A history of problems at the shopping center
The homicide late on Mother s Day was just the latest to draw police attention to the plaza.
According to dispatch records provided to the Journal Star under a Freedom of Information Act request, police have been called to the address 131 times in the past five years due to fights or aggravated battery. In the same time period there were 13 calls for shots being fired there, 10 more where there was evidence of a shooting, and six calls related to unlawful weapons. Additionally, from 2016 to 2021, there have been 272 disorderly conduct calls and seven calls for someone being robbed at the shopping center, the records show.
The city of Peoria has started a demolition case on the property.
“We started the demolition case about a month ago because we noticed some of the façade is actually crumbling and cracking,” said Joe Dulin, assistant director of the Community Development Department for the city of Peoria. “We’ve tried to close off the sidewalk, and we are actually going back today to put some more caution tape up.”
The demolition process is not a quick one. The current property owners have been notified that they need to repair the building. If they don’t respond, the soonest the building could be demolished is October, Dulin said.
PEORIA
The Peoria City Council on Tuesday could vote to create a land bank as a way to help spur development on currently vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties.
And if it is approved, the measure will be the state s first city-run land bank, according to a memo to council members. It comes with $300,000 in funding from the state. I believe this money will allow the city to have a more focused and strategic process in place to deal with abandoned and blighted properties within the community, Joe Dulin, the city s assistant community development director, told the Journal Star on Monday. And this will allow the city to return properties back to the private market.
Tim Shelley / Peoria Public Radio
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is awarding a $950,000 grant to the City of Peoria through its Illinois Rebuild: Shovel Ready program to help fund rehabilitation of the former Tabor property on the city s South Side.
Joe Dulin, the city s assistant director of community development, said without the funding, the renovation project would not have been possible. Any time we can get outside funding to help fund these things so it s not coming from local tax dollars, especially in the 61605 (ZIP])code, hopefully over the next few years with this process developed, we can create some living wage jobs for the people of the area, Dulin said.
PEORIA – City officials are asking their state legislative colleagues for a helping hand when it comes to the demolition of two former South Peoria school buildings that have sat empty and abandoned for years.
The two buildings in question, Harrison School, located in the 2700 block of West Krause St., and McKinley School, 1201 W. Adrian G. Hinton Ave., are dangerous and in need of demolition, said City Manager Patrick Urich.
Both schools have been out of commission for years and have sat vacant, largely stripped of anything of value and are now empty husks of buildings, city officials contend. Plans to repair or rehab them have fallen by the wayside under prior owners, and they ve fallen into more disrepair.