Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing Kathy Reiser at mailbag@news-gazette.com.
Whether current city ordinances would allow a cannabis-consumption lounge in C-U … why Champaign rescinded its massage-licensing ordinance several years ago while the county kept its own ordinance on the books … and whether designating a particular stretch of Mattis Avenue as U.S. 150 might ease congestion on part of Prospect Avenue. All in this week’s Mailbag.
“I saw that Danville’s city council denied a developer’s request to bring a marijuana consumption lounge to that city. What are the chances Champaign or Urbana would approve one? Seems like another good tax generator.”
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin said her city has never had a formal request from a developer to bring a cannabis lounge to Urbana, and that on-premise consumption currently is not allowed.
“If a developer wanted to do this in Urbana, we’d need to first amend our Zoning Ordinance to establish rules for on-site cannabis consumption. When we amended our Zoning Ordinance in 2019 to add rules for recreational cannabis, the State didn’t have any rules in place for on-site consumption, so we did not make any rules of our own. There’s a footnote in the old (city) council memo that states:
‘While the Act allows local governments to regulate “on-premise consumption” (e.g., cannabis smoking lounges), the proposal does not include regulations for such uses. The state is expected to release guidance to help clarify how on-premise consumption may be regulated. At that time, the City of Urbana may choose to address the issue. Until the issue is addressed, on-premise consumption is not allowed.’
“To date, we’ve had no reason to address the issue, so we haven’t,” Marlin said.
Across Wright Street, Champaign Zoning Administrator Kat Trotter said cannabis lounges are not a defined or permitted use in the City of Champaign Zoning Ordinance. “The Champaign City Council has not considered a proposal for a cannabis lounge. If a developer is interested in opening a cannabis lounge, they should contact the Planning and Development Department for more information on the current regulations and process.”
CROO, the State of Illinois’ Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office, says on its FAQ page that “the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act permits local governments to authorize consumption lounges, either on-site at a dispensary, or at a standalone retail tobacco store.” The Luna Lounge and Smoke Shop in Sesser, near Rend Lake in Southern Illinois, bills itself as the state’s first on-site consumption lounge. It opened in 2021.
“The Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 became law on Jan. 5 of this year. Our local Social Security office staff told me they have not received guidance on how to proceed, and that those who are qualified for the new benefit will be notified. When? How?”
A timely question, with an answer that became much clearer just a few days ago.
A Feb. 25 update on the Social Security Administration website (ssa.gov) says “starting the week of Feb. 24, 2025, SSA is beginning to pay retroactive benefits and will increase monthly benefit payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) and GPO (Government Pension Offset).
“If a beneficiary is due retroactive benefits as a result of the Act, they will receive a one-time retroactive payment, deposited into the bank account SSA has on file, by the end of March. This retroactive payment will cover the increase in their benefit amount back to January 2024, the month when WEP and GPO no longer apply.
“Social Security benefits are paid one month behind. Most affected beneficiaries will begin receiving their new monthly benefit amount in April 2025 (for their March 2025 benefit).
“Anyone whose monthly benefit is adjusted, or who will get a retroactive payment, will receive a mailed notice from Social Security explaining the benefit change or retroactive payment.
“NOTE: A beneficiary may receive two mailed notices, the first when WEP or GPO is removed from their record, and a second when their monthly benefit amount is adjusted for their new monthly payment amount. They may receive the retroactive payment before receiving the mailed notice.
“We have been able to expedite payments due to the use of automation. For the many complex cases that cannot be processed automatically, additional time is required to manually update the records and pay both retroactive benefits and the new benefits amount.
“We urge beneficiaries to wait until April to inquire about the status of their retroactive payment, since these payments will process incrementally throughout March.
“Beneficiaries should also wait until after receiving their April payment before contacting SSA to ask about their monthly benefit amount because the new amount will not be reflected until April for their March payment.”
“The City of Springfield recently shut down several massage parlors that were non-compliant with a 2024 ordinance addressing concerns about prostitution and human trafficking in that city. Do we have similar ordinances locally?”
In 1975, the City of Champaign established a Massage Establishment License to regulate the practice of massage in Champaign, according to city spokesperson Jeff Hamilton. Over time, though, he said “many of the city’s regulations became obsolete or were subsequently included in other city and state regulations.
“For example, the State of Illinois passed the Massage Therapy Practice Act and now licenses all massage practitioners. Because of the stringent rules required by state law, including specific education and training requirements and criminal background checks, the city rescinded its massage establishment licensing requirements in 2022.”
Hamilton pointed us to the state statute, which seems to make no distinction between relaxation massage spas/parlors and therapeutic massage practices. It says “persons engaged in massage for compensation must be licensed by the Department” of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Champaign County Executive Steve Summers sent me a copy of the current Ordinance Providing for the Licensing and Regulation of Massage Establishments, passed in late 1977, which governs such businesses in unincorporated areas of the county. The ordinance cites its authority, granted by the General Assembly, to “license and regulate persons engaged in the business of providing entertainment and recreation.”
It appears the county’s highly specific application procedures and conditions of licensure were written to weed-out license applicants/owners/employees with a history of illegal activity of a sexual nature – whether such activity took place here in Champaign County or elsewhere. One provision calls for each licensee to provide a current list of employees, with recent photographs and Social Security numbers of those employees, to be updated every month.
In early February, the State Journal-Register in Springfield reported that 11 massage parlors in that city were shut down for failing to apply for the required local permit and/or lacking a licensed massage therapist on-site. The Springfield City Council passed the ordinance in May 2024.
We reached out to Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin for information on any ordinances governing massage establishments in that city, and have not yet heard back. If/when we do, we’ll provide an update in a future Mailbag column.
“With the heavy traffic load on North Prospect Avenue in Champaign, and the fact that it’s one of the narrowest 4-lane roads in town, why couldn’t U.S. 150 be rerouted onto Mattis Avenue between Bloomington Road and Springfield Avenue?”
From a layperson’s perspective, Mattis Avenue does seem better-suited to heavy traffic. It is wider, and seems to have concrete medians and dedicated turn lanes in all the right places.
But Illinois Department of Transportation engineer Kensil Garnett says making such a change may not be such a no-brainer. The current average daily traffic count (ADT) ranges from 16,500 to 20,800 on Mattis Avenue, and the ADT ranges from 18,600 to 21,900 within the Springfield Avenue to Bloomington Road sections on Prospect Avenue. That stretch of Prospect isn’t just a city street; it is part of U.S. 150.
“Traffic volumes tend to balance themselves out in urban areas as the traveling public finds the routes that best suit their travels need regardless of if it is a U.S. marked route or not,” Garnett wrote in an email.
As the News-Gazette previously reported, IDOT is in the design phase for a project to completely reconfigure Prospect Avenue between Springfield Avenue and Marketview Drive. For the Springfield-to-Bradley Avenue section of this project, the roadway will convert to a “complete street” corridor consisting of two through lanes, each 11 feet wide, and one 10-foot-wide bidirectional left-turn lane, with dedicated buffered bicycle lanes on each side of the street.
“Most of the traffic on Prospect Avenue between Bloomington Road and Springfield Avenue is local and not there just because it is marked as a U.S. route, except for trucks. The non-local trucks are there because Prospect Avenue has a connection to I-74.”
Garnett said IDOT’s proposed changes to Prospect Avenue “could make things better” for the residents who live on or near Prospect and for the motorists who use it heavily. Some neighbors who live along and near Prospect Avenue have expressed skepticism about that idea.
While IDOT maintains all of U.S. 150, it is still a federally designated highway. Thus, “realigning U.S. Route 150 would also require a jurisdictional transfer (JT) and a study would need to be performed to ensure that Mattis Avenue and Springfield Avenue would adequately handle the extra truck traffic.
“From a logistics standpoint, this could lead to additional truck traffic on Bloomington Road, westbound from Prospect Avenue as they leave the interstate, if the JT took Prospect Avenue out of the network of truck routes. That would likely require an ordinance by the city for ‘No Thru Truck Traffic.’
“It is possible that if the truck route network was modified, trucks would begin to use University Avenue to enter the area from I-57 instead of I-74, but that change would likely take a long time to happen. If a JT were to happen without the ordinance, trucks would likely continue to use Prospect Avenue regardless of the posted U.S. Route 150 alignment.”
In response to last week’s Mailbag question about concerts at the UI’s Memorial Stadium, Dave Roesch, retired stage manager at the former Assembly Hall, checked in from Ohio with more information on concerts that mighta-coulda been … but weren’t.
Roesch said Michael Jackson and the Jackson family’s Victory Tour almost came to Memorial Stadium in 1984. The Assembly Hall’s then-director, Tom Parkinson, and his staff “had the Victory Tour folks come look at the stadium. When they saw it, they told (Tom) to ‘book it.’ This was around July 26, 1984.
“But as hard as Tom and his staff tried to make this happen, (Illini football coach) Mike White and the athletic staff didn’t want to have a ‘rock and roll’ concert, as they called it, to be there. Tom called it a ‘family show.’ They didn’t want to cancel a practice that they had planned. Not a game, but a practice. So the concert never happened.”
All of the Jackson brothers performed in Victory Tour concerts, but Michael clearly was the headliner after the 1982 release of his Thriller album. A listing of the Victory Tour’s dates and sites tells us the Jacksons put on three shows at the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium in Knoxville — which suggests that promoters did not think it was necessary to book shows exclusively in or near large cities such as Dallas, Philadelphia or Toronto.
“What a shame” the UI missed out on the tour, Roesch said. “It would have been a tremendous show.”
Roesch said Parkinson also tried to get the Rolling Stones to appear at Memorial Stadium in 1994, but that request didn’t get very far. “They stayed in Chicago and did another show there, I believe.”
“I often drive by the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Urbana and I am curious as to why the building was named after 2nd Lt. Richard H. Stephens. Why was he honored in this way? Was he from the local area?”
My thanks to the Champaign County Historical Archives staff for the assist with research for this answer.
The Armed Forces Reserve Center, as it was originally called, was dedicated in September 1962. The building’s Army wing was dedicated to the memory of Second Lt. Stephens (Army), and the Navy wing dedicated in memory of Lt. (jg) Robert Murray.
According to an article in the Urbana Courier, Lt. Stephens was born in Urbana in 1921, attended Onarga Military School and graduated from Urbana High School before entering military service in 1940. He was killed in action at Niederberg, Germany, on March 28, 1945. Lt. Stephens was awarded the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars, the French Croix de Guerre and the Purple Heart.
Lt. Murray was born in Champaign in 1918 and graduated from Champaign High School and the UI. He was killed on May 4, 1945, when his ship was sunk during a Japanese air attack. He received the Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars, both of the latter posthumously.
The U.S. Army Reserve website shows the 342nd Chemical Company and the 9th Battalion, USAR Careers Group, are based at the USAR center in Urbana. The Navy Reserve website does not show any USNR units based in Urbana.
“Do you know why they have taken ‘The Phantom’ out of the N-G’s Sunday funnies? I was eager to see the outcome of the current storyline.”
“The Phantom” is a serialized comic strip about a costumed superhero. Managing Editor Niko Dugan says the company that syndicates that comic — and “Judge Parker” — conducted an audit of its accounts late last year. And at the start of 2025, “it informed The News-Gazette that it had mistakenly been given access to ‘The Phantom’ and ‘Judge Parker’ and would either need to pay a much higher rate to keep them or drop them, starting in February. The News-Gazette made the difficult decision to end their runs. We apologize for the abrupt loss.”
Readers: if you can remember to go online and look for it each week, I discovered that the most recent weekday and Sunday installments of “The Phantom” are available at the phantomtrail.com website. The latest “Judge Parker” comics also may be accessed online, at comicskingdom.com/judge-parker.
“All of a sudden, there’s a lot going on at First and Marshall Streets in Champaign. What’s being built there?
The City of Champaign’s building-permits database shows a permit has been granted for footings and foundation(s), and a permit application for a “new 4-story multi-family/offices building at 60 E Marshall St.” is under review. The fenced-in construction area also has a “309 S. First St.” sign on it, perhaps for the benefit of materials-delivery drivers.
Several of the properties on that block, at the northwest corner of First and Marshall streets, have changed hands very recently via quitclaim deeds. Tax bills for all of those properties, a short block north of Springfield Avenue along First Street, go to Champaign Midtown West, LLC, 212 E Springfield Avenue, Champaign – the address of The University Group real-estate rental agency.
“Are they finally getting ready to open a business at the NW corner of Mattis and Bradley? That gas station’s been vacant for years!”
We’ve gotten fairly frequent reader questions about when and whether the long-closed gas station and convenience store at Mattis and Bradley in Champaign will reopen. It sits at one of the city’s busiest intersections, and readers have noted contractors working in the former C-store from time to time.
Several months ago, a contractor at the site told us it was being renovated as another convenience store and gas station. This week, new CITGO retail gas pumps were delivered to the property. A supplier who was working at the site a few days ago said he expected the new business to open in a month or two.
“Is there a reason why some Champaign street signs are in ALL-CAPS, and other are … not?”
Matter o’ fact, there is a reason. Champaign Public Works spokesperson Kris Koester said the standards in the federally mandated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) previously required use of all-caps on street-name signs. But a few years ago, MUTCD specs were updated to require the combination of upper- and lower-case letters. Their reasoning: names in all-caps can be harder for the traveling public to read.
Research bears that out, in both print and online applications. Harvard University’s Digital Accessibility guidelines say “readability is reduced with all-caps because all words have a uniform rectangular shape, meaning readers can’t identify words by their shape.” From a distance, in a moving vehicle, it’s important for drivers to be able to identify street names at a glance.
“Instead of making every entity change these signs all at once, the standard allows for their gradual replacement as they are damaged or when they are replaced in routine operations. This is the approach that we have taken to their replacement” in Champaign,” Koester said.
That’s why you may see all-caps signs at one corner of an intersection – say, First and Logan – and caps-and-lower-case signs at the diagonally opposite corner, First and White. Or even on the same sign pole – for example, at Church and State streets.