The City of Bloomington is looking to create a long-range plan to address the maintenance needs and possible expansion of Miller Park.
“Miller Park is and has been a flagship park for our park system,” said Eric Veal, the city’s director of parks and recreation, adding that overuse is one of the major reasons a development plan is needed.
“On a daily basis, that isn’t always the same in each section. But in the main area, we get a lot of congestion because a road was removed. And then, we are now accommodating a lot more special events — and they’re large-scale events that are great for Bloomington — and we want to continue that.”
As part of its consent agenda Monday, the Bloomington City Council authorized a $66,000 contract with the urban planning and design firm Confluence to develop a master plan for the 66.7-acre park.
“As we were planning ahead in our budgeting, we were budgeting projects year by year and hoping we could do one project at a time,” said Veal. “Our [senior] deputy city manager, Billy Tyus, recommended that we come forth with a master plan that groups everything, not together by project but together by plan, and then we implement that over time.”
The historic park in southwest Bloomington is home to Miller Park Zoo, and includes a 115-year-old pavilion building, a 13.8-acre lake, and memorials honoring the Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
But the park’s roads have deteriorated over the years, and staff says the community has made requests for additional features, more public and private events, and possible expansion of the zoo.
“There’s a lot of — I shouldn’t say a lot of — there are some tired items. There is a tennis court that needs to be removed, and we want some advice on what to replace it with next. And then we have the Miller Park bandstand that needs some updating as well, with restrooms that need updating,” said Veal.
“So while we have all of these amenities going on, we want to come up with one plan, especially with one of the roads that was removed a couple years ago, to have the best flow and pattern and parking for all the residents to come.”
While Miller Park has gone through some changes in its history, Bloomington has never had a formal all-encompassing plan since its inception, according to a staff report to the city council.
“From the community, there has been a lot of input. We’ve already received a lot of excitement with people looking forward to the public meetings that want to get their ideas out there,” said Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation David Lamb.
Under the agreement, Confluence will meet with staff to review past studies, exhibits, maps and other related documents, and visit the park to make assessments. The firm is then responsible for developing and prioritizing suggested improvement projects, and delivering a final report for review.
“This is a good time because we’re going to start doing our surveys, public meetings and stuff like that,” said Lamb. “As it warms up, people will be getting outside and Confluence will be here and be able to see the park over the summer during our heavy use time, help them evaluate the situations that we have there with all the different activities in the park over the summer.”
Lamb said he anticipates Confluence will complete its master plan by August or September.
The funds for the Miller Park master plan contract were included in the 2025 budget, with an estimated project cost of $125,000.
“This won’t agree to us doing any work,” said Veal. “What this will do is it will provide a lot of the renderings and design of what Miller Park can become after we receive all of the information from all the stakeholders in the community.”
Ward 2 update
Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe told the council he is getting closer to having a recommendation to fill the vacancy created by Donna Boelen’s resignation as Ward 2 representative.
Mwilambwe said he’s interviewed about nine candidates so far.
“There might be a couple more that we need to schedule for interviews. But I've submitted those [and] sent those to council members for consideration,” he said, adding he hopes to have a nominee for consideration at the Feb. 10 council meeting.
The Ward 2 seat has been vacant since Boelen announced her resignation on Dec. 23.
Route 66 Bikeway
Another item approved on the consent agenda was an updated intergovernmental agreement with the McLean County Regional Planning Commission, McLean County, and five other municipalities to fund the county’s portion of the Route 66 Bikeway.
The project is part of a statewide effort to complete a bike trail parallel to Historic Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis.
“This is an extension of what we see as the Constitution Trail here in Bloomington, yet it is something that can be more than just a recreation,” said Veal. “It can be a multi-modal transportation [route], if people want to go on long distance rides, too.”
In 1999, Bloomington joined the county, the commission and Normal, Chenoa, Lexington, Towanda and McLean in an initial intergovernmental agreement related to funding the bikeway. The age of that agreement necessitated the update.
McLean County serves as the lead organization and official applicant for Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program [ITEP] grants. The trail project gets 80% of its funding from ITEP, with the county and municipalities covering the remaining 20%.
That percentage is divided up based on each municipality’s population. Based on the 2020 U.S. Census, Bloomington is responsible for 46% of that remainder.
“The benefit of this is it just updates it with the census numbers, so that the communities who haven't yet received the trail itself, then the funding goes to those sources,” said Veal. “For example, Bloomington has already received most of our trail, although we still try and do some new [segments]. This agreement extends our desire to work together with all the communities to make the trail better for everyone.”
