O’Fallon to update Comprehensive Plan for clearer future development goals

Because things have changed in the past 14 years, O’Fallon needs to update its overall Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 2006, for a clearer direction on future development.

To help produce a Strategic Plan, which would be a three to five-year outlook, and a Master Plan, a 20-year outlook, the O’Fallon City Council approved a professional service agreement with Shockey Consulting Services for $120,000 at its meeting Monday.

The updated master plan will serve as the guiding document for the city’s long-term planning decisions for land use, economic development and city services, and will also include a short-term strategic plan process.

The document has been updated over the years to address different development patterns in certain areas of the city, but City Administrator Walter Denton said there is a need to re-evaluate the overall plan to gather citizen and stakeholder input to provide a clearer direction for future development policy and decisions. The master plan will incorporate and expand on several previously approved plans, including the Downtown Plan, Transportation Study and Bicycle Plan.

The city staff envisions a master plan that will be innovative in the plan’s development, outreach and usability by utilizing technology and building upon the city’s brand.

The master plan will need to provide recommendations at the intersection of land use and economic development, attempt to provide the city with direction to create an economy that is resilient, and provide guidance to further the equality and quality of life for the city’s current and future citizens, the staff report said.

The master plan will need to identify and prioritize the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and create a guide to implement the recommendations formulated throughout the plan’s development.

In January, the city sought a team of consultants who would help continue to move the city forward. The goal was to build upon past successes. The staff received seven qualifications from regional planning firms, then interviewed three firms based on what they provided. After the interviews, the staff unanimously selected Shockey Consulting Services, based on their ability to conduct meaningful public engagement even with COVID-19 restrictions in place and their planning and economic development expertise.

Ellen Rottjakob and Beth Quindrey of Shockey attended the Community Development Committee meeting July 13 to provide an overview of the process and the public engagement the group will use.

Additional council action

In other action, the council approved a professional services agreement with Policy Confluence and National Research Center for the national citizens survey, which costs $17,890. This is a two-year subscription price, with surveys for 2020 and 2022.

The city has routinely conducted a community-wide citizen survey every other year from 2005 to 2018. They have utilized the National Citizen Survey, which is endorsed by the International City/County Management Association and results draw from the largest resident opinion database of its kind, representing well over 30 million Americans. The survey also includes demographic subgroup comparisons and geographic subgroup comparisons.

This year they will conduct the survey again, which is scheduled for late July-early August, with results to be received in October.

The survey consists of a series of standardized questions on all city services and also provides the opportunity to include customized questions to O’Fallon specifically. The survey is sent by mail from a randomized sample of 1,500 O’Fallon residents. Participants also have the option to complete the survey online. In past surveys, the city has received greater than a 40 percent response rate, which ensures a 95 percent confidence level in the survey conclusions.

Previous survey results are available at https://www.ofallon.org/administration/pages/the-national-citizen-survey.

Bethel Ridge Farms, Southview Plaza

The council moved forward an ordinance approving the final plat for the second addition to Bethel Ridge Farms. Applicant is Rich Gorazd and it includes 39 single-family lots on 20.23 acres. This is the third and final phase of the development and is part of the larger 101.17-acre development located about half of a mile northwest of the Bethel Road and Lincoln Avenue intersection. The subdivision has 101 homes.

The council also advanced an ordinance that prohibits groundwater as a potable water supply in the Southview Plaza area. The owner is working to close out the demolition. One of the items required by the Illinois Department of the Environmental Protection Agency is to have the city pass a prohibition on any wells to be used as potable water supply surrounding the vicinity of the project area, where environmental contamination was detected. The site has been remediated and this is the final step for the owner to receive a “No Further Action” determination for the cleanup.

The city had passed a similar ordinance when the old Texaco site was demolished and remediated for redevelopment of the Dairy Queen. The city has no knowledge of any wells in the area and all the property affected by the ordinance have access to the city’s public water supply. A map has been provided for the area of the influence of the ordinance.

In-person attendance at meetings to resume

In the Mayor’s report, Herb Roach announced city hall will be used for City Council and committee meetings in August, beginning Aug. 3 with in-person attendance.

“To allow people to also participate virtually, we will also broadcast the meetings through Zoom. The meetings will also continue to be broadcasted on our public broadcasting channels and live or “on-demand” from our website,” he said.

To comply with the current Phase 4 guidelines, face coverings are recommended, and seating will be at least 6 feet apart. Due to this, capacity will be limited. He said they must have enough room to accommodate 14 aldermen, the city clerk, city staff and the mayor. That leaves 10 open spots for in-person public attendance.

If people would like to attend the meeting in-person, they will be required to sign up prior to the meeting. The first 10 people to sign up to attend in-person will be permitted into the City Council chambers chambers during the meeting. Everyone else will have to attend virtually through Zoom.

“We want to continue to encourage participation online if people feel more comfortable avoiding in-person attendance. The virtual meetings performed well over the past few months and they helped encourage public attendance. We all live busy lives and cannot always make time to attend meetings in-person. So, continuing the virtual format, in combination with in-person attendance may make it easier on our residents to become involved in their city government,” Roach said.

Income tax update

To present a status on income this year vs. last year, the mayor also announced $787,664 is the total amount of general revenue tax dollars and hotel/motel tax dollars that are down when comparing the months of March, April and May of 2019 to the same months in 2020. The city will be making internal precautionary adjustments to the budget, as it has been since the public health emergency was declared in mid-March.

Alderman Kevin Hagarty also noted the pandemic’s effect on businesses and asked that the Community Development Committee consider pro-rating liquor license fees on its next agenda because of places having to temporarily close or move back to Phase 3.

“I’d like to see if we can help them out a little bit,” he said.

A Town Hall meeting is set for Aug. 12, with sign-up beginning Aug. 3 at city hall.

Public comments from upset Ward 2 resident

During the public comments portion of the meeting, Daniel Matarazzo, a resident of Ward 2, said he questioned what he described as “the blatant acts of bullying and intimidation” to his son-in-law, Joshua Jenkins, stemming from the June 6 council meeting. Jenkins was outside city hall, speaking on a bullhorn, throughout the meeting. Later, police hand-delivered a letter stating Jenkins disrupted the meeting and was warned about doing it again.

“He is not a violent man. He just wants to be heard,” Matarazzo said.

Matarazzo said he questioned the way it was handled — using another attorney — not the city, and officers instead of patrolmen, and questioned if this was an effective use of city funds. He also wanted to know what law was Jenkins breaking.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 10:40 AM.