PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – Tuesday night, the Peoria City Council approved a re-zoning to pave the way for a home for former prisoners. It’s the third time the issue has come up before the horseshoe.
Council voted 6-5 in favor of allowing nonprofit Gro Community’s plans to open the home on SW Adams Street. The site is a former mental health treatment center that’s currently vacant.
Gro Community says individuals approved to live in the home would receive job skills training and mental health treatment.
District 1 Council Member Denise Jackson added some new conditions to her original motion to approve the re-zoning. According to 25 News, there’ll be no more than 12 residents living in the home at a time, there will always need to be security staff present, and the re-zoning will not apply if the property is sold to another organization.
To accommodate city zoning, the property is zoned as a halfway house. Gro’s leaders say it is not a halfway house, but a unique model that puts residents through a training program before they are allowed to live on the property.
Mayor Rita Ali voted in favor of the re-zoning, but told Gro Community that they will be under scrutiny by the community and local government.
“It’s to your advantage to make sure that everything goes as well as possible in terms of how you deliver your program and services. That’s my kind of warning to you that you’re going to be under a microscope,” she said.
Several businesses have opposed the project, some of whom spoke at the meeting Tuesday night. They feel that the home could impede business growth and increase crime in the area.
“We’re trying to sell this city. We’re trying to bring people down here,” said business owner Pat Sullivan.
Gro hopes to work with these businesses.
“It could be a plus to the business community because if we’re helping these individuals become ready for employment, these could be potential employees for them,” the group’s founder Aaron Mallory told 25News.
At-large Council Member John Kelly, who voted against the project, said he felt like Gro had not effectively communicated with the council about its mission.
“This makes me question the quality of this organization, not the quality of the mission. I think there were ample opportunities for them to communicate with us, they didn’t,” Kelly said.
Also voting no were at-large Council Members Zach Oyler and Kiran Velpula, District 2 Council Member Alex Carmona, and District 5 Council Member Denis Cyr.
If all goes as planned, Gro Community hopes the building could open sometime next fall.
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