The Normal Town Council on Monday approved a new ordinance establishing licensing requirements for retail tobacco shops and heard a presentation on the affordable housing shortage by the McLean County Regional Planning Commission.
Previously, the council had expressed concerns about the number of smoke shops currently operating in Uptown. The ordinance approved Monday is related, but applies to the entire town.
All future retailers dedicating more than 15% of their floor of display space to tobacco products will have to undergo licensing requirements, including being at least 1,500 feet from another tobacco shop or a school or daycare.
Licenses will cost $200 per year. All new retailers hoping to sell tobacco must go through the licensing requirements. Existing retailers will have to do so a year from now.
Council member Andy Byars, who previously voted against a measure on reviewing zoning laws around Uptown smoke shops, voted in favor of the ordinance along with the rest of the council, stating the ordinance is “fairly standard” compared to similar licensure requirements in other towns.
Bloomington also requires a license for tobacco retailers.
Council member Kevin McCarthy said the ordinance “aligns with the town’s longstanding emphasis on health and wellness,” adding the requirements are a good step toward limiting minors’ exposure to tobacco products.
Several council members pointed out that other “vice-related” retailers, including those offering alcohol and cannabis products as well as gambling services, face licensing requirements.
“You can start to see a consistency in how we’re starting to approach how we try to keep these away from minors, so they’re not directly sold or easily consumable next to where we know students aggregate like schools and the like,” McCarthy told WGLT.
Housing report
The council also heard a report and recommendations Monday from the McLean County Regional Planning Commission [MCRPC] concerning the affordable housing shortage in Normal and surrounding communities.
The MCRPC released a draft of its Regional Housing Recovery Plan in March. Community planners conducted research and reached out for community input in drafting recommendations for the council and related bodies.
Their research found both rising housing need and lower availability in Normal since the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the report pointed to the Rivian hiring surge as indicative of the problem.
They found that 50-80% of Rivian’s workforce commutes at least 45 minutes one way to get to work, and assemblers and fabricators were the professional category most likely to have a long commute to McLean County, closely followed by those in computer-related occupations and food service workers.
MCRPC executive director Raymond Lai and community planner Mark Adams provided a series of recommendations to address the housing crisis, including forming an implementation committee, hiring a housing coordinator or policy analyst, and conducting a review of current zoning ordinances in the area.
Adams pointed out that zoning is an area where bodies like the council can get involved.
“One thing that was pretty clear is that zoning can be a hindrance sometimes to affordable housing,” he said.
The MCRPC’s research showed that Normal’s housing market is dominated by detached single-family homes that are often less affordable than multi-family homes like apartments or attached single-family residences such as townhomes.
In contrast, Bloomington’s housing market has more affordable options.
Lai, Adams, and council members all expressed that it will be vital for all three governing bodies in the community, including the Normal Town Council, the Bloomington City Council, and the McLean County Board, to be involved in the conversation around affordable housing.
“Certainly it’s going to take representatives from at least the three governments to put some concentrated effort and time and energy behind it,” McCarthy told WGLT, noting the difficulty with each body trying to deal with a set of community-wide issues independently.
Council member Chemberly Harris also noted the need for federal involvement in addressing the housing crisis, noting that they have been largely “hands-off” thus far. Without federal involvement, trying to address the crisis at a local level is “like putting a band-aid over a gunshot wound,” she said.
Also at the meeting, Cedar Ridge Elementary School fourth grader Nidhi Patil was recognized as the winner of the town’s first-ever Water Cover Contest, promoting the importance of water. Her artwork, entitled "Water is Life," is featured on the cover of the report, and she received a gift card.
In other business, the council approved:
- A new public utility easement at the site of a new Raising Cane’s Chicken restaurant
- $34,950 for the Constitution Trail Lighting Project at the Connie Link Amphitheater
- $256,017 for new audio-visual equipment in the council chamber
- An agreement with Midwest Fiber Recycling for the institution of a dropbox recycling program in the area.
