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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 30, 2014 21:00:35 GMT -6
I don't really care about the Mushro building in its current condition, and I wouldn't care even if you were the owner of that building. If it is a structural asset to surrounding buildings, I say for now, let it remain as is. The City doesn't care about the condition of their building either. They certainly would care if I were the owner of it. Selective enforcement is a big problem here. In addition to allowing some businesses to keep having violence around them, some residents to have dogs tethered, crapping and barking in the yards of others, some to keep safety hazard buildings, etc., it also makes the existence of the Good Ol Boy Club very obvious to many people. Structural asset? That is funny. With an open basement where part of the building used to be, water is running through the foundation of that structural asset. Tax payers will get the opportunity to pay to demolish the rest of the neighboring buildings too. The basement access is only one of the ways that someone could easily get into the structural asset to light it on fire. It doesn't really surprise me that you don't care that our City keeps such a safety hazard, or as you call it, structural asset. Don't worry, I think they do plan to let it remain as it is, as it has been for years, until it does collapse. If someone else owned it though, they'd be all over them.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 30, 2014 21:25:36 GMT -6
You don't have to sue because you have your first amendment rights? You won't sue because you don't have a case and you know it. Any serious businessnowner wouldn't dream of coming on a little website and talking about it. Talk is cheap. Those serious owners would be asking questions of the city and, if not answered, taking legal action for answers and result. You're a wannabe. There are those that want and those that do. You are the one that wants law suits, not me. If you knew our laws, you wouldn't even suggest it to me. You are right, there is no case. I am confident that I could prove that the industrial zoning requirement goes against our laws, but Illinois Tort Immunity Law allows them to do whatever they want without me being able to collect any damages. Court is not even an option to try to get our leaders to start doing things differently. If you really want a law suit, go ahead and file one. I will just keep talking about how they don't follow our laws and keep heading our community in such a bad direction. Yes, maybe that is what we need here is some serious business owners that are willing to take our City to court to open their business here. Maybe that is what is taking Tractor Supply Company so long, they are probably preparing their law suit now, either that or trying to decide if it is worth a law suit to open here. Maybe that is why we have so little business here, because it takes legal battles to get results. I may be a wannabe, but I did take two long time closed up buildings and turned them into businesses. When will the serious business owner be coming so we don't have so many vacant decaying buildings?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 30, 2014 21:55:55 GMT -6
Kyle, what we are ALL certain of is YOU DID NOT GO TO P&Z, after this admission. You know Kyle for many of the things that you 'THOUGHT" should have happened but didn't, doesn't mean the Mayor or the members of the City Council are "Corrupt". It means you DIDN'T AND DON'T understand the law. Gee Kyle, I agree the City of Streator has too many "dilapidated building" and , unkempt property. For the City Officials to be able to condemn these properties, and tear down these building would cost MONEY, what a surprise. Would the City of Streator collect enought in taxes on that "Aquaponics Facility" to destroy those building YOU determine to be dilipated. Wait Kyle, perhaps to even do that perhaps the City of Streator would have be a "Home Rule" Community to able to do it more quickly. How did you vote on "Home Rule" Kyle? I voted for it. Humm, I guess you believe "What's Good For Kyle Is Good For Streator" g After this admission? I admitted years ago that I did not go to P&Z. What would you expect that I would go them for? The Mayor says that City Hall is the place to go and when I did, never mentioned going to P&Z for anything other than rezoning the property to industrial which you probably already know is not just ridiculous but goes against our laws. I DIDN'T AND DON'T understand our laws? Such a general statement with no example or details, how convenient. Gee, thanks for letting me know; I hope I didn't open myself up to a law suit or anything. Maybe I had better stop talking now? Yes, I know that it takes money to tear down the vacant buildings, we've already been paying for many to come down and there are many more coming. Mr Hart has a list of deplorable properties that he wants tax payers to tear down. We'll probably have to pay to tear down several more and make Heritage Park bigger. They'll probably have to raise property tax rates quite a bit to pay for tearing all those down and purchase more to take off the tax rolls so individual owners don't "decide to do something different" and then not maintain them until "market conditions are more favorable", so that they can give a club member a sweet deal for their "significant development". Too bad our City doesn't help create some use for the buildings, instead of being so uninviting to small business and expecting tax payers to pay to tear down the rest of our downtown.
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Post by chevypower on Mar 30, 2014 22:25:00 GMT -6
The sarcasm flew right over......His head lol p.1 (8) post down lmao good one Helen.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 31, 2014 5:40:40 GMT -6
I am trying to give you some possible reasonings for why they do what they do. When I have more time, I'll look up some articles on corruption, to post some more possible reasonings for what they do.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 31, 2014 5:52:30 GMT -6
Our local government, is as corrupt as our school district. It's obvious that this is a slash and grab situation. At some point, when property values are low enough, and then real estate market turns around. Watch who is doing all the buying and selling! I had someone come to a show this weekend mention Streator's corruption too. It seems that talking about corruption is becoming more of a trend here. If you look up the definition, you don't have to be able to prove that money has changed hands to use it to describe our leaders. Also, we are supposed to be able to talk about the job that our elected officials do, our fore fathers included it as our very first basic right. Our leaders would have to be able to prove that you knew it was untrue to do anything about it. With the way things are done around here, it seems it would be pretty easy to convince a court that you did think corruption exists. Feel free Streator citizens, speak up!
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Post by ohhenry on Mar 31, 2014 10:23:21 GMT -6
Our local government, is as corrupt as our school district. It's obvious that this is a slash and grab situation. At some point, when property values are low enough, and then real estate market turns around. Watch who is doing all the buying and selling! I had someone come to a show this weekend mention Streator's corruption too. It seems that talking about corruption is becoming more of a trend here. If you look up the definition, you don't have to be able to prove that money has changed hands to use it to describe our leaders. Also, we are supposed to be able to talk about the job that our elected officials do, our fore fathers included it as our very first basic right. Our leaders would have to be able to prove that you knew it was untrue to do anything about it. With the way things are done around here, it seems it would be pretty easy to convince a court that you did think corruption exists. Feel free Streator citizens, speak up! Don't you ever worry about getting sued Kyle -
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Post by dog on Mar 31, 2014 11:35:17 GMT -6
Our local government, is as corrupt as our school district. It's obvious that this is a slash and grab situation. At some point, when property values are low enough, and then real estate market turns around. Watch who is doing all the buying and selling! I had someone come to a show this weekend mention Streator's corruption too. It seems that talking about corruption is becoming more of a trend here. Was this person talking about corruption in reference to the grade school district or our city government? I have heard quite a few people calling what is happening in the school district,corrupt.
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 31, 2014 13:28:48 GMT -6
I had someone come to a show this weekend mention Streator's corruption too. It seems that talking about corruption is becoming more of a trend here. Was this person talking about corruption in reference to the grade school district or our city government? I have heard quite a few people calling what is happening in the school district,corrupt. This person was referring to our City. I wonder if our school administrators are also threatening law suits on the public to try to scare them out of talking. Maybe they will also use their position to try to collect evidence against people. If they can deny the public their free of speech, maybe no one will know they are corrupt.
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Post by northsider on Mar 31, 2014 13:44:09 GMT -6
Was this person talking about actual corruption or did they just have their panties in a bunch because the city hurt their feelings?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Mar 31, 2014 18:38:00 GMT -6
Was this person talking about actual corruption or did they just have their panties in a bunch because the city hurt their feelings? There was a line at the box office so he didn't get a chance to elaborate, but I believe from his comment that he also had experienced how our City does things and treats people. Go ahead and try to make people think that this is about getting my feelings hurt. Most are smart enough to know that if that is all it were, our City leaders would be able to tell all of us how they followed our laws, but they can't.
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Post by northsider on Mar 31, 2014 20:30:32 GMT -6
I'm curious about one thing. As the story goes, the owner of the building approached you for ideas about possible uses for his vacant downtown building. According to you he wasn't looking for much of a return on his money so you suggested aquaponics. This would be a way to provide the community with a healthy organic food source as well as provide the potential for tourism. After running into zoning issues with the city about the appropriateness of locating basically a greenhouse/fish farm in the downtown business district, the owner decided to pull the plug on the aquaponics idea. My question is, why didn't you just drop the fish farm aspect of your idea and propose an organic greenhouse? That could have accomplished all of your goals, minus the fish. Wouldn't this have cleared up all of your zoning problems? Looking at it this way may also give you your coveted justification for M-1 zoning. If you had suggested building only a fish farm it would seem appropriate to locate it in an M-1 zone since that is more of a manufacturing/industrial type of operation. If you had suggested only a greenhouse it would have been allowed since that is a permissible use downtown. Since half of the operation is permissible in the downtown district and half of the operation is not, perhaps the city interpreted the required zoning looking at the fish farm aspect rather than focusing solely on the greenhouse aspect which you have done. The zoning law does say that unlisted uses shall be interpreted liberally looking at operations with similar impacts when assigning a zoning classification.(I'm paraphrasing). Just because the city didn't interpretate it the way you did doesn't mean they broke the law, it just means they disagreed with you. They seemed to have felt that a fish farm, no matter how you approach it, is better suited in an M-1 district. Does this make any sense to you at all?
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 1, 2014 12:58:50 GMT -6
I'm curious about one thing. As the story goes, the owner of the building approached you for ideas about possible uses for his vacant downtown building. According to you he wasn't looking for much of a return on his money so you suggested aquaponics. This would be a way to provide the community with a healthy organic food source as well as provide the potential for tourism. After running into zoning issues with the city about the appropriateness of locating basically a greenhouse/fish farm in the downtown business district, the owner decided to pull the plug on the aquaponics idea. My question is, why didn't you just drop the fish farm aspect of your idea and propose an organic greenhouse? That could have accomplished all of your goals, minus the fish. Wouldn't this have cleared up all of your zoning problems? Looking at it this way may also give you your coveted justification for M-1 zoning. If you had suggested building only a fish farm it would seem appropriate to locate it in an M-1 zone since that is more of a manufacturing/industrial type of operation. If you had suggested only a greenhouse it would have been allowed since that is a permissible use downtown. Since half of the operation is permissible in the downtown district and half of the operation is not, perhaps the city interpreted the required zoning looking at the fish farm aspect rather than focusing solely on the greenhouse aspect which you have done. The zoning law does say that unlisted uses shall be interpreted liberally looking at operations with similar impacts when assigning a zoning classification.(I'm paraphrasing). Just because the city didn't interpretate it the way you did doesn't mean they broke the law, it just means they disagreed with you. They seemed to have felt that a fish farm, no matter how you approach it, is better suited in an M-1 district. Does this make any sense to you at all? Didn't you claim that you already provided justification but I just don't understand our laws? Without the fish aspect, would the City have allowed it? That wouldn't have made it a greenhouse, would it? Growing plants indoors with LED lights is not a greenhouse. Maybe it was the LED lighting that they felt required industrial zoning. With no explanation for their requirement we may never know. Is it the fish that require industrial zoning? Pet stores are allowed to have fish in tanks without having industrial zoning. What business activity would a fish farm be most closely related to that requires industrial zoning? Does our law say that if someone thinks it seems appropriate that is where it should be allowed? Without any justification for their requirement and the Mayor refusing to talk about it, we may never know why they stop business from coming here. No, it doesn't make sense to me that we have a set of laws that dictate zoning requirements but aren't followed. Our laws do not say to require whatever seems appropriate to them. If they didn't break our laws, why wouldn't they just provide their justification instead of letting me keep talking about it?
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Post by northsider on Apr 1, 2014 14:06:24 GMT -6
The CBD (central business district) is designed to accommodate a wide variety of uses in a mutually advantageous setting that will result in the most intensive and attractive use of the city's downtown area. Ground floor retail sales, personal services and restaurants are encouraged with residential uses, professional services and general offices above the first floor. Manufacturing Districts Established. The following districts are hereby established primarily to accommodate enterprises engaged in the manufacturing, processing, creating, repairing, renovating, painting, cleaning, or assembling of goods, merchandise or equipment: M-1 light manufacturing and M-2 heavy manufacturing.
Does a half fish farm/half pseudo-greenhouse fit into a retail, personal service, or restaurant classification or does it fit in a manufacturing, processing, or creating classification? The fact that a pet store has fish tanks is a weak arguement at best. A pet store is a retail store not a fish farm. You are obviously incapable of looking at this situation objectively. I would imagine this is why the city chooses to ignore you. You can't reason with the unreasonable.
It makes me think that your investor may have realized the same thing and that would explain why he pulled the plug on doing something with his building. He probably didn't want to get in the middle of your personal vendetta against the city. Nice going, thanks to you we have one more vacant building downtown!
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Apr 1, 2014 16:23:55 GMT -6
The CBD (central business district) is designed to accommodate a wide variety of uses in a mutually advantageous setting that will result in the most intensive and attractive use of the city's downtown area. Ground floor retail sales, personal services and restaurants are encouraged with residential uses, professional services and general offices above the first floor. Manufacturing Districts Established. The following districts are hereby established primarily to accommodate enterprises engaged in the manufacturing, processing, creating, repairing, renovating, painting, cleaning, or assembling of goods, merchandise or equipment: M-1 light manufacturing and M-2 heavy manufacturing. Does a half fish farm/half pseudo-greenhouse fit into a retail, personal service, or restaurant classification or does it fit in a manufacturing, processing, or creating classification? The fact that a pet store has fish tanks is a weak arguement at best. A pet store is a retail store not a fish farm. You are obviously incapable of looking at this situation objectively. I would imagine this is why the city chooses to ignore you. You can't reason with the unreasonable. It makes me think that your investor may have realized the same thing and that would explain why he pulled the plug on doing something with his building. He probably didn't want to get in the middle of your personal vendetta against the city. Nice going, thanks to you we have one more vacant building downtown! The Aquaponics facility planned was also going to be a retail outlet. A pet store with fish in tanks is closer to what we were planning to do than a fish farm. It doesn't matter now though, other than to point out that our City does not follow our laws, I really don't see us having any Aquaponics facility in Streator. Considering me unreasonable may explain why they ignore me, but why wouldn't they provide the rest of the public with the justification for their requirement? The building was vacant for a long time before I even met the owner, but you can think I am responsible for it being vacant if you like. Are the other buildings vacant because of me too? Streator will just have to wait for businesses to come along that our Mayor finds appropriate enough for our Downtown. Maybe we will get some well known department stores moving into our downtown along with all the restaurants and personal service that are coming. There really seems to be a lot of professional services and general offices filling up the upper floors of buildings. Our downtown should be full of businesses that seem appropriate to our Mayor in no time, right? Is he even working on that, because I haven't seen any results?
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