2021-11 Ordinance Vacating Public Right-of-Way North Mercer Street located North of West Eldorado Street

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Community Development DATE: 2/12/2021 MEMO: 21-04 TO: Honorable Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe and City Council FROM: Scot Wrighton,City Manager Cordaryl"Pat"Patrick,Director of Community Development Greg Crowe,Planning and Development Manager SUBJECT: Ordinance Vacating North Mercer Street right-of-way north of West Eldorado Street. SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of the Mercer Street vacation with the following conditions: 1. A blanket easement for the vacated Mercer St right-of-way shall be maintained for all utilities located within the right-of- way,including but not limited to the City's utilities. 2. The new owner of the vacated Mercer Street right-of-way enter into a side agreement with the owner of the Secret Garden building for customer use of certain parking spaces on the new parking lot. The City Plan Commission voted 7-0 to recommend approval of this petition at the February 4,2021 meeting;the meeting minutes are attached. BACKGROUND: The petitioner,Central IL Development Consortium,is requesting vacation of the sixty(60)foot Mercer Street right-of-way north of West Eldorado Street that abuts their South and West property lines. The vacation would enable Central IL Development Consortium and Mueller Company to control the Street ROW and utilize the area as part of the Mueller Company Parking Lot relocation project. The Street would be improved along with the rest of the property to the North and would serve as one of the entrances to the new Parking Lot. The only other adjacent property owner has been notified of the requested ROW vacation and has submitted a letter of objection which is attached with this memo. The petitioner and proposed property owner of the vacated ROW has offered an ingress/egress agreement to the adjacent property owner and current tenant, Secret Garden,that would provide access and use of the ingress/egress across the vacated Mercer St and a portion of the proposed parking lot along with parking spaces along the east side of the vacated ROW and in the proposed parking lot to serve the adjacent building to the East. The proposed ingress/egress plat map is attached with this memo. City staff feels that the proposed ingress/egress agreement proposed by the Petitioner is a sufficient offering for the adjacent property owner and current tenant. CIDC has been communicating with the current tenant, Secret Garden,to ensure them that their access and parking needs will be met. The assessed value of surrounding vacant land was utilized to determine a market value per square foot to determine the land value for the Mercer St ROW. That land value is determined to be$10,000 and will be paid by Central IL Development Consortium to the City prior to executing the ROW vacation. The proposed Mercer Street vacation reflects and incorporates the city's negotiated assistance to Mueller and the EDC for improvement of the property formerly occupied by Pugsley. The planned parking lot improvement will significantly improve the appearance and functional use of the cleared site south of the NS rail line,west of Monroe and north of Eldorado. When improvements and land re-purposing like this occurs,it is appropriate for the city to take street sections out of its inventory that are no longer needed as public streets,thereby reducing maintenance costs. Construction of the new parking lot is scheduled for later this spring. POTENTIAL OBJECTIONS: The adjacent property owner as described above in the Background section. iNPiTT FR(1M 0T14FR Cn1TRCFC- N/A