East Peoria is planning for the future and moving forward on the development of the 2045 comprehensive plan.
Ty Livingston, director of Planning and Community Development, updated the city council on the plan at Tuesday night’s regular meeting. His department has been gathering resident input and one request is rising to the top.
“You can think of areas within, you know, the immediate area, as well as other places that people have visited where you’ve got some sort of commercial activity on the ground floor, whether it be a restaurant or a shop, and then on the floors above, you have residential living,” Livingston said.
Though he says single-family homes are still prevalent as the “American dream,” requests for mixed-use living are becoming more frequent. There are some mixed-use projects already in the works in East Peoria, like the Blutowne Apartments next to city hall. Livingston says a commercial component is planned for the finished building.
He says the complex is currently gathering a waiting list and plans to start moving residents in early next year.
Though the comprehensive plan is for two decades from now, Livingston says the changing needs of the community will continue to influence its development. He says projects can change radically over time and uses the city’s commercial Levee District as an example.
“That is a project that evolved from something really different than what was came up with,” Livingston said. “That started focusing on, there was a big emphasis on medical technology years ago and that evolved. And, you know, we have the Levee District in its current form today.”
For now, Livingston continues to gather input from the community on what the priorities should be for a guide 20 years in the making. The city has multiple open houses and neighborhood meetings already scheduled through September.
He’ll also be visiting a civics class at East Peoria Community High School.
“In these efforts, we seem to get a lot of feedback from adults, which is great, that’s exactly what we’re looking for,” Livingston said. “But we also want to hear from the young folks. Those are the future residents of, well they’re residents right now, but they’re the future of East Peoria.”
The next open house for comprehensive plan input is at city hall on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
