Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Last few seconds here. Uh we're now on to the consent agenda which includes the minutes of our last meeting. Uh the financial reports and the um uh staff reports. Are there any items or any issues that people would like to pull off for further discussion? If not, I'd entertain a motion to approve those three items. Thank you. Second. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. All those oppos sign. They stand approved. We're now on to our regular agenda. And first off, uh it's my pleasure to welcome Bill Watson. Uh Bill is well known to many of us in the room, having been the former county administrator, um but now is with the friends of the Constitution Trail. So, Bill, welcome. And thank you. I appreciate it. We appreciate the opportunity. Um, and, uh, I think it's a a great idea to bring community groups in and and let them share their stories uh, with uh, with the commission. So, uh, these are our officers. Pat Dullard is our president of the Friends of the Constitution Trail. Um Pat was unable to be here today. He was out of town. He apologizes. He would have liked to have been here. Um our vice president is uh Missy McCarthy. Our secretary or I'm sorry, our our secretary is Missy McCarthy. Our treasurer is Andrew Gail. And uh the remainder of our board members are listed there. We have about 250 members, active members in the Friends of the Trail. Um, as you would expect, the large majority of those members are from Bloomington, Normal and the surrounding MLAN County communities. Um, what we try to do, so first, we want to be a problem solver, not a problem

maker. Um, and so we try to do our best to communicate and coordinate with local staff. We try to um reduce the amount of work that uh local government agencies have to do on the trail. So uh we provide volunteer labor uh for a number of different activities, tree planting, sweeping, uh general maintenance and we also provide some skilled assistance where we have capabilities. Um so we have in the past provided some uh expertise in and grant assistance to local governments here in town. Um we have contracted with uh local engineering firms to do work that was necessary for a local government to submit a grant application. Um so we've we've done those types of things as well. And then um finally we try to contribute back to help improve and um and provide uh amenities for the trail that would other not otherwise not be available. And uh I'll go through a a kind of a list of those. But remember two things we have down here at the bottom. We don't operate the trail system and we don't speak for our government partners. Although I have a I'm still really working hard to break the habit of we when I use that we um because I talk a lot about the trail system and and uh for many years we was uh me as part of the government but uh now we are not uh speaking on behalf of our government partners. So, if we go real quickly for those that

aren't uh familiar and have been around the community uh since 1982, a quick timeline of how uh the trail began. Um the first abandonments really took place uh around the community in the early 80s. Um and the first trail section of the Illinois Central IC branch um that ran from Emerson um in Bloomington to what was normal town hall. It's now the police station in Normal. Um um the trail ran that segment initially and it also ran uh east out to Airport Road. And uh so those two sections were the very first sections uh of uh trail that were constructed um in 96. Shows here town hall to Carrick back when Carrick was out in the country. It's not any longer, but uh I still have pictures of the elevators out there uh next to the trail. And um and uh there were two other segments that were actually constructed in 1996. The what what's called the inner urban branch, the branch that runs out to Route Nine west of Bloomington here uh and comes back in and ends not too far distant from here, just south of here. Um and uh also a section of path was constructed near corporate state farm corporate south in 1996. So those were the that's kind of the timeline that we progressed. The county adopted a its first greenways and regionals trail plan in 1997 and then uh the initial uh design

of route 66 segments was approved in 1999 and the first trail section was constructed in 2009. Today um over the entire network we have approximately ju just just under 60 miles of trail. Uh approximately 27 of those are route 66 today with the remaining about 32 um being uh inside the urban area of Bloomington Normal. Um, so we've made a lot of progress in a lot of different ways. Um, as you may or may not know, just a couple of quick updates. Um, there will be six miles of trail route 66 trail constructed this year. Um, Funks Grove to Mlan will be completed. That will complete the southern leg of that trail. Um and uh approximately 2 miles one mile on each end of Lexington will also be constructed. And the reason that those are being constructed as is that they are pavement in place sections. They are sections where the 1940s abandoned pavement is still in place and there was an opportunity for about a $600,000 grant. um if we could find a project if if the county could find a project that would fit that amount and they were able to identify those two sections to extend the the section that already exists in Lexington. And so there's u there's an existing two-m section in le Lexington and almost two miles will be added to that. There's a an existing onem section in

Shenoa and uh then we have about a 2 point 2 2 n almost three mile gap between the Towanda North trail head and what will be the Lexington section and then we have about about three and a half four miles between uh the Lexington section and the Shenoa section. So um why do we have a friends of the trail group? Even in the beginning there were challenges uh when developing trail programs. Um people have questions. People are unsure. It's in their backyard. Um what are the costs going to be? And so um these all these are all newspaper clippings from 1986. and the discussion of uh uh of the con of the first segments of the trail. Uh but the formation of the friends took place in 1989 and was primarily driven by um city council member Hugh Atwood. And so there were two there were three champions that I would say from a local government perspective for the constitution trail. Um Hugh Atwood was on the city council, city of Bloomington. Garrett Scott was the council member for the town of Normal. And those two gentlemen were I I think no one would disagree the champions of the construction of the first sections of the Constitution Trail. And then as we talk about Route 66 and the extension of the trail into into the rural communities and rural areas, um John English uh was a county board member. He was a hobby arborist. Um and ultimately

he was a significant endowment donor to the friends of the trail that gave us the capabilities some of the capabilities that we have today. um that uh was a champion uh from the county board standpoint in in looking to expand and build uh the Constitution Trail. So, our mission is to promote and expand the Constitution Trail and increase its use to assist Bloomington Normal and other other governmental entities of MLAN County in the development and beautifification of the trail. That's right out of our bylaws. So that is our mission. And what do we do? So um so that's one of two semi- loads of trees that we planted this spring in Shanoa. Um and uh we are we are working with Shenoa on what we call the Tawanda strategy. Um before before funding ever came to do pavement improvements for the trail and the initial segments of construction under the intergovernmental agreement that exists between all the communities along the route 66 and the county. Towanda took it upon themselves seeing the 1997 greenways plan and said that's a great idea. We're a 400 person community. We're going to do something. And they began the process of activating reactivating that uh abandoned infrastructure to turn it into community benefit. What we do today is we plant

trees. We've constructed shelters. Um we actually do the tree plant. I we we we coordinate, we recruit, we obtain equipment and we go out with permits from ID do the friends of the trail in cooperation with our governmental partners. Um we do the vast majority of the work on those projects. Um, same with the the the trail shelters that have been constructed. Um, water fountains that you'll see uh have typically been donated by the friends and the trail counters project which is invisible to most users but is really important to our governmental partners when they go to apply for grants to have a history and information on usage. So um so the installation of counters uh across the network has been an important component um that the friends have provided for. As of this year, about I think about a month ago in our financial reports, we determined that the friends have contributed directly either financially or um by equipment or improvements um over a half a million dollars to the community for trail development. And we're really proud of that. Absolutely. Um I've talked about technical support. I've talked about equipment. We provided the first snow removal equipment to the city and the town so that we could keep trails open um uh during the uh during the winter season. And we do outreach. You'll see us at summer festivals, at light nights, cleanups. Um we also are

the umbrella entity for uh the bike education program in town. Um it's under our nonprofit oposes that the grants were obtained for the bikes and the trailer, those types of things. Um and then we use uh resources from a number of different communities and partners to get that done. And these are all our community partners. um that play very big parts in helping us uh to do what we do and we want to acknowledge them and say thank you to them all um who are here. Um advocacy. We do advocacy. And uh um first of all, I'll note that the National Trails Day celebration is this Saturday. And if you want free ice cream, just make a quick trip. You can even drive to the Kanye Lake Amphitheater if you can't find a way to get on the trail and come and visit because we'll be there. Um, and we'll be celebrating National Trails Day with a number of different community organizations that are involved. Uh, but we also do uh engagement with public officials um and with private sector entities. And I will give you a couple of examples. Um, Mlan County was was lucky enough to receive one of four uh raise US do grants, which was a competitive uh grant process. Four were four were awarded in the state of Illinois. Only one that was a bike ped project. Um and it was for those two gaps that we talked about between Towanda and Lexington and Lexington and Chinoa. Um for the preliminary

engineering and design work um to get those those two gaps filled. Um the um the new administration has determined that they want to review all those awards uh for consistency with current objectives. And so um we're still waiting, the county is still awaiting release of those funds. Um but we've been engaged along with governmental partners to talk with uh Congressman Lehood whose district the entire project is in and to uh to encourage him to support um this important project. And I will say that um some people look at a bike ped project and question whether it's about um different things. I will tell you that there have been in the last last five years that data is available for from Towanda to Shanoa within within the halfmile mile radius from Route 66. there has been either a major pedestrian fatality or a bicycle fatality or a what they call class A injury resulting from a crash with a pedestrian or a bike uh within that corridor and uh it's a safety issue. There are lots of people who utilize the trail for community day-to-day recreation from our communities. There are also a lot of people that bike. Route 66 is something they do as a lifetime activity and u and so um to ensure that we've got a safe uh environment for tourists and also for

our own residents to utilize those areas. Um, that's been one of the primary benefits uh of the Route 66 trail and it's accomplished it where it's been constructed. It's it's moved people who don't have good places to get out and look at the the the historic scenic byway an opportunity to do that. And so, um, we're working hard, uh, along with our national partners like the League of of Bicyclists, um, to again encourage the release of the funds and we're hopeful that after a quick review, we'll see those in the coming days. Um, I look at today's challenges, uh, and I and I pulled this up and it says bicycle hits man on trail. Many of you may be familiar with a accident we had in 22 uh on the ISU campus where a bicyclist hit and unfortunately ultimately killed uh an individual u on the campus at ISU. But this isn't from them. This is from 1986. This is from before the ribbons. If you notice, there's another there's another cut out cut out here from from the same period saying we're going to cut a ribbon on the trail. Before the ribbon was ever cut, we had a very unfortunate accident uh on the trail on the first segments trail. Um it did not ultimately lead to a fatality uh but the individual was uh in in significant uh arrest for a number of days. Um and back then there were discussions about should we should we ban bikes from the

trail? Should we only have Yeah, I I I can show you the clips. um uh and the dialogue that went on then about that and and if I go through a period of time, I can I can pull out maybe three or four different other occasions during the life of the Constitution Trail where where there have been challenges relative to safety um uh and how users use the trail. Um but but they aren't dramatically different than the same questions that we had 30 years 25 years ago, 30 years ago. Um so some of these discussions are discussions that we're having now in the community. Um there's a couple of different surveys out online. If you're if you're interested in doing those, you can find them online. Uh both Illinois State University and Normal have uh surveys out um trying to get feedback on what the problems are and how to diagnose those. And the friends are uh doing what we can to assist in that process. um to help develop information and data so that folks can understand uh what the utilization of the of the facility is and what risk may be ava may be apparent as as we look at that. Um but there are also a number of different strategies um to to deal with uh certain situations and those include four different items there restrictions regulations sign service markings and education. Um we have new users today

with ebikes especially we have new users today that weren't capable physically capable of using bikes. um at least uh at this time in their life. Uh and so we've we've introduced the the availability uh of the trail to a whole new sector of of people um which is a good thing generally to be inclusive. The challenge is for us to be able to educate and make sure that they can do that in a safe manner and that everybody can enjoy the trail uh together. Um, so, uh, I put this slide in most of mine. Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets planning. I thought it was most appropriate for this group. Um, this is a slide that we use when we talk to other communities about trail planning. And, uh, one of the things I wanted to to just highlight real quickly is it says, identify opportunities the path of least resistance. Right. And uh so in 1997 I happened to be the parks and recreation director for Mlan County. Uh and I was on the the greenways committee that wrote the first greenways plan. And we had a chairman and her name was Gretchen Money. And a few of you know Gretchen, probably not all of you. Um but Gretchen was was the chairman of the group. We had a a a railroad rightway that I'll talk about real quickly in a couple of slides that was looked like it was primed to be primed to be abandoned. And uh I had worked for the Forest Park Foundation over in Puria County and they bought and then donated the Rock Island Trail to DNR. And so I was very acquainted with

the process of abandoned railroads and doing those things. And I was I was hyped up on this idea that we were going to we were going to build that trail. And the chairman of my committee, Miss Monty, said to me, Bill, you know, she said, "Don't let the perfect uh take the good away." And this is what Route 66 in Tanda looked like in 1998. Um the first trees, you can see the first trees had been planted uh for the trail development, but um almost all with volunteer labor and a community of 400 people. I use this regularly to show people what's possible. And those are two pictures taken from the very same location today. and and those crumbling abandoned infrastructure areas have been transformed into community assets where people I I live in Lexington so I drive Route 66 almost every day into town and there it amazes me even that there are people actively utilizing the sections into Wanda every time I drive by. I mean, every time I drive by and and it has just been um it's a story worth telling. Um but you know those those those ideas have to come from somewhere and those ideas need to be shared with

state agencies and other local agencies. And so, um, plans like the greenways plan, the go safe plan, the city's bicycle master plan are essential to accomplishing what we need to to accomplish from both a recreation and an active transportation standpoint in the community. I was lucky enough to work closely with the folks uh from what today is um the community's second largest employer. And when they came to town, one of the reasons that they came to this town, there were 30 auto plants, mothball olive plants across the Midwest. 30 just in the Midwest. And one of the reasons that they came to this community was there was more to the community than just a kind of a hollow leftover shell. They saw that active transportation, trails, ways for people to get around the community were were available and we were working forward. and uh it's it's been a a great benefit to the community. Um my membership committee would never forgive me if I did any public presentation without saying if you're not a member of the friends, $15 will get you in the door. Um so join us please if you if you uh have an opportunity um constitution.org org and just click on membership. It's easy to find. Uh we would love to have

you. Um my group would also uh not forgive me if I said um I did mention that 2009 was the last time I think that our greenways and regional trails plan was updated and we hope that that is um something that is in the future. um contemplations. Um so an update to that plan so that we can have um new proposals for sections. I just the uh county administrator's office before this meeting stopped in that the the mayor of Hworth had questions about interconnections between they have a ITF project and Illinois transportation enhancements project um where they're um improving a section along 136 with bike and pedestrian path and his question was how are we how can we connect same question we've been hearing from rural communities for years. Um uh and and so whether it's DS and Leroy and we continue to talk that railroad that I told you was the abandonment was inate in it kind of like that uh eminent it uh it still has not been abandoned by the railroad uh nor folk and southern for a multitude of reasons that I don't have time to go into today but uh we continue to talk with them about that. And in fact, we just finished a meeting with Champagne County to ensure that from Mansfield to um from Mansfield to Mohammed is included in their in their uh long-term plans, comp plans, so that we can make sure that

that railroad right away connection is is in place. But as you see, there hasn't been previously any um any thought to the sections that go south formal. There's been discussions and background and I can give you lots of information about the corridors, but um there's not been anything done formally. And when plans aren't adopted formally, it's difficult for government agencies to utilize them as they work to obtain funding from our state and federal partners. And so again, I would encourage you to think about um those types of uh updates when you have a chance. And I understand all the limitations and restrictions. Um that's they ask for general background. That's a general background. I'd be happy to answer any questions and I apologize. I've probably taken way more than my a lot of time. Not a problem. Uh any question for Bill about the trail? I thought the first slide contained a good trivia question at the end of the trail north of Carrick. There was a boulder and said original site of the one to normal airport. Yep. And I, you know, we talk about projects that that have not met fruition. So some of the oldest projects and I'm I'll I'll stand up real quick to say so so this section right here has been a section we've been trying to build forever and the and the city just got funding for that this spring, which is great news because once they connect down to here, we've got that connection made. Um, but we've always talked about getting to Evergreen Lake and Kamala Park. Um, and uh, we've always talked about

Sugar Creek, running through Sugar Creek. Those are opportunities that I I would say are better today than they were in the past because of changes in the way that people review things. I will tell you in 1997 transportation professionals didn't didn't worry about bike and pedestrian transportation other than where the crosswalks went. Um and and today they are our partners. They are our active partners. They've been working really hard to try and help us get the Shenoa railroad crossing uh solved uh which has been a problem and we've been working with the city of Shenoa and uh with ID do and TPNW on that. Uh we mentioned that we also work with some private sector. Sometimes sometimes private sector entities would prefer to work with a nonprofit than a governmental entity. you know, sometimes there are tax implications, sometimes there are other implications, but um but we we will step in and try and help when we can on those. And that's uh been an instance, but fingers crossed that should be we we should see a resolution to that this year um from everything that that I'm told. So, I'm hopeful. Um Bloomington and Mansfield, there's actually a meeting with Norfol and Southern this week. So yeah, any other plans in terms of how you're dealing with ebikes and e scooters? Yeah. So so so that is it is probably the hot and button issue u relative to to to

um trail use right now. Um and so I think for us our our view is we need to understand it better. You know we we we understand that an isolated occurrence can happen any place anytime anywhere. But we need to understand. So, so what we have done is we actually we actually bought and have donated some radar equipment to begin the process of trying to determine if we're if we really do have speed problems on the trail. If we do have if they're related to ebikes, you know, I'm going to be honest here. Regular bikes. I I'm going to be honest. I I for a long time the reason I used the trail was for training and I was training it it you know it I was riding really hard and so I I guarantee you I was exceeding 20 miles an hour or 25 miles an hour um on my road bike. Um and in some areas that's not a problem. Yeah. But in other areas, especially like the IC branch between Emerson and Willow, I would say, you know, especially in that area around the campuses, um, it becomes a different issue and and there are different things that I think that can be explored and we've talked about with city sta, city, county, and town staff. And, you know, for instance, we don't have a center line anywhere, right? And I'm I'm the parks guy who agrees that I hate I hate to put a line on those paths. I just hate it. And even if we have to, I make it green. But but but but sometimes people need help to remember that they ought to stay on one side of the path and they ought

to provide a sign of the path for somebody to pass. Um, we have put together some signage and we're trying to work on some educational processes that we're going to try to especially with the return of students in the fall on reminding folks that they need to make people aware they're passing. Yeah. Um, it's, you know, if you use the trail a lot, it's not uncommon at all for you to know that people will say on your left, on your left when they're d when they're passing. And then we used to have signs that said on your left and all that kind of good stuff, right? Or ring your bell, right? Or ring your bell. Um um both both our pedestrian users and our new ebike users, neither one uh today are really used to that kind of a a system of warnings and acknowledgement and let people know. Um so so it is it is something that we need to work on. Um, and we need, you know, but but I think our organization has always believed that the su success of the trail has been its ability to be broadly inclusive. It's been a lot of things to a lot of different people, right? For some people, it's a way to get to work or a way to get to school. For other people, it's an opportunity to enjoy nature. For other people, it's an opportunity to exercise or train. Um, for others, it's an opportunity to socialize. And so, and and it's seniors next to parents and little kids, next to folks my age,

right, out on the trail. Um, and and so that in our mind has been the success. You know, when I just when I was in parks and wreck, 99% of what we do is focused on one particular user. Whether it's a ballpark or a or a court or a tennis court or, you know, anything we build or a picnic, even a picnic area, it's designed for people to come and have a picnic. But the trail does multiple things for multiple people. And uh we think that that's been the success story of the trail is it's been inclusive and so we think that safely we should be as inclusive as we possibly can be. Um but it's a work in progress because the the Constitution Trail is a selling point in terms of quality of life, quality of place for the local communities. Um, and you're right, Rivian came here with seeing some of the things that they we had to offer that were totally different than some of the other communities that they had um considered. So, the more we can, you know, the more we can make this function and function it for everyone, the better off we are. and also expanding. I I know there's some discussion about trying to get um and I think this is part of the larger bike plan for the state of Illinois, but to get from one end of um MLAN County to the other. So So well for MLAN count for MLAN County, as I said, we're we're 9 miles as of the construction that will take place this year. We're nine miles short of being done. Less than nine miles short of being done. That's going to get done. I and I am confident that that's going to get

done with that construction. Also, more than 50% of the entire state has trail separated trail in place. Um and there there is about a there is about 20% including 20 miles just north of MLAN county just north of the in Livingston County there are 20 miles of continuous pavement in place. I told a a national a a rail national rails to trails um staff member the other day. Um we were at a conference and I told him that we can build trail on the existing pavement. We can at a minimum we can build it. we're building it in the sections that we've talked about today for approximately $300,000 a mile. And he looked at me and he said, "Don't use that number anywhere cuz it'll just make everybody think they can do it for that much." And and and I said the the truth is we believe we can do it for even less. And the way that we believe we can do it for even less is the Towanda. And I apologize, Ray. I'm killing you. Um I've been in this chair before. Um in Tanda, you know, I said they started before we even started improving the pavement, right? They started planting trees and doing those things. And we're doing that in Shenoa right now. and and unfortunately Shenoa had had enough money through a federal grant back in the in the late 90s um to do I think like three miles and then they couldn't get the

railroad crossing done with the TPNW and thankfully a different railroad owned TPNW then but um they couldn't get the crossing done and so we've got this onem section that really doesn't have any connection to the town. It ends at 24 and it's and it's difficult and and the thing that I've really failed to talk about today is the importance of the Route 66 trail to economic development in these rural communities. And if you go and talk to to to our mayor in Shenoa or mayor Johansson and Lexington and the mayor in MLAN or Towanda, they all recognize that Route 66 is bringing folks in and the trail is bringing folks in to those communities and they are truly opportunities where we have unfortunately few opportunities for those rural communities to leverage economic development um in this day and and so this is truly a great opportunity for that. But 50% of the trail is done largely in urban areas and um but there's 20 miles in Livingston County that we think we can we're going to prove this year with with the help of Shanoa. We're going to prove that just like Towanda did, you can use the pavement that exists there to make a a reasonable safe path for bikes and pedestrians with the existing 1940s pavement. And if we do that, we hope that we can show them and we can show McGomery County, who also has a huge section just south of Lichfield, the opportunities that exist for them to extend and make those

connections and soon we'll be down to handful of miles. Okay. Thank you, Bill. Yeah. Thank you. All right. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. And if you want, you're more than welcome to stay. All right. Uh we're now on to the housing coordinator position update. Um guys, so so it's exciting. It's it's just uh hard to transition, but the housing coordinator position has you most of you were here uh last month. Uh so since then we've been working with uh DCO uh the state agency that gave us the grant uh they they're working on the grant agreement uh we anticipate that to be done uh August September and then also we have been working with uh the county administration and the county h uh see what's the the approach we need to take uh in order to get this position uh done and we have to go through our RFP process request for uh proposals uh because it's going to be a contract employee uh rather than like a temporary full-time and so there's different process for all this we have to go through and we have to go to the county board for the approval we have to come to you all MLPC once that uh for approval once that uh candidate will be selected uh so we working with HR in getting that RIP and also the job advertisement done been uh uh advertised through the new bills then in time uh for the grant agreements and also the approvals by the county board and the MCPC be done. So that will be the time frame that we looking looking at. So um so making progress but it's a lot of

processing steps that kind of thing that comes with the grant and other procedures that we did not anticipate. So that's kind of the latest on on that position. Any questions? Regional housing initiative. Okay. Good afternoon everyone. Um here's an update for the regional housing initiatives. Um under local updates, MCRPC facilitated the May housing staff meeting on May 22nd and we will be hosting the June affordable and supportive housing or ash committee meeting on June 16th. And MCRPC MCRPC is also working on a new white paper. Uh it's uh mapping out which locations in the county are in higher need of affordable housing based on uh demographic data such as age, race, educational attainment, income among other variables. And MCRPC is also working on submitting the required documents with regard to the 2025 CDBG agreement with the town. Um for other uh updates, MCRPC attended the unhoused task force meeting hosted by the Center of Human Services uh on May 27th and we will be attending a housing coalition meeting tomorrow still hosted by the Center of Human Services um at the Bloomington Public Library. Um, we also attended um a membersonly meeting uh hosted by the Illinois Housing Council about the 2026 draft um qualified uh the QAP. And so the draft draft qualified allocation plan explains how IDA intends to distribute tax credits to support affordable housing developments across Illinois. Uh we also attended a virtual public hearing for the draft Q&A hosted by IDA. And then um last um we also attended the grantee on boarding training hosted by the CEO uh with regard to the rice

implementation. You have any questions? Thank you. Good. Um uh I assume Ray that you're going to talk about the human services. Yeah, everything. I'm Jen today and I'm Anthony today and I'm Ray today. Um the human service transportation plan uh the next meeting of the committee uh is going to be held on uh June the 16th. Uh and so that will be uh is with the other counties representatives and that's the court meeting. Uh as you know uh that the rural service transit service uh will be uh will be handled by connect transit uh starting July 1. And so uh will no longer be the show bus uh and then we we the meaning the county uh in our staff and connect transit has been kind of working together in how the transition and capacity. So to let the the county mlean county folks know I especially the folks in the rural area you know the uh the new provider and more kind of services and all the changes so that's the an ongoing thing uh connections is doing most of that you know planning for the engagement so that's related to something questions okay go safe go safe is that's the SS4A grant uh we have had a last Friday uh with the consultants for the uh project steering committee uh starting uh today and I'll be sending flyers out to you all uh and to promote really is a survey really to get input from different folks about safety and uh and there'll be website information there'll be a mapping link that people can actually

touch uh using your laptop iPhone and and porno areas of concerns and uh so there's a public campaign uh that's going to last for a few few weeks public uh uh press release uh it's just gone out this afternoon so you may see hopefully uh get the immediate attention on on this uh public engagement uh for the plan uh that is being uh developed and the next meeting uh will be on the 27th of June. Usually they meet the last Friday, the fourth Friday of the month. And so um there will be uh consultant uh talking about public um policy assessment. We'll be talking about public engagement. There will be stakeholder group interviews. There'll be four different uh groups uh who be uh meetings virtually uh this month uh actually. Yeah. this week and next week uh for the uh on education group, there's public safety group, there's like parks and recreation biking pedestrian group and also the uh the uh uh yeah education uh yeah probably forgot one but there's like four books meeting uh to provide further input you know to to the plant and so that will be the the main thing for this uh month and then th those uh will be uh input will be collected and they'll be fitted back to the consultant and for further development. So it's on track. Uh again uh the plan is still uh in September uh of this year and then um yeah MCPC will be asked to consider approval at that time but we'll keep you posted.

Okay, good. Any questions for you on that? Uh Ray, next is a Veterans Parkway corridor project. Yeah. Uh the next meeting will be next Friday the 13 Friday. Uh but it's actually is making progress work will be done uh next Friday. In fact, it's going to be a uh expanded meeting in that there will be a workshop uh with the project steering committee and uh there more activities and the consultants will uh ask for help you know from the project steering committee in identifying more uh details on the alternatives you know on the different segments along the runway uh for consideration. So they have uh done uh a lot of different reports and so they're looking at more details right now and they are entering into the third phase of the four phase project and some of you on ser on the committee. We appreciate that but uh again it's it's ongoing uh it's on track on time and it's still uh to be completed September 2026. Okay. Then finally, um, you're Anthony now. So, talk about strategic land use plan. We got a preview of. Yeah, thank you. Um, in fact, uh, Anthony, who's been doing really a lot of coordination, great work uh on this project. It's over at the city of Bloomington planning commission meeting. Now uh it's one of the meetings uh that uh he and you know uh to work with the city staff, county uh and town staff in this strategic language plan and this is an offshoot of the regional let's say a larger regional compensation plan uh update. The strategic language plan is really more like in response to all the development pressure uh that the city, town, county

have been uh uh experiencing. So we've been working with the staff uh with the different jurisdictions uh on an existing language plan and also a draft uh future language maps and they those been completed. So, one of the things that Anthony is doing now and also tomorrow night uh as well as what he did with the county zoning board uh back in May uh is to show you know some of the pinary results and that's really uh an effort uh a joint effort with the city county staff and just try to get input from the planning commission members as well as the so members and with that uh then there will be a discussion with the the staff further and then we'll take it out for like a public comment period which will be like three will take three four weeks time but we want to get some input after tomorrow night's uh the town count the town of normals planning commission meeting if any changes critical changes need to be made and then we'll take it out to the public uh for comment and we'll we'll keep you posted once we do that. Um so um that's kind of the gist of it. We anticipate that uh completion date for the land use the future land use map to be July of this year in fact uh but then for the the bigger I call it bigger is the regional comp plan and that we have um also uh complete a draft existing condition report and let me just share really quick you don't have to study it but um can you take a view just to kind of lay out the the the process we have and to give you a sense you know um what how the way we've been proceeding and there's a lot of like plan elements and and we anticipate is

you know going it's a lot of work uh but also is uh thank you uh it's also um is a joint effort collaborative effort with this town city uh and town staff uh as you see a lot of plan elements uh that we try to capture and land use being really the one that we've taken out to have more focus because of development pressure, economic development opportunity. Uh but then we're not overlooking the other ones and so we keeping um the different staffs and then with the goal of having this uh up for adoption consideration in July of 2026. Okay. Um would you email this to every Yes. Yes. Yeah. I plan on uh yeah emailing this as well as the presentation by Mr. Watson earlier. Okay. Is there any other issues that needs to come before the commission today? If not I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. If one yeah just few things uh Mr. Watson mentioned earlier this Saturday the national trans day celebration in fact our staff will be participating. Uh Jay is h helping to coordinate. We're going to set a table uh the flyers for the uh SSY the go safe action plan. We have have surveys uh to to be passing out. We will have swags to promote traffic safety. Uh so we participate in that event. And then also on the 17th of this month we have a regional fate summit. you by now should have received an invitation if you so interested uh and available uh June the 17th Tuesday afternoon at the public library Boomington uh and I know couple of you will be there uh and and encourage all of you this our first and ever that I know of uh that we hold this

and and this is a great opportunity and we are doing this in coordination with ID do and so uh it's for our region. Hopefully we'll do well and then we'll see what go which you know what will happen next. Anything else? No, that's all. Okay. Anything else needs come before the commission today? Okay. If not, uh I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. All those opposed same sign. We are adjourned. Thank you. Anything on the radar with regard