Who is the mayor of champaign

Search form Search. Birnbaum Christopher M. Burhans August R. Butera Thomas G. Miner John G. Shulruff Christine M. And I would expect that with the hotel and all of the workers out there, we're going to start seeing a lot of service related businesses as well.

We continue to grow. I'm excited about the pace of it. And one of the things that's been really fun downtown, is we are primarily local businesses. And most downtowns can't say that. JM: With the building of this new development, residents of some neighborhoods like Clark Park and Old Town Champaign have voiced concerns about big building projects in their neighborhoods that they fear will change the neighborhood character.

I know that the city council in the last few months had looked at some different zoning regulations but at the same time some proposals that came well for instance, the Conservation District proposed by a group of Clark Park residents was voted down.

What do you think the city should be doing in this area? Feinen: So in In-Town, a cluster of zoning districts in the older part of the city that includes the Old Town neighborhood we actually had a two or three year process with the neighbors to talk about what development was appropriate and what densities were appropriate.

And I think the neighbors are generally happy with the process that happened there. With respect to Clark Park, we have not engaged in that longer process. I think that zoning is the appropriate way to look at the maximum size and what we're going to do there. I wouldn't say begin getting input, because we're about a year and a half into talking with Clark Park about various issues relating to zoning. But I am hopeful that with zoning we can come to a compromise that maybe satisfies the neighbors' concerns about the character of their neighborhood and the things that make their neighborhood unique and why they live there.

JM: The City Council voted recently to buy land in the Garden Hills neighborhood for a detention pond for a big drainage improvement project there. And the big message I gathered from residents is that they want everything to happen sooner because there's going to be, at the current schedule, about a 10 year gap between buying that land and actually doing the work on the project.

Do you see any opportunity for speeding things up? Feinen: Yes. I mean, certainly, that that is a possibility. I think there are a couple things that are driving it. First I think it's important to note that the Champaign City Council actually voted to increase the storm water utility fee, specifically to move this project up.

It was JM: Just for Garden Hills? I know that they went up this year when they're going up in Feinen: We moved the Garden Hills project from being out about 30 years to out about 10 years, based on the storm water utility fee being raised. So yes, that is the primary function of the storm water utility fee increase.

I get why the neighbors are frustrated. But I also know that projects like this take time. And so some of it is finance. Can we afford to move it even faster? But some of it is just, we have to design it.

We have to have engineering. We have to get the work done and that will be time consuming. This is not just a drainage project. This is a complete rebuild. This is drainage. This is sidewalks. This is lighting. This is landscaping. Think about the significant change of the Glenn Park Basin the detention pond installed at Glenn Park, located between Mattis and Miller. That's the kind of project we're talking about in Garden Hills. Even if we had all of the funding ready to go, sitting in the city coffers, I don't think it can be done in a couple of years, because of the scope of the project.

So you know the balance is understanding that the neighbors are frustrated and that we're trying to move it as quickly as we can.

We also have other city projects that need to get done. And we need to be able to have the capacity to get it done. JM: Are there other infrastructure projects that that are waiting that you would like to see the city make progress on in the next four years? And I know that just in terms of drainage, there has been stuff done with the Boneyard, but also with the West Washington and the John Street watersheds in recent years.

Are there more unattended-to items out there? Feinen describes her style as inclusive. Feinen credits Police Chief Anthony Cobb and the development of the Champaign Community Coalition for much of the progress made in recent years improving police relations with the African-American community.

But she says that if Tasers are to be used in Champaign, she prefers they be by Champaign police trained to Champaign standards, instead by officers who have been called in from other departments, just because they have Tasers. Feinen supports the use of Tax Increment Finance Districts as a tool to encourage development for a limited time in specific areas. She says that among the limited economic development tools available to the city, TIF districts have proven useful in encouraging economic development.

Feinen says the recent new construction in the Campustown district was years in the making. She says it was made possible by long-term city projects to improve drainage and control flooding in the area, which made the area more attractive to developers and financial backers. Feinen says the Bristol Place urban renewal project in northeast Champaign will improve the housing stock in the area.

She says residents are receiving money to rent or buy homes in new locations while the project moves ahead. But she says as mayor, she would committed to working with the school district to make sure the new school has the needed infrastructure and city services, wherever it is built.

Feinen praises the University of Illinois for being engaged in Champaign.