Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

note that conference will now be recorded. Thank you. Appreciate everyone being here today. We have um actually two individuals for public comment. And so first up is Trisha Bear. So Trisha, if you'd like to use the podium up there. We have two speakers, so we'll have three minutes a piece for each of the speakers. [clears throat] And for the record, if you could state your name.

Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Trisha Braid. I'm here today to speak about the minutes from the August 6, 2025 meeting and requirements of the open meetings act. As someone who was present at the August meeting, I was surprised to see that the approved minutes do not accurately reflect what occurred, particularly regarding the closed session. The recording on YouTube confirms the discrepancy. Illinois law allows approved minutes to be corrected when errors are discovered, and I believe it's important for the commission to do this at your January meeting. I believe the commission's procedures need broad attention for adherence to the open meetings act. I would encourage you to take a straightforward look at a few key items. One, the requirements for entering and ending closed sessions, including recorded votes. Two, the consistency and timeliness of making recordings available. Three, the public comment policy violates open meetings act in too many ways to cover here during this comment period. And the long absence of executive committee me minutes. The last meeting was in August of 2024 and no minutes, not even draft minutes, have yet to be posted. I urge you to put the issues of correcting the August meeting minutes on the agenda for your January 2026 meeting. You should also have the public comment policy rewrite on the same agenda. Once you're aware of these deficiencies, it is incumbent upon you to address them at the earliest possible opportunity. This should be a priority. Transparency and accountability are not optional. They're essential. I'd like to hear a discussion about this topic at this meeting. I believe agenda item number 6H allows for that opportunity. These are not complicated fixes. Open meetings matter a great deal for public trust. Mandatory year yearly training and temporary support from legal counsel or an OMA expert could also help ensure things are on a solid footing for you moving forward. Concerns about governance naturally shape how the public views the strategic land use plan. My opposition to the strategic land use plan has as much to do with the process behind it as with the plan itself. I believe you were given a copy of my emailed comments about the plan on the previous date. On another topic, although I'm not formally requesting

that the draft minutes from the two most recent meetings be removed from today's consent agenda, I would suggest that maybe one of the commissioners think about doing so. Until such time that your correction to August meeting minutes is made, I believe it might be best practice for you to consider the meeting minutes approvals as a separate item so that you can invite discussion about it. And lastly, I have a question about tonight's agenda. In the draft minutes from the September 24th meeting, the draft minutes show the commission voted to adopt the goate action plan. On tonight's agenda, the strategic land use plan is mentioned for presentation and filing. And I know you can't answer me in this form right now, but I'd like you to discuss it if you could later in the meeting to answer why is there a different approach between these two plans just so I understand why adopt one and not the other. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Anna Ziggler. Anna,

could you state your name for the record?

Good afternoon. Anna Ziggler. I'm here on behalf of MLAN County Farm Bureau. As you may know, MLAN County Farm Bureau is a voluntary membership organization that represents farmers and farmland owners. And we are also actively involved with our rural communities. And I'm here to comment about this strategic land use plan. Uh we appreciate that there were opportunities added for public engagement during that process including some public meetings and two rounds of public comment and we did submit comment in both of those periods. Um we have some remaining concerns that we'd like to highlight for you as commissioners. Um the first is engagement of stakeholders especially our rural communities. So Bloomington Normal and county staff produced the initial draft of the strategic land use plan without any input from those rural communities, school districts, townships or other stakeholders. there was opportunity after the fact, but that uh lends itself to them feeling left out and like they're an afterthought. So, we hope in the future that items that are considered countywide plans can engage everyone early on in the process, especially our rural areas. And even with that engagement, we still feel that the plan lacks some attention to those rural areas. Uh even though it's called MLAN County strategic land use plan, much of the content is centered around Bloomington Normal, including 100% of the areas labeled for future growth. So we feel there's probably some missed opportunities for perspective development in our smaller towns. Uh the future land use map does appear to have a few areas that are identified for development in those rural communities, but there's no explanation of how those areas were identified or what specifically they're intended to be. Examples include a rural residential development north of Hayworth, residential development around Shirley, and a large industrial employment center southwest of Leroy near the I74136 exchange. Our second concern is the U future land use regarding loss of farmland. The proposed future land use map depicts a potential conversion of 20,558

acres of a land in the county to other uses with 70% of that acreage or 14,756 acres being converted within the 1.5 mile extraterial jurisdiction of Bloomington Normal. That's a significant policy shift and policy matters. You know, we know everything in the plan might not come to fruition. Um, and we also support private property rights. So if a land owner decides to sell for development, that is their choice. Um but it is a large and potentially permanent loss of farmland. We also feel there's a lack lack of prioritization and uh especially for infill development in the plan. Again, all the future growth areas are on the outer edges of normal. While there's mention of infill development, there's no uh system to identify which areas are priority.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay,

there's no public comment. We're moving on to the consent agenda. Um, given the topics that have been raised, um, I want the commission to know that, uh, I've been in contact with our legal representation, uh, which is the state's attorney's office. um and they have recommended that we do nothing with our minutes or make any uh changes at this time because these are under a matter of administrative review by the states uh the Illinois State's Attorney's Office at this time. So, um I would like to propose that perhaps we pull uh for consideration all of the minutes that are listed here um and table those and take all of those up after we have uh received the um uh ruling from the administrative judge um and made what make whatever appropriate uh changes need to be made uh to make sure that we're in compliance with all of these issues. throw that out for further discussion.

I was I would just be willing to make that motion. Okay. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. Discussion. If not, um we'll go ahead and remove uh minutes um items one and two from uh the consent agenda and table those um for our upcoming meetings. Um so the consent agenda that Oh, so um can I get a are all those in favor signify by saying I.

All those opposed same sign. Okay. Now on to the remaining items for the consent agenda which is items three, four, five, and six. Can I get a motion to approve those? Move to approve. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. All those opposed, same sign.

It is stands approved. Um the uh we're now on to the record items [clears throat] and um the first item is consideration for action which is to receive and file the strategic land use plan uh and share it with the local government uh local governments of MLAN County, the city of Bloomington and the town of Normal um for their appropriate use. Um [clears throat] Ray uh I understand you and Anthony have a presentation.

Yeah. Well, Anthony is getting ready uh for his uh brief presentation uh as you've been well aware of since we've been giving a monthly uh update uh to the commission uh this uh project and so uh you've been probably well been kept informed uh or past many many months of work as we at a stage to ask for uh the report to be received and filed. Uh and really just to emphasize even after if you do uh uh vote for receive and file of this uh document uh actually going to be forward to the our municipal uh governance you know the county uh city in town really for their for their further action as they deem appropriate and really for plan is um it's a plan it's a guy it's a weapons and the regional planning commission don't um review act on zoning cases or reszoning or special use permit uh process those uh under the purview of the individual um municipal government. So the plan uh if indeed got received and filed by York got moved on to the uh our municipal partners they will be the ones who exercise their own authority on zoning cases, special use permits, reszoning and then they will uh use a plan whatever you know as deem appropriate. just want to make sure that we all understand what to use you know the practical but we were helping uh our partners in working uh together to create this document through different process which Anthony is going to go a little bit uh not in too much detail but just to review and recap what has happened to bring us to this point. Y. Uh, good afternoon everyone. And like Ray said, um, we've all been pretty

aware of the planning process for this project. Um, and so I'm just going to kind of give an overview of where we started, where we're at, and uh, the [clears throat] completed draft that we have now. Um, so first and foremost, I'm excited to announce uh that we have completed the McLean County strategic land use plan. Uh, the final draft document is now available on our website along with the updated outreach report and key maps. Uh over the last year, MCRPC staff and our partners at the city of Bloomington, town of Normal, and the King County government have been working hard on developing a strategic land use plan for unincorporated McClean County and the Bloomington Normal urban area. Uh this project began back in the fall of 2024 during the very early stages of planning for the ML County comprehensive plan update. Uh it was determined then that an updated land use map was needed to address development pressures uh being seen in Bloomington normal area resulting in the decision to pivot to the development of a strategic land use plan. The first half of this year was dedicated to gathering data creating an existing land use map and developing the first draft of the strategic plan strategic land use plan. After the completion of that first draft, the second half of the year was focused on public outreach and gathering feedback to help shape the final version of this plan that we have today. Over a five-month period, MCRPC staff contacted over 2,000 individuals, held seven in-person public outreach events, and collected over a 100 individual comments to assist in the two revisions that were made, and now we're on the third with the the final draft here. Uh, as of now, the most recent and final version of this plan is available online on our website. Uh, and the changes to this final draft include a more detailed visualization of potential land use changes, uh, countywide and also city and town, uh, one and a half mile jurisdiction. Um, and it also includes a final version of

the YW.CA CA outreach report that outlines in a lot of detail the outreach efforts that we did uh to shape this plan uh as long as well as a few minor corrections and updates. At this stage, MCRTC staff has completed the development of the plan and now requests that the commission receive file the completed document. This will allow local governments to access the plan for their appropriate use in the future. Thank you. And if you have any questions, I will try to answer them. questions for Anthony. What kind of a timeline do we expect for the city and town and county to take through this?

Um, not too sure at this point. Again, it's so at this point we have completed the actual leg work of the plan and it would be up to them to determine their their uh review and approval process. So whenever they are ready, I'm sure you'll hear about it and they have to have a public hearing [clears throat] on that. So

and if I may add to um they I mean which is true, we don't know the timetable uh but since we've been working with the staff uh so they been communicating with their own administration and the count uh their board people and the council. I think they are aware of it and then they have they're the ones who who deal with all those resoling applications and and special use permit applications. So I would hope that they would, you know, take this and as most recent up-to-date documents regarding uh future menus and so they would pick it up as soon as possible because they're the ones who have to make those decisions on those petitions.

But they're anticipating it in their typical response. typical handling in the past been their review process and their hearings and everything like that. So there's plenty of time yet for others to provide input.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. There I think like at least as far as the the um the city and the town I think there will be public hearings that have to be held and they might have to go through their own planning commission and then before city council uh before even adopting if they so choose. and and this plan this plan is really kind of the first stage for the county's comprehensive plan. So, it will be reviewed consistently uh as they move through that comprehensive planning process over the next year. In addition, yeah, all all comprehensive plans have a land use loose element and so that's definitely something we'll revisit when we get to that point. Other questions, Bart?

Yes, thank you. Um so to the action of receiving and filing the report. Well that [snorts] does that actually mean we send it to each of those three entities and then they decide to adopt it one way or the other. Is there an actual outlay process that goes along with that? I guess we it's whatever their specific policy is in terms of how they handle it. Um that's not we don't determine that at all.

Okay. Um, and they're the ones that will actually be making the final determination as to how land will be allocated and used and whether or not things will be adapted for expansion or left alone. And then to Jim's comment then, so they're they're anticipating this. I mean, basically they requested that that the regional planning commission do that. Is that something that officially gets done a request to do that or was that just something that it kind of came out of meetings for leading up to the comprehensive plan and said, "Wow, we don't have this. We probably need to do it." Or I guess how does that work?

Yeah, NCC has a it's called an RSA, regional service agreement. And one of those things is on the laundry list of of what we do for city, town, and county is the assistance of comprehensive plan development. And so in this case, land use sections of of compliments or department. And so that was part of that uh that discussion. Yeah. So when we started uh I guess related to the timetable I guess that's what the question was and

we start off on the regional compens process as we were going to do it anyway. uh but during the discussion the initial discussion uh after hearing both I mean from the county city and staff uh knowing there's a lot of uh applications we make development proposals as you all right in the news and whatnot and you can review the uh the agendas for the respective you know council board meetings uh so they feel there's need you know for that strategic land use plan you to be done because typically the regional comprehensive plan a more broad more uh uh with multiple elements included uh those type of documents would take more time like you have two years is not uncommon you check with other communities other counties you know in the country so uh because of the divine pressure so we kind of uh take a kind of sidetrack road uh on the on the land use element and but still working you who you know looking at infrastructure looking at existing land users working with staff who deal on day-to-day basis on those type of issues and then with the public engagement uh so that's why we you know come to a point where the strategic land use plan is is completed um not to say uh things can change you know all the land uses despite the plan how good how you know we trying to project this might not happen right I mean if you recall 2008 2009 uh things all you know the world economy uh stopped and despite in those days there were projections for more population more job growth didn't happen didn't really start coming back until few years later so we can plan do the best we can uh of course with our partners but but uh yeah leave it up to

those jurisdictions uh that's so the timetable once we I was going to cover it later on the update Okay. So once this is say if at a resimplify it's really [snorts] a as simple sounds like simple as just receive and file this document. We'll tomorrow by the end of this week we'll uh uh send out to to the uh uh the county city and town and say here commission has taken the action uh for resilient file you know you know for your consideration whatever appropriate use in an email with with a document and so that's what we intend to do. Okay.

Thank you. One follow if I may just um this is more of a statement than a question. Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with what's in the plan, that doesn't really matter because it's a plan. But that's that's the whole point. The the the way this kind of came about caused a lot of consternation in especially the rural community. And I guess so much confusion involved that it almost looked like there was something nefarious going on. And I I that's been, you know, accusations have been made, things have been talked about. I guess as we move forward, because we're talking about doing this what, every 10, 15 years. I don't know if there's an ideal time frame. You've talked about that in some of your presentations that maybe we waited a little long, but it makes me wonder if there's a better, more set way to do this where the county and the town and the city publicly make it clear that this is something they want the regional planning commission to do. Because quite frankly, when uh there started to be controversy over this, I had elected officials of one of those entities contact me that had no idea what was going on with this and didn't understand why we were doing this. And uh you know, and so he was very upset, frustrated with me as a commissioner. Um that that doesn't something doesn't bode well for for the way that lays out. And so uh not to mention the fact that once it kind of came out, I think there were a lot of people that felt left out. um whether this it becomes a procedural document or or a guideline or how how we do this in the future. I think there's a whole lot of problems that have been kind of covered or or we've run over the speed bumps we've hit with this or a lot of things we could have avoided with a little more proactive communication. I

think some of that maybe is on our part, but I think a lot of that may be on the part of the folks that we're actually doing this on behalf of. And I don't know how we relay that message or how we we help fine-tune that process, but it seems to me that I don't, you know, my guess is that a lot of us won't be at the table here in 15 years when we do this again. So, how do we make sure that that doesn't happen again? is certainly we want the community to live in a plan and to have um you know guidelines and ideas of what smart growth is and what makes the most sense for the community. Um at the same time got to make sure that that community is involved in the process and understands why it's happening, how it's happening and how they can contribute to that when they do it. So um I I'm I am actually probably going to vote no on this solely for the simple fact that I think we got to do a better job of how we handle that. The report seems to be very well done. I don't love everything that's in it, but I'm not sure any person does love everything that's in it. Everybody's got their own background or their own agenda that they're pushing and uh that may or may not be encompassed in this program. But I think we got to find a better way to do it the next time we do this because and I think that's kind of incumbent on us to learn from the mistakes we made now because the people that will be here in 10 or 15 years aren't going to know those mistakes or really remember necessarily. I would say that there's a lot of blame to go around in terms of why this happened and how it evolved and such. I also think it's a byproduct of just the environment we're in right now where people are highly charged about making sure that government is doing what it needs to be doing and not overstepping its bounds. So definitely agree with that and I think we Rey and I need to share with the um various parties the fact that we need to do a little better job of um each entity needs to do a better job of informing its elected what our role is and why we're doing what we're doing

because as Anthony mentioned this is part of our regional agreement uh with each of those institutions. So, it's incumbent upon them to do a better job of um uh making sure that their electants understand what the process is.

I couldn't agree more with that. We witnessed that. I was at one of the stakeholder meetings, the one our staff stood up and and took it head on and and dealt with the issue. I don't didn't feel like that was necessarily the case with the rest of the crew. I mean, they they kind of let us sit there and I say us because I'm on the commission right now, so I'm saying that from my perspective as a commissioner. It kind of felt like they let Ray Anthony kind of [laughter] hang out there and have to deal with it and they could have done a better job of taking ownership. If this is something they asked us to do, the least they could have done is participate and and be a little more upfront with why and what we were doing. Other comments.

Thank you. Can you address how in a um in a plan like this the infill process is addressed and how is there a way that we could um have that be a more significant part of of the plan? Certainly I think you know an overarching concern is that you know we live in the nation's largest producer of corn and soybeans and agricultural rich ground. Once that ground is converted um it can't be converted back. So we lose a very vital natural [clears throat] resource and a big source of our economy um in the area. So so how can we how can we do more to address infill um in in this type of document? Maybe not in the way it traditionally has been, but maybe we can explore some new ways um to address that because of the unique nature of our of our of our county.

Yeah. Infield development or land preservation or redevelopment. Uh it's it's uh in the current comprehensive plans of the city and the town. uh when those plans were were adopted back in uh 2015 2017 and so that's been their consistent policy actually when you uh look at cases they have entertained in the past few years um yeah that's reiterate you know when they make recommendations when there are developments in in in the more the inner area of those municipalities for infield so I don't think they have given up on that. In fact, uh that was some of the question they were part of, you know, the conversations when we had the public meetings uh through this strategic venues process and and even their staff uh said, "Yeah, it's still in place. They still um emphasize it." So, yeah, definitely this those two areas uh as far as we are concerned, even our own staff, we advocate that. Uh definitely I think there's some pages in the document uh that we got biff a little bit or since it's not that obvious since they already included in the those city the town comprehensive plan. So uh they still exercising you know that as a party and that's why when they u make recommendations you those proposals within the urban areas so to speak. Yeah. a lot of times, you know, it encourage that and so so definitely that's not an issue to the extent that if this should be emphasize more and more I think there's some wording in in in the document and Anthony can can address that for me.

Yeah, if I can interject the the infill development question was was a question we got very early on. Um, and in this case, the intent of this plan is to provide updated spatial information for all of these entities, not to replace their existing comprehensive plans. So, in those comprehensive plans for the city and town, they have clear sections on what they intend to do when it comes to infill development. And so, that's why it's not as emphasized in this plan, uh, because they they already have policy for that. And so, uh, one thing that we did to try to in instill a little bit more of that infill in this plan was in the the second revision on the existing land use map, there are a handful of parcels that are classified as undeveloped uh, within the city and town limits. And so those in existing or undeveloped and in the future if they have a land use associated to them and so those are the intended to be those infill development ready parcels. Um, and then we included a a little snapshot there that uh the city and the town have extensive um electronic online uh tools that you can use to to view parcels that are ready for a new house or ready for a new business. Um and so that's why it's not as um involved in this plan is because they they already have those those policies in place. So we're relying on them that they're doing that work.

So they have their [laughter] their

I guess I would so you know our job as the commission is to look at the needs of the entire county, right? Um and to the extent that we trust government and trust, you know, our our partners, you know, that we're at the mercy of the city and the town um to follow through on that versus um I think we could uh advocate for uh all of the county um to show that we're hearing them by putting more than just a I mean, this is a nice the infill comment is a very nice and [snorts] well done section, but I think almost to put a whole section about here are some innovative infill practices that we've seen in other counties um across the nation. Uh and here are some areas that we have identified that are, you know, perfect for some redevelopment. um and that you know we propose instead of turning you know this parcel over here um to to new [clears throat] commercial use that we you know look at these infill strategies first. I think that would make something like this, when you look at, you know, just the percent of land that's converted, I think it makes it it makes um our our rural partners feel like, you know, we're we're considering their needs because, you know, they drive through our communities, too, and see undeveloped

[clears throat] um or unused uh land. And that's got to be really frustrating. Or vacant buildings. Yeah. Or vacant buildings, you know, that are considered used in this [clears throat] Other questions or comments from the commissioners? If not, I'd entertain a motion to receive the report and forward it to our municipal partners.

Second. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor of receiving and forwarding it to our municipal partners, please raise your hand. So we Okay. All those opposed. Let the record reflect that we did have one uh one no vote. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So we'll as as said uh we'll you know email our partners and let them know the uh the the results of uh your vote just now and then uh we'll uh [clears throat] leave them to to take whatever take action and uh on the comp then we'll go back the where we started is on the the rest of regional uh compens process. We we took note of of the involvement and and we were not to really be defensive. And we we uh we do intend you to involve uh as we originally did uh for the regional content process because it involve those municipalities, rural communities and uh incorporate areas and that will be more larger scale and definitely uh we will definitely be more rural partners and for the strategic language plan just we we we don't have jurisdiction within even those 20 rural municipalities. I [snorts] mean they have their own son authority we we don't have a say and so they control their own destiny. We we don't uh so yeah we um just provide technical assistance as much as [laughter]

yeah absolutely I just think you know if you put it in writing it's one step further towards the you know towards a recommendation and then they're going to oh wow they took the effort to put it in writing that we should do this. So you kind of makes it seem just a little more weight.

Ray, I'd like to on behalf [clears throat] of the commission thank you Anthony and the whole commission staff for your work on the project. Um I know it was a difficult project. Uh and it's a lot different than the last time I remember us doing a comprehensive plan for the county. Um and um I hope uh uh that uh a lot of the things that were discussed here get incorporated um especially the infill because it's much much cheaper to do development when you've got infrastructure all there and ready to go than trying to do what we've been doing for the past 40 years which is essentially spread out and keep um turning farmland into subdivisions per se. It's not a really effective use for our land here in PL County given especially given the quality of the land that we've got here. I mean could you do a separate infill study just

we actually um [clears throat]

we we how is this after the regional count right usually it tend to address a little bit more outside the boomington normal area uh and so infield by by definition it's really the the vacant property the dilapitated properties the vacant properties within the urban an area that got be developed and repurposed right and that's what at least from our perspectives what we meant by new field and we have seen a lot and personally I've worked on a lot of the new field redevelopment plans and um for the regional companies he have safe plans uh that will be more for the area outside the urban area but we when we work on that uh we also work with them because we don't want to plan for a donor hole either After that is done, we will move on to see because in 2015 2017 when we you know after we you know we work on those plans actually for the C. Uh they asked us for we do that before my time although they got awards for American planning association state awards. Um and so we will be working with them and those infield policy examples that could be incorporated into their own individual comprehensive plans and we to the extent that we can do it for both uh uh for both our min you know those two municipalities and then we you know some uh examples there's plenty of examples around and so that's not a problem uh for the regional compact is it's not to focus that much on the rural area. I mean on the urban area. So just want to make that distinction. But when we move on after that for the for the town and

and the city their own company if they still want us to help on that then the infield focus on more uh pages chapter on that you know that that will be natural. Um I think the infill seems to be really driven by the economic development groups both the city has and the town has and of course the economic development council. I think we've heard comments from both normal and Bloomington about the importance of new energy for infill. So, at least from what I hear and see, I think I'm pretty convinced that in Philill is very high on their on their list.

Yeah, you're right, Jim.

I think it's going to come from city councils. Yeah, I think both municipalities are looking toward infill in the long run and also I know talking to developers that it makes a great deal more sense because the cities aren't um providing the infrastructure that they once used to to do and the way the um building equation has um been configured now um it's really difficult for a builder to come in and put in that infrastructure um that they used to be able to do pretty cheaply. It's costing them a lot more. So, I think we'll see a lot more. And we're actually seeing some of it right now. If you take a look at uh the Bericman project up in North Normal, that's filling in some spots. Um and uh I know the city's working on the u State Farm building to convert that to residential. Also working on the uh Commerce Bank building.

Uh and they've tried a few times where the coachman Yeah. uh property was. So, I think it's going to happen.

Yeah. I just like to put it in writing. Yep. And and I think that that would really go a long way in saying that this really I get that it's the individual municipalities that have to do that. But I think this still is a comprehensive plan for the entire county and that it's a piece of the puzzle and I think putting it in writing um in this document makes it more official. Um anything else on this topic before we move on? Okay. Um, under items for information or discussion, the presentation, our um, uh, MLAN County Mayor's Association uh, speaker um, is under the weather and so he's asked to reschedule. Um, so uh, Mayor Johansson from Lexington will not be with us today. Um, Ray, we're up next with the housing coordinator position update. you know, we have received a draft uh grant agreement uh from DCO, the state agency. So we are ready to sign and then send out today by after this meeting and then and then wait for this to fully execute the agreement and uh once we get that uh we should have the official you know read agreement or or docu documents and and ready and then we'll uh start the process of the hiring process for the housing coordinator. So stay tuned. But we at least get to this point is is good. Actual like written documents. Agree.

Um regional housing update. Luke. [snorts] [clears throat]

Hi. Good afternoon everyone. Um, so for the December updates under local updates, the November 1025 housing staff meeting was rescheduled to December 15. And so now staff will be hosting the joint housing staff and ash committee meeting on Monday, December 15th. Um, also we've also posted the RHI 2024 2025 annual report on our website. Um and so highlights from the annual report include the two white papers that we published um namely the moving to normal rental rate analysis 2022 to 2024 and the income qualified housing 2024 area median income. Um other highlights from the annual report include the housing dashboard updates and the 2025 2029 consolidated plan process. Um moving on, we've also submitted the CBDG second quarter report to the city. We're currently working on the Bloomington uh on the Bloomington's program year 2026 CDBG partner uh program application. So this is basically the same process that we do uh every year and funding will be used to continue chairing the RHI meetings, publication of the Y papers and the maintenance of the housing dashboard. Uh moving on to other updates. We've attended we attended a unhouse task force meeting last week. And so during this meeting, Salvation Army said that the emergency shelters are nearly full dur due to the cold weather. And um second, the point in time or the pit count will happen on January 29th. So just a brief overview, the pit count is a 100 required count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night. And third, um, Liam Wheeler, coordinator of the central Illinois continuum of care, which you may recall from the prem February commission meeting, announced that HUD published last month the notice of funding opportunity for next year. And so this

no puts the central Illinois continuum of care at risk of losing 60% of its funding, which would affect programs such as Chestnut Mayor's Manor and will increase the risk of homelessness across our region. Those are the updates that I have. Do you have any questions? Any questions? Can you go into a little more detail what you just shared? Oh, I don't have the details regarding the NO. I'm sure um if I can connect you with Liam. So that's all that detail that I have. Okay. But I'm sure it's scary. Yeah, it is that. So during that housing during that unhoused task force meeting like people spirits were down. So yeah, you call this the what's the notice of funding opportunity? No.

Okay. From [snorts] who? From Hond. From Hond. Yeah.

So, from what I understand, if I may, uh it it's a uh grand program is for the entire country. So, I'm sure we not the only one who who's affected. In fact, a lot of the COC's in the country affected by this. So, um, yeah, it's kind of disappointing, uh, because because it affects, you know, how the different agencies and different nonprofit organizations and uh, what they're trying to help people will be affected, but but but that's what been announced on the NOVA basically grand opportunities and so will definitely have some some impact not just for our area but for is impossible.

Any other questions for Luke? [snorts] Jennifer. Yes. Yes. [clears throat] Please report to the commission that this report here with regard to human services transportation plan has nothing to do with banks. [laughter]

Uh with respect to the region six plan itself, um we are continuing to examine it for areas that need updating with respect to how the both the plan and the region itself have changed over the last few months. That is an ongoing process which we expect to be completed by the end of June of this coming year. [snorts]

Um you may have heard reference to us having distributed a survey to the entire mailing list for region six which is about 45 people. Um and it was it asked a number of things for with respect to those who've been involved with the two committees technical and policy for the region. We ask people to provide us with details about their positions such as county board membership, [laughter] administrative positions, 53 agency positions, social service agencies, and so on. Um, [clears throat] we also asked for some of your community information, popular local media outlets, community gathering locations, organizations as a reference for future outreach regarding the region 6 HSTP program and information regarding affiliated organizations to better reflect community networks that again we could use for outreach. Unfortunately, we had very low response rate with 10 responses out of that large mass. We followed up individually. We followed up with reminders. We have an upcoming meeting on December 15th at which time we'll be handing out those questionnaires in hard copy with an request that they fill them out during that meeting. I [clears throat] will get this information. [laughter] If I had to go store, I'm happy [clears throat] to do that. But I hope that they would solve it this way. Um, we're continuing contacts with regional the regional committees regarding that followup and collecting additional materials and other resources in preparation for our items on the December 15th meeting agenda which will go out later this week. Any questions?

Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much. What methods are you planning to use? [laughter] I hate to say this. answers their questions [laughter] and most of my family history is a journalist. [laughter]

We tried to make it clear to everyone back in September how vital it was for us to collect this information so that we could expand our outreach so that we can make sure that we were contacting the appropriate people and the appropriate organizations to make sure that everyone was aware of the suffering that fell on death. It's not the first time. So, as I said, we're showing up on on December 15th. It's going to be a busy day, December 15th. Um, but it's the same request in printed out format saying, "Do not leave this room till you fill this up." Excellent. You need to guard the door. [laughter]

I know. Only access to a large brown dog. [laughter] I'm kind of at my wits end here because we push this process in here. It's kind of cool when I make friends because over and over again we have said look we're here to help you but it's your project. It's your communities. It's your transportation services. We can't make it happen for you. And so I'm going to make that speech again. It's going to be part of the agenda. It's going to be I don't want to say I'm going to crack a whip. I don't have one for starters. But

very encouraging though, I would hope. [clears throat] [laughter] I'm gonna be interested to see how I got takes this position. But again, we are empowered to do certain things under the agreement we have. But making people understand that it's not our job to do their communities for them is right up. Yeah. [snorts] Yeah. So, we'll let you know in January. How are we [laughter] still working? Um, great. Veterans Parkway. Thank you.

Um, still ongoing. Uh, this next meeting is next Friday on December 12th. Uh, the consultants has been uh completing a draft a pen alternative design report and also a public engagement report. They had a phase two. As you recall, I have uh mentioned last time uh so they will have the two reports uh to be completed uh and seeing comments from the uh project stream committee. Um at the next meeting on 12 uh they will do conduct like a some kind of workshop on the micro meeting probably see more activity sitting input and uh doing survey and that kind of stuff uh for with the the project stream committee. So it's still ongoing a lot of things going on uh for for that but just want make sure that you understand this is really um at a point where they had the different alternatives eventually they would trying to narrow it down to the fifer alternatives any questions is this going to be very similar to what we talked about land use once they put this plan together then the city and town will adopt the plan then or since there are sters where I don't even I guess what's the process?

Um it's a corridor plan uh but we got it with a a federal grant uh the federal grant project. So for this particular we will look just like the SS4A we will seek the planning commission's uh uh adoption uh of the plan and then after after that we will they don't have to adopt it. Uh but then we want to see cuz the roadway the 10mi roadway it's possibly within the city possibly under the the the the town but then also the roadway belongs to the state right I mean [snorts] it's a state and then the right way is on both sides and so we'll probably talk with the state uh but in terms of implementing some of the ideas it would really takes cooperation uh with a different entity. So whether they are top of the plan or specific projects, they will all work together because there won't be money to I can guarantee you there won't be money to to to do all the improvements all at once, right? So there'll probably be more single specific projects incrementally uh and prioritize and to get those done and then apply for even funding you for some of those. So, so it probably won't be uh uh seeking adoption by those municipalities.

Thank you. Yeah. Okay, Ray, you're up next with regional comprehensive plan update.

Okay. Well, with with the action you you just took earlier. Uh uh so we'll get back onto the regional comprehensive plan and uh we have done a lot of the background uh uh existing conditions. uh there's some data needs to be updated. Uh so we'll continue that process. Our goal is to have this done and we still have to work with the county administration a bit more maybe or we're hoping maybe by fall 20 26 to have that done. uh and uh it might take a little bit longer time. Sometimes planning process there'll be changes, unexpected situations that you have witnessed through the um through the uh strategic manage plan. And so, but we want to make sure it's done, you know, properly. And so uh our goal is to have it done in uh in the fall of 2026 but then also with along you know with public engagement efforts and inclusion of uh the world communities and there will be project committees to be formed. Uh so we'll also give you updates uh as we move on.

Any questions for Ray? Can I can I say a couple words? Yeah. Um so [clears throat] uh just like the strategic language plan I'll be trying to uh end the the development of the comprehensive plan. Um

learn a lot and that's why I kind of want to get up and say that uh we have done a lot of backend work here. Um but it's it's my opinion that um I would like to start fresh uh at this point with the comprehensive plan. know that we have a bunch of information that'll be helpful and it'll kind of expedite the beginning of that process. Um, but we need to make sure we're doing the correct outreach and we need to make sure we have a project steering committee that can review everything. Um, and so we're hoping that some of the leg work that we've completed already will expedite that timeline. Um, but with talking with uh other uh officials uh with the county and whatnot, um, they're not concerned about when the plan will be done. They're more concerned about having a good plan at the end. Um, and so I want to just make sure that that is emphasized that a good plan is is the end goal for this project, not necessarily hitting a distinct deadline.

Do you get a sense that they're educating their elected officials about the next [snorts] step in all of this? I think a big first step in this uh new new project development is going to be having a conversation uh and making sure everybody's on the same page about what is expected. Yeah, because I saw the land use um chairperson was in the room. Yeah, I don't think it's a surprise that we're going to start working now more heavily on the comprehensive plan. Um and we want to get it done as quickly as possible, but also we want to make sure again that we don't run into the same problems that we did with the strategic language plan. And so want to make sure we're checking every single box, crossing all the te's and all the eyes and and making sure that that we're on the right track here. Questions for anything?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Um the um 2026 um meeting schedule is included in your packet. Our next meeting is uh January 7th. Um so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we might be able to have the mayor from uh Lexington at that meeting as well. Um, also too in the January meeting, we're going to be um electing new officers and we're going to also have some transition. Um, I just wanted to thank from uh we're actually losing three commissioners. Uh, Jim Fruin, um, Ron and John are all leaving the commission and moving on. Um, we do have one person already designated for, uh, Jim's position. Yeah, that's right. Um uh but um thank you all for the work that you've done for being part of the commission. U applaud your efforts and such. Uh and um would like to just uh lead in a round of applause for all. I hate I hate to leave [clears throat] young blood coming. Um and uh also too just uh one final thing that I was going to mention is that obviously uh as I mentioned earlier u we do have a um outstanding administrative review uh of our minutes or um the open meetings act. And so once we get that report back um it will come before the commission to make whatever appropriate changes that we have to do. We're also taking a look at our um public policy um public comment um procedure. There are things that I think we can tighten up and make it a little more efficient than what we've been doing. So um with that um

can I add

I recently took the um it [clears throat] was a webinar so it wasn't the required open meetings act training but a webinar put on by the Illinois Attorney General's office. And so, um, just a reminder, like it's really easy to go in and sort of view your transcript to see when the last time you did the training. So, while as individual commissioners, we're not required to do it annually. You can see like, oh, it's been a few years, maybe I want to do the training. So, if you get your password reminder or whatever, you can go log in. And so, that's available. Foya training available even though we don't really process those in our role. So, just wanted to throw that reminder out. And we do have one person designated to take the training annually. Um but so again just a reminder if that's something you feel you want to spend a half hour on that refresher. And I became a um expert in um open meetings act and public comment uh during COVID with unit five as president. So, um, and I know my district 87 partner as well, uh, has lots of experience with, um, with that. So, we're happy to consult or review any policy. Um, refer to the school district's policies as potential models. We vetted those pretty well.

Yeah. And one thing I did want to add um while we wait on this review um uh the um state agency that does these reviews um is currently underst staffed um and so don't expect this to be um quickly uh reviewed. Uh it may be sometime in the first quarter of 2026 before we actually see any sort of result. So just to control expectations and such. Um with um that I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Thank you Mark. Second. Second. Thank you. All those favor signify by saying not. Those opposed. Feel free to stay in the room. Uh and um I wish everyone a happy Christmas or a merry Christmas and happy new year. Thank you.