In a few years, a parking lot in the heart of Campustown may look entirely different if the city of Champaign finds the right developer.
On Tuesday, the Champaign City Council will debate whether the city staff’s draft of a proposal request for Parking Lot J, located between Green and Healey streets, is ready for distribution, as well as how the city plans to go about the proposal process.
According to Planning Director Bruce Knight, all developer proposals must meet certain requirements in order to be considered for a possible bid. These requirements include replacing the current parking spaces, constructing active ground floor retail or restaurant space along Sixth and Green, leaving space for proper Boneyard Creek maintenance beneath the ground floor, among other items. The city also wants developers to design residential, office and hotel space above the ground floors while increasing public parking spaces.
According to the report, many Campustown businesses have expressed concern of what they saw as problems in the city’s vision of the lot in January. One major concern was the condition of the area’s public parking spaces and how new buildings would affect it. Knight said the proposal addresses these concerns to prospective developers, such as having an outlet on Healey Street.
“All these requirements say what can and what needs to be done,” Knight said.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Knight said the lot has received development interest in the past and is ready to distribute the proposal to developers. Interest has grown after an October decision by the council allowed the city to prepare these request proposals.
According to Knight, the goal is to get the request proposals out as soon as possible and begin negotiating agreements with developers this summer. According to the report, city staff would like to see projects near completion by summer 2014, although this date is dependent on a number of issues, including the developers’ timetable for such projects.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Champaign City Council Chambers, 102 N. Neil St.
