Uptown Station

Violations can escalate from a citation to a ban from the area to arrest. The ordinance states people will be given a chance to comply first and specifies it isn't meant to deny anyone access to public space "solely because the person is homeless."

The revisions are meant to curtail “camping-type activities, excessive amounts of personal property, unattended personal property, storage of personal property on site, blocking of access points and excessive occupation of waiting areas," according to a memo from city staff.

The Town of Normal is looking to strengthen its code of conduct in and around Uptown Station, which has seen an increase in homeless people gathering on the property in recent months.

The Uptown underpass project, first proposed 10 years ago, was approved Monday night by the Normal Town Council with a sunset provision on tax increases needed to complete financing.

You should not expect any big transformational project to be straightforward. That's a takeaway from Part 2 of our series "Hard Things" about the heavy lifts and big dream efforts our society and community achieve.

The Uptown Station Amtrak stop in Normal is the second busiest in the state with 10 passenger trains a day coming through on the Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor.

Gov. JB Pritzker recently voiced support for the Chicago Hub Improvement Program (CHIP), a plan that also holds promise for Amtrak service through Bloomington-Normal. The investment in transportation infrastructure would fix several problems at Union Station and connect it to two potential passenger-focused main lines.

The Town of Normal is looking for a new restaurant tenant to move into a vacant first-floor space in its Uptown Station.

On Monday, Normal leaders celebrated the town securing a $3.1 million federal grant that will be used for the planned construction of a pedestrian underpass in Uptown.

The Normal Town Council on Monday will consider a joint funding agreement for the Uptown underpass project. The agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation covers development of a detailed construction design and formalizes part of a grant-supported funding scenario approved by the council in July 2021.