By Edward Husar
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
Two major business organizations are opposing a proposal to allow a new village to be incorporated just northeast of Quincy's city limits.
The Great River Economic Development Foundation and the Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce convened a press conference Thursday to announce their joint opposition to the formation of the village of Ewbanks. The groups will ask the Quincy City Council to withhold its consent when the council votes on the issue Monday night.
Doug Aeilts, chairman of the GREDF Board of Directors, and Glenn Bemis, chairman of the chamber's governing board, addressed members of the news media in the lobby of the Oakley-Lindsay Center.
They issued a joint statement saying, in part: "The formation of new municipalities within the 1 1/2 mile jurisdiction of the city of Quincy would present a significant roadblock to future development, jeopardize the long-range plans carefully developed by the joint efforts of our organizations, the city of Quincy and Adams County, and result in the waste of the investments already made in infrastructure to support this planned growth."
Aeilts and Bemis said GREDF and the chamber are committed to fostering economic development in Quincy and Adams County, and they believe allowing any new village to form so close to Quincy would be counterproductive.
"What it effectively does is limit the growth, particularly of the city of Quincy, but then also raises the complexity of the jurisdictional boundaries between all the various new entities that could be there," Aeilts said.
The Ewbanks proposal calls for creating a village three miles long and about three-quarters of a mile wide generally along the west side of 60th Street. If the village is incorporated and adopts zoning regulations, Aeilts said, the village — just under two square miles in size — would be able to exert zoning control over an area totaling more than 12 square miles within 1 1/2 miles of its boundary.
Aeilts said the amount of territory in Ewbanks' control would be comparable to the current size of Quincy. He said that could hurt Quincy's hope of expanding in that direction.
"In effect it cuts off the entire northeast quadrant of the city of Quincy from additional growth," he said.
Bemis called the Ewbanks issue "one of the most significant decisions facing the City Council in the last 25 years."
He warned that the creation of a village so close to Quincy's border would not only cut off future growth but also reduce future tax revenue going to the city.
"What this will do is reduce the tax base needed to support redevelopment, will result in higher taxes for Quincy businesses as areas of new tax bases are blocked, and would prevent the city from recovering much of the cost of infrastructure invested into to support a carefully developed comprehensive plan," Bemis said.
He also said creating a new village with its own zoning rules so close to Quincy would pose a headache for future developments along the fringe area.
"With multiple sets of zoning, building codes, etc., contractors, developers and other people coming to town — new businesses — will have an absolute nightmare trying to work through," he said.
Hubert Staff, an attorney representing a group of residents seeking for form the village of Ewbanks, took issue with some of those arguments.
"I think it's the height of arrogance for GREDF and the Chamber of Commerce to assume that only the city of Quincy has the wherewithal to do proper planning," Staff said.
"I think there are other units of government, including hopefully the new unit of government of Ewbanks village, that also could conceivably adopt a plan that was not inconsistent with Quincy's plan."
Staff said concerns about the village's ability to inhibit Quincy's future growth "are based on a false premise" that Quincy is trying to annex aggressively to the northeast.
He said at the current rate of annexations, it would take 50 to 70 years for Quincy to reach Ewbanks. Reaching the village sooner, he said, would require changing the city's policy to use only voluntary annexation and to have developers pay for infrastructure improvements, such as water, sewer and streets.
"This City Council and previous City Councils have not shown a willingness to involuntarily annex nor to build the infrastructure and say build it and they will come. So their premise is not based on fact nor history," Staff said.
When asked Thursday if a proposal to build an ethanol plant in the Ewbanks neighborhood had anything to do with the opposition to the incorporation of Ewbanks, Aeilts said the issue is "related" since a main reason the village is being proposed is to fight the plant proposed by Energy Resource Partners.
"But our position specifically is dealing with the creation of new municipalities within the mile and a half jurisdiction of the city of Quincy," Aeilts said.
Staff said: "In spite of what they say, I believe this is an attempt to support Energy Resource Partners in the location of this ethanol plant on the Mittelberg property."
