Neighborhoods

Champaign council leaves groundwater ordinance alone

Submitted by admin on Wed, 2011-09-28 08:54

By Patrick Wade/The News-Gazette -- To the dismay of a health care advocacy group, the city will keep its 4-year-old "groundwater restriction ordinance" after a council vote on Tuesday night.

Opponents of the ordinance said it gives corporations a free pass on cleaning up contaminated properties, but in general, the city council disagreed. The majority of representatives on Tuesday indicated they were unsure repealing the ordinance would accomplish the goal of encouraging the cleanup of contaminated sites.

Council member Marci Dodds said it could, in fact, discourage cleanup and subsequent redevelopment of contaminated properties.

"I prefer cleanup to no cleanup," Dodds said.

Acton Gorton/CU-CitizenAccess.org - A sign sits in the front yard of a house in the 5th and Hill streets area near a toxic cleanup site. Neighbors of the site are concerned that the cleanup by Ameren Illinois won't be enough to protect them from further toxic hazards, such as groundwater contamination.

Champaign County health care group demands EPA look at pipeline

Submitted by Dan Petrella on Wed, 2011-08-24 07:26

By Illinois Public Media News - A health care advocacy group is renewing its call on the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to investigate an underground pipeline in Champaign’s Fifth and Hill neighborhood.

Champaign County Health Care Consumers held a news conference Tuesday in the neighborhood, and cited a recent report that identified chemical waste in the pipeline know as “coal tar” as petroleum-based. The group’s executive director, Claudia Lennhoff, said the toxins are likely linked to a gas manufacturing plant that had been in the area from 1887 until 1953.

Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - The 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign believes this pipe once carried waste from the manfacutred-gas plant to Boneyard Creek. The city of Champaign plugged the pipe, but officials doubt it's connection to to the Ameren Illinois-owned site.

Some neighborhoods leave pedestrians out in the street

Submitted by Dan Petrella on Thu, 2011-07-21 13:30

By Landon Cassman and Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - The city of Champaign came up with a plan 25 years ago to repair deteriorating sidewalks.

Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - A sidewalk in the Dobbins Downs neighborhood ends mid-yard. Champaign city planning documents call the area's sidewalk system "disjointed."

Excavation work at 5th and Hill site sparks outrage from health care group

Submitted by CU Citizen Access on Fri, 2011-06-10 13:58

By Sean Powers/Illinois Public Media - Excavation work continues at the site that once housed a manufactured gas plant in Champaign.

Ameren Illinois is working on the corner of 5th and Hill Streets to clear soil that is suspected of having traces of the pollutant coal tar.

Most of the work to remove the soil has taken place underneath a large protective tent, but on Thursday workers dug about three feet of dirt outside of the tent.That sparked concerns from the health care advocacy group, Champaign County Health Care Consumers.

The group said a monitoring device that checks for dangerous chemicals went off, raising the possibility that nearby communities might be at risk.

Sean Powers/Illinois Public Media/A bulldozer removes soil that is suspected of having traces of the pollutant coal tar on the corner of 5th and Hill Streets in Champaign on Thursday, June 9, 2011.

Shadow Wood: Longtime residents happy with their neighbhorhood

Submitted by Dan Petrella on Wed, 2011-04-20 07:18

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - M.L. Ledent doesn’t like it when people ask if she still lives in her trailer.

“I don’t live in a trailer,” the 83-year-old retired nanny and housekeeper tells them. “I live in a mobile home.”

Ledent has lived in the Shadow Wood mobile home park nearly as long as it has existed.

In 1968, a year after the park opened, she and her husband, who died nearly 20 years ago, moved into a three-bedroom mobile home.

In this series

Shadow Wood: A changing neighborhood

Jose Diaz/For CU-CitizenAccess - The Shadow Wood Mobile Home Park has seen many changes during the past two decades, most notably a dramatic increase in its Hispanic population and a reduction in crime.

Shadow Wood: A changing neighborhood

Neighborhoods

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - Two years ago, Jose Rodriguez and his three daughters left their home in Ibague, Colombia, a city of about half a million people in the slopes of the Andes Mountains, 80 miles west of Bogota, the capital city, and headed north for Champaign.

They followed the girls’ mother, from whom Rodriguez is separated. She came to Champaign a decade earlier after finding work in the area, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen and sponsoring Rodriguez, 38, and their daughters, ages 15, 12 and 7. Like their mother before them, the girls and Rodriguez have settled in the Shadow Wood Mobile Home Park on the 1600 block of North Market Street in Champaign.

Picture by:

Jose Diaz/For CU-CitizenAccess/In the past two decades, this out-of-the-way neighborhood has undergone dramatic changes. Hispanic residents make up 70 percent of the neighborhood and 12 percent of the city's Hispanic population.

What the proposed zoning changes mean to Wilber Heights

Submitted by pdempsey on Wed, 2011-02-16 10:53

Champaign County passed an ordinance in 1973 intending to turn the Wilber Heights neighborhood into a strictly industrial region. The regulation prohibits the rebuilding of or substantial repair to any home.

The zoning ordinance, deeming all homes non-conforming, prohibits any resident from adding on or renovating more than 10 percent of the replacement value annually

The move lowered property values, residents said

The Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals made a final recommendation on zoning changes to help those living in the Wilber Heights area on Feb. 17. (Click here for our most recent story on the issue)

CU-CitizenAccess file photo/ A sign in the Wilber Heights neighborhood.

Champaign sees large growth among diverse populations

Submitted by CU Citizen Access on Wed, 2011-02-16 10:18

The Hispanic and Latino population in Champaign County more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, while the overall population grew about 11 percent.

The U.S. Census Bureau released more detailed 2010 Census population totals and demographic characteristics to the governor and leadership of the state legislature in Illinois Tuesday. These data provide the first look at population counts for small areas and race, Hispanic origin, voting age and housing unit data released from the 2010 Census.

CU-CitizenAccess/ Places in Champaign County experienced significant change between 2000 and 2010.

Discussion continues on zoning amendments to help Wilber Heights residents

Submitted by pdempsey on Fri, 2010-12-17 16:09

Pam G. Dempsey — The Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals took comments Thursday night on proposed changes to zoning ordinances that will give Wilber Heights residents more freedom to improve their homes.

Wilber Heights – a small neighborhood located on north Market Street behind Market Place Mall – is a mix of industrial and residential property. A nearly 40-year-old county ordinance zoned the area industrial, despite the heavy mix of residential property.

Because of the zoning, existing homes were deemed nonconforming, which prevented owners from making improvements to their properties beyond 10 percent of their replacement value annually.

CU-CitizenAcces/ file photo

Race maps show local divisions

Submitted by pdempsey on Thu, 2010-10-21 03:02

By Pam G. Dempsey — In the past month, media attention has focused on race lines in major cities across the U.S.

CU-CitizenAccess/Visual representation of white and black residents in Champaign-Urbana (Source: 2000 Census)

A place to play: Dobbins Downs residents realize two-year-old dream

Submitted by The News-Gazette on Tue, 2010-09-28 16:13

By Mary Schenk / The News-Gazette/CHAMPAIGN — Mable Thomas may not have been there physically Saturday, but her community spirit and good will were surely guiding the hands of hundreds of volunteers building a neighborhood playground in northwest Champaign that will bear her name.

The 61-year-old Thomas, Champaign’s neighborhood services coordinator for 18 years, died in April as plans were under way to get a park in the Dobbins Downs neighborhood in northwest Champaign.

Heather Coit/The News-Gazette/LaToya Merriweather, left, and her daughter, Asaia Merriweather, 6, dance on the sidewalk as they watch hundreds of community volunteers construct the new Dobbins Downs Neighborhood Playground in Champaign, Ill on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010. The Merriweather family lives just four blocks from the playground in Dobbins Downs.

County takes first step to help Wilber Heights residents

Submitted by CU Citizen Access on Wed, 2010-09-08 17:56

Neighborhoods

By Dan Petrella —The Champaign County Board took the first step Tuesday toward allowing residents of the Wilber Heights neighborhood to rebuild or make substantial improvements to their properties.

The board instructed John Hall, the county’s zoning administrator, to draft changes to regulations that now prohibit repairs or renovations to nonconforming residential properties beyond 10 percent of their replacement value annually.

CU-Citizen Access/ Liz Lerner

County move to change ordinance could help neighborhood residents

Submitted by CU Citizen Access on Thu, 2010-09-02 13:57

By Pam G. Dempsey, Acton Gorton and Dan Petrella — A Champaign County zoning official plans to propose regulatory changes for the Wilber Heights neighborhood that will combat the deterioration of residential properties.

The move follows a CU-Citizen Access investigation that exposed the impact of a zoning ordinance that has prevented residents from doing significant repairs to their homes. At the same time, the nearly 40-year-old ordinance has encouraged light and heavy industry to locate in the neighborhood.

Liz Lerner

Neighborhood Declines - And County Zoning Blocks Any Hope of Recovery

Neighborhoods

By Liz Clancy Lerner — It doesn’t take much to get Tom Lemke fired up.

Just ask him about his neighborhood – a place he has called home for 63 years -- and his frustration is evident.

Picture by:

Liz Lerner

Struggling to survive

Submitted by CU Citizen Access on Thu, 2010-05-27 16:26

By Jhane Reifsteck—The town of Longview has faced a high povery rate and loss of business in recent years.

In the 2000 Census, Longview's povery rate was just over 15 percent, with 25 of the 160 residents living at or below the poverty level.

CU-Citizen Access/With less than 200 residents and shrinking business, Longview has one of the highest rate of poverty in Champaign County.

University group lands top prize to build community garden

Submitted by The News-Gazette on Thu, 2010-04-08 19:39

CHAMPAIGN -- A group of University of Illinois students has earned a top prize from accounting firm Ernst & Young for their idea to build a community garden in Champaign.

The team of seven students has proposed to build a garden in Douglass Park near Booker T. Washington Elementary School. The students envision residents renting space there to grow food and the school using the garden for hands-on learning projects.

For the 2010 campus competition, called “Your World, Your Vision,” Ernst & Young invited university students from across the U.S.

Darrell Hoemann/The News Gazette/ Five of the seven members of UI student case competition team whose success means they will help build a garden for the neighborhood on the northwest corner of Douglass Park in Champaign on Monday, April 5, 2010. Left to right (rear) Diana Rechenmacher, Steven Heiss and Erin Harper. Front, Jonathan Weisman, Victoria Ngo-Lam.