Tornado pushes council toward building codes, zoning, home rule
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Building codes. Zoning. Home Rule.
Three major issues that have been debated for decades will soon be brought up for votes based on action taken Thursday night by the Harrisburg City Council.
This triad of trouble for past councils seems to have been swept away by the aftermath of the Leap Day Tornado.
Before his hospitalization last month Mayor Eric Gregg urged the council to take a page out of Marion's playbook for the growth and rebuilding that community experienced following their 1982 tornado. That twister killed 10 and destroyed or damaged every commercial district of the city other than the downtown.
Gregg quoted long-time Marion Mayor Bob Butler in attributing zoning, home rule and TIF (tax increment financing) districts as that city's key to growth.
At the same council meeting City Attorney Todd Bittle told the council if zoning and building codes had been in place at the time of the tornado many of the rebuilding problems would already had been resolved.
Last night Commissioner John McPeek took the first official steps with a motion calling for the city attorney to draft a building code ordinance. The council will consider the ordinance at the April 19 meeting. It's expected to adopt the state's building code as the city's.
McPeek's motion passed 4-0, with Gregg still absent, though listening to the council meeting on his laptop in the hospital.
McPeek opened his portion of the council meeting calling for the moves before introducing local insurance man Bill Ghent, and former Barnes Lumber owner David Clemmons to make the case for building codes.
"Since the storm a lot of things have been happening in the city, but I think this is something the city needs to consider," said McPeek.
Ghent began with praises for all the city, its residents and volunteers had accomplished since the tornado.
"I think the community came together rather strongly," he said. "The most precious thing anyone can give is their time. I want to say thank you to all the groups and people that came to our aid."
A long supporter of building codes he couldn't emphasize enough how they made a difference in homes hit by the storm.
"We've had lots of mayors, lots of councils and lots of talk about building codes over the years in this community, ... [but] when you look at the homes that survived the tornado and those that did not," he said before reeling off his own stats.
His insurance agency alone had 83 homes with major hits, not livable but repairable, 13 total losses, two deaths and 20 totaled automobiles.
"It gave a person a good look at the construction and the ways homes held up in this attack by nature," he said.
Ghent pointed out that most builders already follow building codes, the state's if not a neighboring community's within a 100 miles. By law home construction contracts are supposed to include them.
What Harrisburg lacks, he said, was anyway to enforce them.
"I think it is time that we, the city of Harrisburg, should take control of the enforcement of those codes, rather than the state or a community 100 miles away from here," he argued noting that since the storm the city's seen "plenty of scalawags, carpet baggers and real estate speculators come around."
Building codes, he stressed, could protect Harrisburg residents.
Clemmons mostly seconded Ghent's comments, including the good words for the city and its citizens in the tornado's aftermath.
"The initial response to this disaster was absolutely unbelievable. I live at the opposite end of Bill's street and we've got about two of the only houses left on that street," Clemmons said.
"I agree with Bill 100 percent that we need to be enforcing our own code. Since 1964, I know of at least three committees that I was on that we spent months and months, or even a year or more, formulating what we thought was the best program, fire codes, building codes," he recalled.
Yet each time he noted someone would complain and no progress would be made.
"I urge you to move forward on all three of these things. Home rule - every progressive city in Illinois has home rule. I've been a proponent of it. Building codes and zoning are also a must," he urged.
As to zoning McPeek said he wanted to wait until the mayor could return to the city as he knew he had ideas on how to proceed, but he and the council left no doubt that the issue would be addressed in upcoming meetings.
Home rule will take longer. The city can only take action to place the question of adopting home rule on the November ballot. The city's voters would have final say.
The Illinois Constitution grants home rule status automatically to cities with at least 25,000 residents. Smaller communities can only adopt it through referendum.
Home rule grants local governments greater flexibility in addressing issues.
"Home rule units may exercise and perform concurrently with the State any power or function of a home rule unit to the extent that the General Assembly by law does not specifically limit the concurrent exercise or specifically declare the State's exercise to be exclusive," declares the state constitution.
Marion and Carbondale have been home rule communities for a number of years. Johnston City voters approved home rule for their struggling community in 2010 in what's probably the closest community that's adopted it.