produce very little noise and draw very few spectators), a slot car club and track, and a small hobby shop to support these clubs. The shop would most likely be open 6-9 p.m. four nights per week. The club schedules would usually include one evening per week and activity on the weekends. The clubs are interested in a move to a central location in Carbondale.
• South Maintenance Shop – In the short term, this could be used for storage for old cars (for the old car club) and possibly for motor home storage in the winter. In the future, the building would likely be converted to loft apartments. These would be R-1 apartments allowing no more than two unrelated people per apartment, which is how the property is currently zoned.
• South Parking Lot – This would be left as-is to provide parking for the main building.
• Main Building – The building is large enough to include several uses. I’ll break them into separate bullets starting with offices for Alpha Rentals. This includes space for 2-4 full time employees and would be open from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. During the busiest time for rentals, July 15-August 25, Alpha staff works 12-14 hour days and can be in and out seven days per week. These office hours are unchanged.
• Main Building – One resident-manager apartment. The resident-manager needs to be on site to take care of community rentals of the gym space.
• Main Building – One additional apartment to help cover overhead (property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and a hefty energy bill).
• Main Building – 4-6 office spaces available for rent.
• Main Building – Rental of the main gym space for events. The space would be offered a special rate to a supporting neighborhood association, which Wallace hopes would use the space. This would allow the gym to be used as it has been for the last forty years – as a banquet hall, venue for sporting events, and stage. This use will require a large investment in the kitchen facilities because the National Guard will strip it.
• Main Building – Licensed massage therapist. This person has a full-time job and would like to operate one or two nights per week, likely from 6:00-9:00 p.m., and mostly on weekends.
• Main Building – Possible small coffee and sandwich shop, although Wallace isn’t sure that use would be viable considering nearby competition.
• Main Building – Alpha has several tenants who are veterans and would like a more modern serviceman’s club, but this use likely wouldn’t work without a liquor license.

Wallace also mentioned that he plans to contact several other small community clubs and groups if it becomes clear that he will be the purchaser and offer them space. He also has a few other ideas that he hasn’t fully fleshed out yet, but are along the same lines.

Looking at this list of ideas, this strikes me as a really good mix of uses for the Armory. If the bidding process ends with Wallace as the purchaser, the Armory would include small scale retail, commercial office, non-profit, and residential uses. It would include space for hobbyists (something Carbondale mostly lacks) and the hobby shop would generate sales tax for the city. As reader PtG points out in a comment on the last post, it would bring the Armory property onto the tax rolls. I see this mix of uses as a major benefit for Carbondale.

I’ve argued in the past that the worst possible outcome isn’t that the Armory is used for something we don’t like. The worst possible outcome is that citizen opposition or our outdated zoning code makes it impossible to use the Armory for anything, which would lead to it deteriorating and eventually being torn down. If we want to preserve our old buildings, we have to make it possible to use them. This means flexibility. It means an openness to change. It means having a little faith in people instead of always expecting the worst.

It also means confronting the issue of zoning. Most of the Armory property is in an R-1 district (I think it’s R-1-8, which is a single-family residential district with minimum 8,000 square foot lots) and our code does not allow these uses in that district. The remaining part of the Armory property is zoned R-3, which is a bit more permissive but which – as I read the code –  still wouldn’t allow these uses. The only way to save this building is to allow it to be used. That’s going to require a change.

The most likely solution would be a rezoning – probably to PUD (planned unit development). Rezoning the property to PUD would allow at least some of the uses Wallace has in mind, depending on how you read the PUD ordinance. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s probably the best one available under our outdated zoning code.

I’m more concerned with ends than means. If PUD is the means to the end of allowing the property to be used, then I’ll support it. But in the long run, we need to take a serious look at changing our code to allow and even encourage mixed uses.

Incidentally, I’m not sure PUD would be available for this property. The PUD ordinance is fairly complicated. For example, it requires minimum setbacks (“yards”) of 20 feet on all sides of the property. Does the Armory conform to that requirement? We won’t know until and unless someone tries to rezone it. Take a look at the ordinance (click here) and see if you think PUD would be a solution.

Comments are welcome.

The Carbondale City Council and the Liquor Control Commission met Tuesday, February 21 at city hall. I watched from home on Mediacom channel 16.

The Liquor Control Commission met at 7:00 with two major items on the agenda – an application for a beer garden for Sports Blast (behind the mall) and transfer of a liquor license to the new owners of the Newell House. The transfer of a liquor license for Newell House was approved unanimously.

What should have been a simple approval for the Sports Blast beer garden became more complicated than necessary, as is customary at city council meetings. In the first vote, the application was denied over concerns about amplified music. Commissioners Monty, Adams, and Fritzler voted against the beer garden, while Commissioners Fronabarger, Wissmann, and McDaniel voted in favor.

This meant the approval failed for lack of a majority. Council member Lance Jack owns Fat Patties, which has a liquor license, and does not sit on the Liquor Control Commission.

The owner of Sports Blast then agreed to conditions limiting his ability to play amplified music – conditions which burden no other beer garden in Carbondale – and his application was approved unanimously on a second vote.

Liquor Commissioner Monty raised the concerns about noise from a beer garden and justified the imposition of conditions by claiming the other Carbondale beer gardens are in the core of town, while Sports Blast is closer to residential developments. I checked Google Maps and it appears to me that Hangar 9′s beer garden is at least a little closer to residential areas than Sports Blast, which undermines that justification.

I think the commission did the wrong thing here. I would have voted to approve the beer garden without unfairly imposing conditions that apply to no other beer gardens in town. I will never understand the strange attitudes toward liquor issues in Carbondale. I realize some will claim this was a noise issue, or a neighborhoods issue, but make no mistake: it’s a liquor issue.

The Liquor Commission adjourned and the City Council meeting began at approximately 7:40. The consent agenda was approved unanimously, as was the resolution authorizing submission of an application for grant funds to support the CDAP housing rehabilitation program. The council then turned to discussion of Mayor Fritzler’s proposal to cut  $120,000 from the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau’s budget and distribute the money to other organizations.

The council heard detailed proposals from organizations including Carbondale Main Street, Carbondale Community Arts, and the Chamber of Commerce on how they would use the additional funds. Ideas included improved landscaping in the downtown, addition of murals outside the Amtrak station, development of a smart phone app promoting downtown Carbondale, support for the Southern Illinois Music Festival, and marketing Carbondale to SIUC alumni.

CCTB Executive Director Debbie Moore again defended the agency and took questions from council members. CCTB board members and hotel owners and managers again spoke in defense of CCTB.

Council eventually directed city staff to cut $50k from the CCTB budget. The cut will be reallocated as follows: Carbondale Community Arts – $5k, Carbondale Main Street – $15k, Carbondale Chamber of Commerce – $10k, Buckminster Fuller Dome NFP – $10k, Carbondale Park District – $10k (this year, with more likely to follow). Council also earmarked $8k of the funds it will allocate to CCTB – $3k for the Lion’s Club Fourth of July fireworks and $5k for the Lights Fantastic parade.

It’s hard to score this as a win or a loss for anyone. Of Fritzler’s original proposal for a $120k cut, which I supported, only $50k was ultimately cut. I can’t score that as a victory for Fritzler. On the other hand, CCTB didn’t want to have any funds cut from its allocation. It lost $50k, so I can’t score it as a victory for CCTB. And I wouldn’t call it a win/win compromise either. I’ll score it a draw.

After a lengthy set of citizen’s comments, council entered closed session to discuss personnel matters.

Comments are welcome.

UPDATE: Due to technical issues, an earlier version of this post was published this morning by mistake. I caught the error at 7:48 and corrected it by 7:51. Email and RSS subscribers may have gotten the earlier, incorrect version. I apologize for the error.

The Carbondale City Council (and Liquor Control Commission) meets tonight at the city hall/civic center at 7:00 p.m. The agenda is available by clicking here. The main items on the liquor control commission agenda are consideration of a beer garden permit for Sports Blast and transfer of a liquor license for Newell House. The main item on the city council agenda is further consideration of the plan to cut funding for the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau. It could turn out to be a long meeting despite the short agenda.

One other item of note – council will hold a closed meeting to discuss personnel matters. If a council decides to act on its discussion, action would be taken in an open meeting.

I’ll be watching from home on Mediacom channel 16.

Comments are welcome.

I watched last night’s city council meeting from home on Mediacom’s channel 16. As expected, council approved TIF funds for Coleman Rentals, approved the labor agreements with the police unions, and approved the chicken ordinance. And, as expected, the discussion of community and economic development organization funding consumed most of the meeting.

Most of the time spent on community and economic development organization funding was devoted to the mayor’s proposal to cut $120,000 from the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau’s budget and distribute that money to other organizations. CCTB executive director Debbie Moore delivered a 30 minute summary of the agency’s activities and former SIUC chancellor Sam Goldman delivered a speech opposing cuts to the CCTB.

After other organizations seeking funding gave their remarks, council returned to the CCTB issue. Council member Jane Adams asked a number of questions of CCTB executive director Debbie Moore. Adams’ questions were aimed at CCTB’s budget process, performance of its duties, and use of staff time. Mayor Fritzler cut Adams’ time short before she was able to finish asking her questions.

Council member Corene McDaniel delivered a fiery defense of CCTB and indictment of Fritzler’s plan. McDaniel pointed to the assortment of agencies Fritzler proposes funding with the money cut from CCTB and noted that Attucks Community Services, which provides services mostly to African-American children on the city’s northeast side, is not included.

Council member Lance Jack shared his concern that the city is moving too quickly to reallocate funds that have gone to CCTB in the past. Jack said he was open to reallocating the funds but wanted to be sure that whatever projects would receive the redistributed money are able to spend the money intelligently. A tense exchange with Fritzler followed.

Council member Don Monty echoed some of the concerns raised by Jack and McDaniel and added that he is concerned that city funding for some organizations might discourage people from volunteering with those organizations. Monty said that the funding levels proposed for some beneficiaries of the CCTB cut are too low to make much difference to those organizations – offering the Buckminster Fuller Dome and the Park District pool as examples.

Council member Lee Fronabarger pointed to a communications gap with CCTB and said he never knew how CCTB spent its money until he began studying the issue recently. He also said he’s heard complaints about CCTB’s performance of its duties – specifically that CCTB has been unresponsive to requests for help in organizing festivals.

Several community members spoke on the CCTB issue, some in favor of cutting funds from CCTB and some opposed. Council decided to continue the discussion of CCTB funding to the next meeting and to hold funding for all other organizations steady.

I’m going to withhold comment on the substance of this, but I will tell you that I’d vote to cut the funds from CCTB this year and every year until major changes were made to CCTB. To see what Fritzler proposes funding with $120,000 cut from CCTB, click here.

Comments are welcome.

The Carbondale City Council meets tonight at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. The agenda is online on the city’s website (click here). There are only four items on the general business agenda: TIF funds for Coleman Rentals at 210 E. Walnut, an ordinance adopting a labor agreement with police, the chicken ordinance (again), and a discussion of community and economic development organization funding requests.

I’d expect the TIF and labor agreement items to be fairly uncontroversial. I’m hoping the chicken ordinance will be uncontroversial too, but the city has been working on it since February 2010, and there have been numerous delays. This looks like the last step, though, so maybe it will go quickly.

I expect the final item, discussion of community and economic development organization funding, to take awhile. The public always turns out to comment at these meetings, and often at length. That alone would make for a long meeting, but it looks like conflict is brewing over the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Mayor Fritzler wants to cut $120,000 from the CCTB budget and transfer that money to the general fund. Jackson County, which provides a small amount of money to CCTB is considering withdrawing all funding. No decision will be made at tonight’s meeting, but the discussion could take awhile.

You can read more about the conflict over the CCTB at the links below.

Comments are welcome.

Carbondale Times:

CCTB Could See Dramatic Funding Cuts from Carbondale, Jackson County

Southern Illinoisan:

Fritzler Mulls New Split of Lodging Tax Money

Tourism Group, County May Part Ways

No Rush To Dump Tourism Bureau

It’s been awhile since I’ve addressed the anonymity issue and I’ve been meaning to return to it. Regular readers (and anyone who reads the “About” or “Frequently Asked Questions” pages) know that I blog anonymously. On the About page, I’ve given you a reason for that:

I choose to blog anonymously because this blog isn’t about me.  It is about Carbondale, SIUC, Jackson County, and the surrounding area.  I’m interested in writing about local government, business, and civil society.  I’m not interested in writing about myself.

By writing anonymously, I keep the focus on whatever I’m writing about. The focus is on ideas and issues instead of on me. I’m not running for any office. I have no desire to be a public figure. I do enjoy talking (or writing) about local issues, and the blog gives me the opportunity to do that. Adding my name to the posts doesn’t make my opinions any better or any worse.

What I didn’t tell you on the About page is that I had two other reasons for blogging anonymously.   Read the rest of this entry »