Local conservationists held a roost-in on Wednesday, April 9th, calling on the Rock Island City Council to delay a tax increment financing (TIF) district vote that would expand into the Milan Bottoms.
Located off Interstate 280 and Highway 92 is the largest bald eagle nocturnal roost-in the lower 48 states, which is adjacent to a proposed cannabis and gas station development site. Plans to expand the Parkway/I-280 Casino TIF district from Bally's Casino into the roosting site will be voted on Monday, April 14th.
Rock Island Mayor-elect Ashley Harris attended the roost-in. He said he wants to be as transparent as possible while he hears from the developers and concerned residents.
“Rock Island as a city, you know, as a community, we don't want to make any mistakes," Harris said in a phone interview with WVIK following the roost-in. "And I'm the type of person that I don't put plans or profit over anything that's important, especially when it comes to the people and their issues being heard.”
Janelle Swanberg, a Quad City Audubon Society member as well as a member of the Nahant Marsh board, said she appreciates the mayor-elect coming out to hear their concerns.
“We're very fortunate that the mayor-elect of Rock Island showed up and was very vocal about his vision for Rock Island and a real change in the way that Rock Island, I think, sees itself and does its business. And he wants to be very transparent," Swanberg said.
Retired biologist Kelly McKay has been working with various environmental groups, holding discussions with the city and the developers of A HANA ILLOWA LLC, Matt Stern, and Jeff Hughbanks, about modifications to the project.
According to McKay, the city's hiring of engineering firm Shive-Hattery to study what can and can't be developed in the Milan Bottoms is unsuitable for an environmental survey. McKay said the study was essentially a desktop exercise using outdated databases.
"Even the DNR's (Department of Natural Resources) own disclaimer says, this assessment should not be viewed as a replacement for actual site visits. Nor should it be viewed as a replacement for actual field surveys or onsite surveys," McKay said.
The study was conducted shortly after RiverStone Group sold the 538 acres to the city in 2022.
Last month, the city and one of the developers, Hughbanks, held a press conference to update the community on the project.
Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms announced a conservation easement and wetland task force that the council passed at the following meeting on March 24th. The city has six months to write and vote on the easement, prohibiting development within the wetlands. The task force will meet for over a year to discuss ways to care for the Milan Bottoms.
During the conference, Mayor Thoms mentioned the task force could find ways to improve the wetlands, such as walkways and kayaks. McKay said that would void the future conservation easement.
“[T]hey're talking about promoting recreational development and public access, and the recreational development that's been banding about is bike paths and boardwalks and canoe and kayak rentals. Well, that type of development will be just as disruptive, maybe more so, than the original one, because you've got, now you've got bike paths and boardwalks going all throughout the Bottoms, this biologically rich area, so that's a real problem.”
Swanberg said the Milan Bottoms is an ecological jewel for the community and ecosystem.
"And this ecosystem runs all the way up and down the Mississippi River," Swanberg said. "And it's something that we are blessed with here. And I think we're all asking why would the city of Rock Island choose to squander that ecological jewel, and why would we endanger these eagles that were endangered at the hands of man and DDT [dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane] (a pesticide)."
Mayor-elect Harris said he wants to build trust and transparency between the community and the city when he takes office next month.
"[T]hey have concerns, questions that have not been answered, and I think it's the responsibility of me to give that to the public, you know, just a line of transparency so we'll know exactly what we're getting into and exactly what it's going to potentially cost us even years down the road. And that's very important to me," Harris said.
Environmental groups are holding another roost-in on Monday, April 14th, at 5:30 p.m. in front of city hall, 1528 Third Avenue, before the city council meeting.
The developers hope to break ground in mid-April.
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