Charlie Smyth Urbana City Council Ward 1	email: csmyth at charliesmyth.org phone: 367-2813 805 S. Coler, Urbana, IL 61801

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

last revision: March 21, 2010
To see current council and committee agendas please visit the City of Urbana Website Council Agendas.

Neighborhood Meetings: I will be at the Urbana Farmer's Market many first Saturday's through October starting May 1 - please stop and chat. Since November, Brandon and I, joined by some Urbana School Board and County Board members have returned to having a consitutent session once a month at Paradiso Cafe at Nevada and Lincoln. We had a busy gathering in December talking about Olympian Drive and Bio-Swales (a mini presentation by Prof. Gale Fulton from Landscape Architecture). At this time, I don't know if I can make an early April meeting because of family commitments.

The City is putting together information on the Olympian Drive project and I will be posting links here soon. Mayor Laurel Prussing has a statement (pdf file) on Olympian as well. Here are my current thoughts on Olympian as emailed to the WUNA list (Olympian email statement).

Please plan on an even better Farmers Market this year. I'll be at the ChampaignCountyBikes.org table which has been a few tables east of the City of Urbana tent at the northwest corner of the parking lot. At the table you can find information on the various bike groups in the area including Prairie Cycle Club and theBikeProject. The CUMTD Share the Road bus is still on the streets -- and we should have an updated version of the cities' area bike map.

Ongoing Council Activities: Last April we began consideration of the 2009-10 City Budget and Capital Improvement Plan and approved it in June though the final piece of this project is approval of the tax levy which can stretch into November/December. Another interesting development is related to the lack of progress on a new city-wide franchise agreement with Comcast concerning cable TV.

• Though AT&T has begun offering competing service, U-Verse, (a state level franchise that the city has no direct control over) we've not seen it make it into the WUNA neighborhood.
• City contracted crews finished up fiber connectivity between the City, the University of Illinois, the Urbana Free Library, and the School District for expanded connectivity options - users of the library system should really have noticed the difference. The city is still waiting on a reesign of its web site and coordinated companion marketing with a beta version to be announced in January.
• Major discussions have taken place concerning the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which is updated at about 5 year intervals. The City Council is poised to approve this with a number of caveats concerning sustainability and compact development as well as concerns about the expanded vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and related greenhouse gas emissions (GGH) that are predicted. The LRTP is prepared by the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) and has it's own website.
• On Friday December 18, the 2009-13 draft City Council-Mayor goals were placed on the city website for comment and review. These have since been adopted.

Some Recent Council Actions: Zipcar is finally a reality in our community with 2 cars located at Lincoln Square, 6 on campus (Wright Street, Nevada and Gregory, and IHotel), and 2 in downtown Champaign. The Urbana cars are located adjacent to Common Grounds Food Coop, near expanded bike parking. A group of us are looking at sustainable lighting issues and have put together some resources on the University District Lighting Project that lead to some changes in our lighting ordinance affecting all future public and private lighting. Working with staff, we are pursuing a number of sustainability initiatives. The Sustainability Commission has begun to prioritize efforts and policies for the city to meet a number of green initiatives. The lastest report from staff was the starting point for the commission. In addition to concerns about the economy and its impact on city finances, Carle Hospital and Carle Clinic have proposed a merger that could have a substantial impact on the already high proportion of non-taxable properties in Urbana.

Neighborhood Preservation: A major addition to the preservation toolbox was added by the Council in April when we passed a Busey-Lincoln corridor Design Review provision that gives some control over redevelopment look and feel encouraging compatibility with the existing neighborhood. A citizen driven Neighborhood Conservation District creation procedure has been approved by City Council (November 5, 2007) as well as a new Historic District encompassing the 800 Block West of Main Street. Issues of demolition review have been incorporated into a separate discussion of historic and landmark buildings and how the city identifies these structures and has resulted in a 45 day Demolition Delay procedure. Staff has also increased notification of surrounding areas and started publication of demolitions. Dennis Roberts and Ilona Makovsky designed a walking tour and brochure to publicize the Royer Arts and Architectural district.

Rental Registration: A Rental Registration and Inspection ordinance has existed for 3 years. This expanded program now includes 1 and two unit rentals and full descriptions of programs and ordinances can be found at the city's Building Safety Division site. The Property Maintenance Code (PMC) has been brought up to current international standards (2003). Included in the PMC are important provisions related to inspection items and repair schedules. Recently, council passed an ordinance clarifying gravel parking lots and defining more carefully, their use and such. Staff continue to look at this issue. I'd like to thank the neighborhood associations including WUNA, the Mayor's Neighborhood Safety Task Force, along with staff and council members for their work in getting this legislation completed. Another round of updates to the Property Maintenance code will probably take place in 2010 to reflect changes to international standards.

Campus Safety/Bicycling/Pedestrian Issues: Various Campus Area Transportation reports were released in 2008 and several proposals were formulated that are supposed to address additional pedestrian concerns and include more specific bicycling related issues, bike path connectivity in particular. The Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee forwarded a Bike and Pedestrian Master plan that was endorsed by the City Council. This plan was based on several public input meetings involving hired engineering staff from the Regional Planning Commission in conjuntion with Ed Barsotti of the League of Illinois Bicyclists. Expect bike route signage, school crosswalk enhancements, and continued standardization of crosswalks during spring and summer 2009 and 2010. The City hopes to apply for Bicycle Friendly City status Spring 2010.

There are a number of efforts under way with respect to biking and walking with work being done by some with the League of Illinois Bicyclists. Various useful links can be found on the ChampaignCountyBikes.org web site to get involved in biking activism in Champaign County. We really need to work towards plans that encompass all of our communities.

Construction Season: Road construction and repairs for 2009 are shutting down for the year with Goodwin Avenue mostly complete (please check out the "Complete Streets" and new lighting design). The other major project, Windsor Road expansion all the to Hwy 130 will continue into 2010. The 10 year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is updated yearly for all road, sewer, and related lighting, sidewalk, and pathway projects. This document is available at the Urbana Public Library and parts are on the city web pages.

Background Information:

If you have issues or questions, please contact me. I usually work 8:30-6:00 weekdays but will answer email and phone messages over lunch and in the evenings or weekends. I tend to stay up late -- feel free to call me in an emergency any time.

Council and Committee meetings are broadcast live (and repeated) on UPTV, Cable Channel 6 every Monday night at 7pm (though we meet on Tuesdays where Monday is a legal holiday and we don't meet on 5th Mondays of a month). A full schedule for UPTV can be found on the city web site:  http://www.city.urbana.il.us/urbana/finance/is/uptv/Main.asp. All city financial reports are on line as well.

The 2005-09 City Council and Mayor developed a set of goals (Sept 2008 update) covering a variety of important issues that the mayor and a majority, if not all, council members support. As I mention above, we've adopted a new set for 2009-13. These will serve as a road map for our work during that term on the council and will form the basis of a number of study sessions and several task forces or commisions. If you are interested in helping out in one of the areas mentioned, or have ideas, please contact me. The linked sites include a progress report and updates from staff for the previous set and I expect we'll follow this same general pattern in the coming years.