Peoria moves to unify downtown zoning, rezones city-owned parcels to match downtown core

Peoria’s council approved a city-initiated rezone on April 22 to bring roughly five acres — mostly city-owned parcels that include Osuna Park and adjacent Washington Street parcels — into the same downtown commercial/residential mixed-use zoning used across the downtown core.

Planning and Community Development Director Chris Hawkins said the rezoning is a “housekeeping” effort to remove islanded Planned Area Development (PAD) and agricultural zoning designations that lingered from a past economic-development initiative. The PAD and AG zoning were tied to an early 2000s ground-lease concept that never materialized; staff recommended returning those parcels to the downtown commercial mixed-use district to ensure consistent development standards and to apply updated downtown sign and design rules.

Hawkins outlined recent downtown momentum — site grading and pending construction for multi-family projects east of City Hall, the Caldwell County Barbecue groundbreaking, Jefferson Place design work, and a privately led Puri Gateway multifamily project — as rationale for clarifying zoning and permitting rules.

The city held the required neighborhood meeting and a Planning & Zoning Commission hearing before forwarding a favorable recommendation to council; the council unanimously approved the rezone. Hawkins noted the rezone does not change park disposition plans for Osuna Park; it only harmonizes the regulatory framework that will govern future redevelopment.

The zoning change is intended to apply the updated downtown development and sign standards adopted earlier this year consistently across the downtown core.