DANVILLE — A draft of the Comprehensive 2050 Plan for Danville was discussed Tuesday at the Public Works meeting.
Leaders say it will set the direction in how Danville will grow over the next 20-25 years.
“After a year and a half of tedious work and almost one entire rewrite of this plan — we are prepared to present to the city council the draft form,” said Logan Cronk, the community development administrator for the city. “This is hopefully as close as it’s going to get to its final version, version before adoption. The plan here is to bring it first to the public service committee, then to the public works planning and zoning for recommendation, and then to the city council.”
David Sydney, with Place Foundry, presented the 90-page document with more than 600 public comments influencing the plan from dozens of public meetings with Sean Agar also from Place Foundry.
“We realized, you know, we couldn’t just update your 2006 plan,” Sydney said. “Several of you completed surveys online, and so that’s really crucial, foundational to this plan. We wanted to make sure that we listened and we heard. Yes, we’re bringing some recommendations, but there’s a lot that is really good… happening here.”
Sydney says the city needs to continue looking for ways to retain businesses, but spoke highly of small businesses.
“Your small business growth and your smaller manufacturers can be critical to your growth,” Sydney said. “It may be 140 jobs, but 140 jobs, 140 medium high-skilled jobs, it multiplies, so you start to build the whole ecosystem, and that’s what attracts investment.”
Sydney says city officials must focus on getting out Danville’s story.
“Tell your story. I heard… consistently throughout the process to say, you tell your story, or I’ll tell your story, or someone else will tell your story,” Sydney said. “You’re a city with more to offer than it sometimes believes about itself. World-class manufacturers, exceptional park system, community college with nationally recognized skills, architectural heritage that no amount of money can duplicate, and genuine community relationships that larger cities spend fortunes trying to build.”
Danville’s area of recreation was brought up as an “economic driver.”
“Continue to invest everywhere, but we’re saying turn your parks and recs into an economic driver,” Sydney said.
Sydney added many times he hears nothing is really happening in the first decade, but says to look no further than Rockford, where his company is based, for the changes.
“As I told the team here, any announcements that you’re seeing in Rockford, that’s because of the first decade of significant strategy alignment happening. Then that fourth phase, where we’re saying this plan, we’re going to get you to national recognition,” Sydney said.
Candidates for mayor, Alderman Tricia Teague and Doug Ahrens, both asked questions about the plan.
Ahrens focused on the land area and the population losses in Danville
“It’s hard for me to understand how a plan is to continue to try to support infrastructure that is built for two to three times our size over the long term,’’ he said. “From an affordability factor, obviously, some of these goals are going to require reassigning and reallocating the prioritization and the dollars, but in the end, there’s still just not enough, and so I’m wondering how the plan is to address that.”
Sydney told Ahrens and the rest of the committee that the downtown area is an area of ‘investments.”
“There are just parcels that will never go back to residential, and that’s where I say the land bank strategy can help — in terms of holding for some other future use,” Sydney said.
The comprehensive plan is for the entire community on a broad level, pulling from existing plans and making sure their zoning support is in legal compliance, Sydney added.
Ahrens asked, “was there any prioritization either indicated, communicated from the community, or within the plan to establish how much more important public safety is than parks and recreation? How much more important is housing versus the other, because ultimately that’s the decisions that will drive where the finances go?”
Sydney said they have received a lot of feedback.
Alderman Ed Butler asked why Sydney to compare the city of Danville to Champaign and Rantoul as far as parks go.
“I mean, that’s what Rantoul and Champaign are doing, and you know that is bringing revenue within those cities, because even our teams go over there to that new sports complex,” Butler said about the Rantoul Family Sports Complex. “I didn’t see anything in this strategic plan for us to deal with any of that in Danville, and I don’t know if we got land for it.”
Sydney says the plan highlights sports tourism as a way to create economic benefits.
“I just highlighted a few, and then to the sports tourism that is actually one category that we introduce in this new plan around sports tourism out on Lynch Road, but also, you know, capturing your existing facilities as well,” Sydney said. “We do have that land use category in this plan … that’s really, you know, critical.”
Danville does have a number of recreation areas, including Kickapoo State Park, Kickapoo Rail Trail and Kennekuk County Park. There are also seven neighborhood parks, along with Ellsworth Park, Lincoln Park and Winter Park. Additionally, Danville offers Harrison Park clubhouse and golf course, the aquatic center at Garfield Park and Danville Stadium.
You can read the proposed plan online at https:// danville2050.org/draft-plan