Kimberly Malay: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: St. CharlesWebsite: http://www.kimmalay.comOffice sought: St. Charles City Council Ward 5 (4-year Term)Age: 45Family: Married, 1 childOccupation: Certified Optician, Direct SalesEducation: Some College, College of DuPageCivic involvement: Currently - Near West Neighborhood Association, Farnsworth Mansion Foundation Past - Downtown St. Charles Partnership, River Corridor Foundation, Bob Leonard Walk-a-thon, The Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Walk.Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Encouraging New economic development and existing business retention thoughtout the entire City, which create revenues, jobs and investment in our community. This includes working on completing 1st Street, revitalizing Downtown, revitalizing the Charlestowne Mall and a proper redevelopment of the Old St. Charles Mall property. We need to develop an arsenal of incentives to help make this happen without having to use TIFs as the main go to incentive.Key Issue 2 Responsible and appropriate development/redevelopment, which needs to be balanced throughout our community, but needs to address the needs of our residents like providing 55+ developments and special needs housing.Key Issue 3 Restore and enhance the residents' image of the City's Government with ethics, transparency and communication.Questions Answers Under what circumstances, if any, should financial incentives, including TIF districts, be used to lure residential and commercial development to the city?To create interest for new businesses to locate and open throughout our city, we may need to consider the use of incentives, but we need more than just TIFs and tax rebates. Those should not be our first go to incentives. We should be developing an arsenal of incentives that we can use based on the need and priority of drawing that type of business or development. Some of these incentives could include reduced permit fees, matching grant programs for things like exterior improvements, landscaping and signage or possibly variances to certain requirements if appropriate to name a few. For another level of incentives we could look at giving assistance in the construction of Sewer or Road Improvements. It was incentives like this that were used to bring Meijer into St. Charles. The City will need to look at what we are in need of and gain input as to what the residents want and are in agreement with and set those priorities accordingly. Regarding the use of incentives for residential development/redevelopment, I am not in favor of the use of TIFs. If a proposal was presented for a residential project for a type of residential that is needed such as a 55+ type of development or special needs housing then the possible use of some other types of incentives as mentioned above could be appropriate. Regarding TIFs, I will not go as far as to say we should never use TIFs again, but we should not be using them as our first go to option. In fact it should be thought of as one of the last options in my opinion. As I said above we need to have options when it comes to incentives and we should look at all other options before determining a TIF is needed. I will also add that the format that has been used for our first 5 TIFs has not performed well for us. Those TIF's are costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars each year because they are not performing as needed. The format used for the new Lexington Club TIF is a much better structure and has a reduced risk because it is a pay as you go format. If we are to ever do another TIF I feel strongly this would be the only format to use.What is the future of Charlestowne Mall as you see it? Would you support the use of eminent domain by the city to gain control of the property?Currently I am not in favor of using eminent domain for the Charlestowne Mall. I believe more patience and time should be given to see what happens in the next year before we ever seriously discuss eminent domain. Recently it was reported that the current owners are entertaining the possibility of selling the Mall. I believe we need to see how this unfolds. My hope is that the City will reach out to work with the current owners to help aggressively market it if they choose to sell it. I also hope the City is able to build a good working relationship with new owners to revitalize the Mall if indeed it does sell. Should the current owners decide to keep the Mall, I think that the City needs to make it very clear they are here to help them and that both parties can come together and develop a strong relationship and plan that will help revitalize the Mall. I say this because the relationship has been severely strained over the last 3 years. During the Comprehensive Plan Open House that was held specifically regarding the Mall, a lot of great ideas were shared. I would like to see some of them incorporated. We may also need to consider a redesign of the Mall to update it and possibly enlarge it. Of course in the end the owners need to decide what their vision is. We as the City need to make sure that the owners know we are here to work with them and want success for them because in the end success is in the best interest of our Community as well as the owners .Are you comfortable with the mix of taverns and the conduct of their patrons in downtown St. Charles?No I am not comfortable with the mix of taverns and conduct of their patrons. We have had a lot of issues due to the number of taverns and the conduct of their patrons. I realize it is not all of the taverns nor is it all the patrons, but we are out balance when you look at our commercial business mix downtown and with the problems we have experienced with the tavern patrons I am afraid we are losing potential commercial businesses. I believe in the Main Street philosophy of revitalization and historic preservation which believes you need to bring in restaurants and taverns to help bring in retail, but we have gone too far in that direction at this point. This issues has also caused safety concerns and we are losing customers because of it. I hear many say we are definitely not family friendly downtown anymore. We need to look at stiffer fines and penalties including revoking licenses. We also need to look at the different classification of licenses, their requirements and the number of licenses we are issuing and determine if changes need to be made to get a better handle on the issues. I do want to note though that I commend the many tavern owners who have joined together to form an organization to help deal with the issues that developed and would encourage them to continue their efforts. I for one look forward to working with them and making things downtown better for everyone.What aspects must a redevelopment of the old St. Charles Mall property include? Would you support any level of residential development on that property?The redevelopment of the old St. Charles Mall property is critical to the redevelopment of the entire Randall Rd corridor. This property has the best potential for commercial development and we need to look at the bigger picture when looking at redevelopment of this site. I believe we need to really look at the redevelopment of this site and the old Dominick's site together to give the redevelopment the best chance for success. I encourage the City, developer and residents to work together on this idea. Some will say that commercial does not work in this area but I disagree. When the Old Mall was there it was very successful for many years, but as happens with commercial it became outdated and undersized. If you look at Meijer just across the street and Geneva Commons they are doing very well. We need to create mass not just one or two big box stores, but we also need to attract new businesses to the area. We have plenty Targets, Walmarts and Best Buys along Randall Rd. We need something new for the Randall Rd corridor. We as a Council need put a strong focus on economic development and that includes directing our Economic Development Department to start aggressively seeking out new business from other regions around the Country so that we draw a larger customer base. Currently we have so few retail businesses that many St. Charles residents shop in our surrounding communities and those who used to come to shop to St. Charles from farther west and other areas as well, have stopped coming here and are going elsewhere because they can't get all of their shopping done, thus we lose tax revenue our City desperately needs. We need to create the mass and interest to bring it back home to St. Charles. The Old Mall property is a golden opportunity to make that happen as well a source of creating a host of new jobs in the area. I believe we must do that and can do that, but only if we open our eyes and minds with a new vision and attitude we have been lacking lately. We cannot develop to just develop. We as a City must strive and work forunique and smart? developments that will draw shoppers from surrounding communities, create jobs and sales tax revenues. We all have watched as up and down Randall Road our neighbors have added new businesses even in this horrible economy. It proves we haven't been doing our very best and that needs to change and if elected, I will strive and fight to get that happening in St. Charles too. If any residential is to be included in the redevelopment of the old mall and Dominick's properties, it should be located on the southern portion of the Dominick's site along Bricher Rd. I do question the need for any additional residential on either site though as we do have two other properties in the area that has been preliminarily approved for some residential use including townhomes and apartment/condos. Those properties are the property behind Meijer and the property located on the corner of 14th St. and Rt. 38 which would directly impact the mall site. These properties could potentially add a couple hundred residential units to the area. I have spoken to one of the property owners who has told me there has been no interest for that use on their property in a few years which makes me question the need for those uses on those sites, especially when we are talking about using a commercial zoned property to develop as residential. Another issue is balance. We need to be sure not over saturate one area with too many rental dwellings and then have very little of those types of residential in other areas of the City. To have a healthy community you need balance in all quadrants of the City. Again we need to look at what are our housing needs and make those our priority especially when changing zoning from commercial for residential. I will add that based on the City's own survey the residents don't feel there is a need for more residential either, but they do want more commercial development so again it concerns me that we would develop a commercial zoned parcel with residential.Talking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.We have experienced several break-ins in our area and the residents just don't feel as safe as they would prefer to. We need to work together to address this. More police presence in the area, working with the existing Neighborhood Watch groups and encouraging more of them to form and working directly with the police department to determine what is needed to improve this issue. Traffic is a major safety concern as well. Some of our side streets have become busier and less safe because of traffic on the main roads. We need to review the traffic patterns and talk with the neighbors and determine what can be done to make it safer. Possibly adding stop signs, some areas would like speed bumps etc.... At the same time we need to look at the main roads and determine how we can improve traffic flow to keep people from cutting through, while providing pedestrian safety for areas like downtown. We need to look at connectivity as well such as providing sidewalks in areas where they are missing and adding safe bike trails/routes. Downtown and the fighting that has occurred is another safety issue mentioned by many I speak with. I hear from many who use to go to dinner downtown with their friends and then would go for a few after dinner drinks at another establishment. They tell me they no longer do so in St. Charles. They talked about they would have friends from out of town come to visit and their friends use to love to come here, but unfortunately they experienced some of the fighting while walking to another location or walking to their cars. They didn't feel safe nor did their friends and so they have chosen to go to a neighboring community to enjoy dinner and drinks. As I mentioned before we need to address this situation with stricter fines and penalties including revoking licenses if need be, more police presence, working to build on the bar owners association and limit the number of new licenses issued for certain types of liquor licenses.