City votes to rezone Galesburg Neighborhood - CBS4 - WHBF Quad Cities, IL-IA News Weather Sports

City votes to rezone Galesburg Neighborhood

By: Christine Souders

Emotions ran high in Galesburg Monday night as the city voted on rezoning an area around a quiet neighborhood. 

There were definitely some tense moments leading up to a unanimous decision by council members during the meeting to rezone about 20 acres of cornfield along North Seminary Street to commercial and residential two properties.

It's been just over a month since Raufeisen Development presented an application for rezoning the land, and that's had residents from the neighborhood fired up about issues concerning safety and more traffic once a hotel, retention facility, and duplexes are built there.

But after two hours of neighbors saying their peace, even to the point of bringing one woman to tears, the council announced all 6 votes in favor of the project, causing some mixed reactions from neighborhood residents.

"It's a classic case of 'not in my backyard', easier to say for us not in our backyard but put yourself in our shoes, you'd be saying the same thing," said Richard McGee, a Neighborhood Resident.

"Galesburg has shown very little evidence of recovering from our recession, and any evidence we have of people making responsible business investments in Galesburg should be welcomed,"said Mike Krolle, another Neighborhood Resident.

The developer says the decision to rezone will double the value of the land once buildings go up, but definite plans for the hotel and duplexes are still being negotiated.