By: Diane Benjamin
Want to pay for a new police station? Want to pay for a new library? Both are in the Uptown South plan.
Did you know bikers will have to dismount to use the new underpass? Evidently it will be too dangerous to ride the path created for bikers and walkers to connect Constitution Trail without going over the railroad tracks.
Like natural gas for heat and cooking? Toss that idea to save the planet. You need solar panels built in China or a wind turbine filled with oil.
I hope you didn’t get excited about an Amtrak drop off on the south side of the tracks since passengers can’t be dropped off north of the tracks. Buses will be getting a drop off point for the Children’s Discovery Museum, but not you peasants. Ignore what’s on the video, staff and Koos made it clear that will not happen after the meeting.
One more: Not every apartment will have a parking space available. Normal’s architect thinks people want to live south of the tracks without a car. They will walk, bike, or Uber as necessary. The new roads will be on a “diet” anyway, that means narrow and difficult to drive.
Review Uptown 1.0
-the original developer for Trail East backed out
-the developer for Trail East and Trail West backed out
-the restaurant that is supposedly moving into the long empty first floor of 1 Uptown Circle appears to be on hold
All of the above should tell Normal it isn’t possible to tell builders what to build and expect compliance even if the land is free and generous rebates are tied to development.
Koos and his bobbleheads are proceeding with the same program anyway. It isn’t about success. They want national attention for going GREEN. Free markets aren’t allowed. All electric is just what one guy running for Council sells for a living: Andy Byars.
Nothing Normal does is common sense. It’s all about appearances. The two missing buildings on the circle should say Change Course. The only way that happens is chucking the bobbleheads who support nonsense. They sure don’t represent the people stuck with the bills.
If last night’s presentation is online it is buried. You will have to watch the video instead:
Here is a link to the Uptown South Master Plan that was presented last night. Read it!!!
Here is one quote to show that this is a politically driven development at taxpayer expense.
P49 “ALL-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT – The strongest signal that the Town could send to show its commitment to tackling the climate emergency would be to not extend natural gas service to the proposed development…Do not extend gas utilities into the proposed new streets.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BTWQz-JBNuM7egLWoN1vsrX64AxO4xU4/view?usp=share_link
According to the ‘plan,’ Linden street would be reduced to two lanes. Great idea. 🙄
How much was shelled out for this ‘plan?’
Koos claimed 4 lanes are only needed for 1 1/2 hours a day. No idea what it cost.
1.5 hours…HA! That’s a load of bullsh!t and he knows it.
Koos just wants the bike lanes to go by his bike shop. This equals more customers and profit for him.
If you think that most bicycle riders are going to stop and walk their bikes through the tunnel i have a bridge to sell you. Hell, you can’t keep them off the sidewalks in downtown oops i mean uptown.
spending all this money and I and the neighborhood I live in are still waiting for the resurfacing of our streets that was approved 10 years ago.
If the council wants to spend money then complete the already approved projects and do the maintenance the town needs before moving forward with more DEBT.
That would be common sense. To get that one, reelect Stan Nord and add Mark Tiritilli and Karl Sila.
As a former commercial loan officer in B-N for almost 40 years, I am so happy to have retired and moved from hellinoiz . Sadly, my former business owner customers (that are 40 years friends) are not able to retire and move away from hellinoiz and layers of pay to play bullshit that exist in every layer of the hellinoiz government.
Look! At the Koos meeting! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s Anderson Pooper! But wait. Oh no, that’s just Kevin McCarthy. Koos and Reece looking pretty pale too. Yow!