An open house Wednesday showcasing ideas for redesigning downtown Bloomington streets and the city square drew hundreds of community members.
Downtown for Everyone is the campaign, with the event meeting in the basement of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
A steady stream of city leaders, business owners and residents walked a circuit of posters depicting possible changes. Meanwhile, members of the city’s design team were posted at each station to field questions.
A trio of street types were shown as possibilities for the business district:
- Alternate A keeps the current level of parking, but provides the least pedestrian space.
- Alternate B improves the walkability of downtown, with just one side of parking.
- Alternate C creates the greatest amount of pedestrian space with the least amount of parking.
Attendees also were asked which downtown style they preferred: classic/traditional; modern/contemporary; or a hybrid blend.
Among attendees were Bloomington residents Steve and Val Ambrose.
“We’ve long been interested in the better development of the downtown. What they’ve done in Normal is great, and I think we’re way overdue for doing something like this,” said Steve Ambrose.
Putting pedestrian areas into the thought process is important, but keeping some parking is key, too, said Val Ambrose. “I think it's a good thing that the city is looking at this and moving forward.”
Springfield-based Crawford, Murphy and Tilly (CMT), an engineering and consulting firm, is overseeing the project. For about a year, its staff has gathered data leading to this public phase.
Other design team members — including staff from Springfield landscape architect Massie and Massie, Bloomington architect Workbench, and Bloomington marketing company Clear Design — joined city staff at stations.
Bloomington traffic engineer Phil Allyn stood at the event’s first spot, offering an overview of the design process and explaining what’s behind a streetscape plan.
“This specific board is kind of showing the scope of our project,” he said, pointing to a north-south map of downtown that stretched from Locust to Olive streets.
“We’re trying to recreate spaces that are usable for people of all modes,” said Allyn.
Centering the room was a giant tabletop map of downtown Bloomington, where attendees could write feedback on post-it notes, adhering those to certain geographic locations.
Besides Allyn’s introduction station, five other focus areas were: museum square improvements; street designs; the Connect Transit Market Street center; U.S. 51/North Main Street Plaza; and downtown style options.
“Tonight is about the next phase” of this campaign, said Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus, who walked around and spoke with community members in attendance.
“The last year has been focused on data gathering. But now the city is kicking off the public phase — getting community input.”
CMT will put together a report combining the year’s data collection, and now the public input phase.
Tyus said a figure of $25 million to $30 million has been thrown around for the total cost of the streetscape project. But while that range isn’t unheard of, it’s not set in stone, he said.
“Actually we don’t know right now,” he said, adding part of this design process is coming up with a number. The work doesn’t have to be done all at once. “You can do this is in phases,” he said.
On Wednesday, CMT’s Chris Stritzel manned the U.S. 51 spot. He showed community members a possible shared-use path heading north into downtown, as well as a possible park area across the street from the BCPA.
“The city feels like they’ve got one chance to get this right," he said. "And we want the process to play out so we can get the best results — not just for the city, not just for the design team, but also the public.”
Stritzel said the county is involved regarding the square that's home to The McLean County Museum of History, and the Illinois Department of Transportation has a say-so in what happens with the U.S. 51 stretch.
After walking around the stations, an area with several large tables and chairs gave attendees a spot to provide written feedback on the designs.
State Rep. Sharon Chung, a Democrat from Bloomington, toured the streetscape exhibits, as did numerous community and business leaders such as developer Andy Kaufmann, as well as current and former Bloomington City Council members, and the city's police chief.
BPD Chief Jamal Simington said he likes the look of the hybrid model best, in terms of balancing safety with different types of spaces. He said BPD has bicycle and foot patrols, so they'll also be impacted by the new designs.
Tim Tilton, along with his wife Vicki Tilton, is a downtown resident, business owner and building owner. Their Monroe Centre and Fox & Hounds are right in the path of some of the proposed changes. He’s excited about the redesign possibilities.
“I think they’ve put a lot of time and effort into the planning,” said Tim Tilton. “I like the way they did it. We thought it was going to be a sit-down presentation. But this allows people to come in at their convenience and be able to spend time at each one of the stations and hear from the folks who have worked on the project.”
Tilton encourages people who didn't attend to check out the Downtown for All website, and provide feedback.
Bob Vericella, who owns both residential and commercial buildings downtown, said he also enjoyed walking around the stations.
“It’s enlightening to see, maybe, some progress,” he said, adding “I’m somewhat optimistic that something’s going to be done,” with the streetscape plan.
“It will be nice to have some uniformity to the look of it — downtown, and the walkability improved."
Not everyone liked the redesign plan. Like Bloomington resident Dave Kobus.
“It’s a money pit. They’ve spent enough on this and there hasn’t been a return on investment,” he said.
“It’s just putting a pretty facade on downtown buildings, and you’re making some bike lanes, you’re making some walk areas. But if you don’t have the traffic, the return on investment isn’t there.”
But Tim Tilton said people opposed to the upgrades aren't seeing the big picture.
“We’re still the center of our community. Everything that’s going to be good requires investment of both time and money,” he said.
