Champaign City Council / C-U Fresh Start

Last week's study session had a presentation on the C-U Fresh Start program that tries to stop gun violence locally. The presentation and discussion covered possible changes as the program has evolved and processed feedback over the years. The full video of the Study Session is available here. The full written report on the C-U Fresh Start program is here and includes a short history and overview. There was a roughly 30 minute presentation on the program, how it's structured, and how it operates (direct link here) followed by a Q&A with the City Council members at the 31:40 mark in the video.

Public participation (at the 50:30 mark) included many of the people who work with the program or its leadership in various capacities and shines a light on many of the dedicated people from different walks of life, from police to service providers and many others. Critical community members and people doing work behind the scenes spoke from the formerly incarcerated to those who have experienced various sides of gun violence and impacted communities. Trauma expert Karen Simms spoke a bit about her work and recommended reading a report on urban violence and trauma available here from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

The City Counsel members gave their impressions afterward (at the 1:31:30 mark) and unanimously agreed to direct staff to continue working with the program. WCCU had coverage last week:

After the discussion, Champaign City Council said they supported the program and are interested in seeing how it evolves in the coming years.

This year, CU Fresh Start looks to strengthen police-community relations, provide additional engagement options for CU Fresh Start participants, and launch a media campaign to reinforce the focused deterrence message and highlight the success of the initiative.

They are also working to establish a job partnership for participants—something that is still lacking. They are looking to work with several local organizations to help fill the service gap.

Full article with video segment here. The News-Gazette had additional coverage and highlights from the Study Session here.


Regular City Council Meeting This Week:

Tomorrow, Tuesday March 3rd, the City Council will be having a regular City Council meeting (agenda here) which will include revisiting an intergovernmental agreement with the University of Illinois for Smart Sensors (more on that at a previous Cheat Sheet post covering the last regular meeting). The vote was postponed to look at privacy and data protections involved in the project.

There will also be a public hearing and a vote on annexing the Unit 4 property off of Olympian Drive (resolution information here with explanation on page 13 of the PDF file). Excerpts:

The purpose of this Council Bill is to approve an Annexation Agreement with Champaign Community Unit School District No. 4 (Unit 4) for property Unit 4 owns at 75 W. Olympian Drive. Six votes are required for passage...

Overview. The subject property is owned by Unit 4, having been acquired by the District in 2014. The land is undeveloped agricultural land and is presently zoned AG-2, Agriculture pursuant to the Champaign County Zoning Ordinance. The subject property is contiguous to the City of Champaign city limits along its west, south, and east boundaries. To the west lies the Ashland Park subdivision. Adjacent properties on all other sides are undeveloped agricultural land...

At present, there is no development imminently planned for the subject property. Prior to any future development, the land will be both annexed and subdivided. Upon annexation to the City of Champaign, the zoning pattern outlined in the Area General Plan will attach to the property. Meanwhile, dedications of rights-of-way for the street connections shown in the Area General Plan (along with other local streets internal to the development) will occur as a part of the subdivision process. Subdivision will also trigger construction of the extension of Neil Street from its current terminus northwards to Olympian Drive.

That full informational packet (including maps) here. The property was purchased when plans were being made to build a new Central High School on the North end of Champaign instead of the later referendum projects that expanded Central High School at its current location. More on that from an older Unit 4 press release here:

At a special meeting Monday night, the Champaign Unit 4 School District Board of Education unanimously approved the purchase of 80 acres of land for a new high school on Interstate Drive next to the Ashland Park subdivision.

The purchase price for the land amounted to $3.2 million. The District will use funds set aside from the county-wide 1% sales tax for the purchase of new land, and will seek to supplement these funds with the sale of excess property. The Promises Made, Promises Kept Committee, comprised of community members, has been overseeing the funds from the 1% sales tax to ensure they are being used as promised.

That full press release here. More background on the old site selection here. The old information site for these plans is archived on the Unit 4 website here.