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The Mechanics
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Local Government Thu Aug 06 2009

The Aurora Hotel Facilities Board

Lets say you are the second largest city in Illinois and a developer wants to put a new Hotel in the city...

By the way...

  • The land is zoned for that use.
  • The developer owns the land and two years ago modified the plans as requested by the city.
  • It's for a Hampton Inn, not some sort of 'funky' hotel.
  • They are not asking the city for a dime of money.
  • It's going to be next to a Meijer on Route 59, not much residential near by.
  • It's on the edge of town

Most people would think, new tax revenue, construction spending in this economy cool...

Well that would not be what the city of Aurora would think.....

Instead the City Council feels that they need to be the Hotel Facilities Board, here is some of the comments from the last committee of the whole meeting taken from the Beacon News

But Aurora's own studies show that demand for hotel rooms in the city has dwindled below zero, and some aldermen are concerned that any new hotel might mean trouble for those currently operating.

So they don't want to add a new hotel because the competition might be bad for existing hotels? Wow, what a benevolent government we have in Aurora that is willing to work to protect those businesses that are already in town by preventing competition. Is that the role of government? To protect existing business in town by preventing competition within town? Last time I checked we don't have a planned economy in Aurora. I am looking forward to the city preventing the addition of any more used car lots, tattoo parlors and Mexican restaurants since we have plenty of those and any new ones might take business away from the existing ones.

Like when the city offered $2.26 Million to bring Ballydoyle to downtown I am sure the city carefully considered the impact of bars in the city. Like the Roundhouse and Tavern on the Fox....

Oh yeah Tavern on the Fox closed shortly after Ballydoyle opened...

Alderman Rick Mervine, 8th Ward, said hotel buildings are notoriously difficult to repurpose, and his concern is creating more blight that the city would have to clean up. He said many hotels in Aurora have already gone out of business or been bought by lesser companies than they were approved under, and he doesn't want to see that happen again.

It's a clever new development policy; because you may not succeed we are just going to help you avoid the risk entirely. What a brilliant strategy, fortunately we have a downtown filled with buildings that we have been able to repurpose for city offices at street level as well as tattoo parlors.

We have a host of other buildings that we have been able to repurpose into used car lots!


View Larger Map

Just like we were able to repurpose two of the last places in town you could have seen a first run movie into a Bar/Restaurant and a pile of rubble!

Planned economies failed in Eastern Europe, let's not bring them to the second largest city in Illinois.

 
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Sue Devi / August 12, 2009 8:11 PM

Rick Mervine is the Asst. to know whom. I want the city council to say no to any hotels/Motels at Eola Exit. I bet the corrupted officials have plans to give to some people over there. The whole city council have to be changed if we want our city to be vibrant. I think Mayor and his staff are blind and do not see the empty down town.

mba application / July 10, 2013 3:13 AM

In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.

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