Moving Champaign County Forward
Updated: March 29, 2007
You spoke out, and now it's finally here. Two years of planning, town halls, and research have resulted in 34 goals and five themes. Those themes are colloborative, prosperous, sustainable, supportive and enriching. It's all part of the big.small.all campaign kicked off in 2005. It sets a vision for the next 30 years.
Some highlights include creating a county-wide recycling program, finding a new way to fund education and building more affordable and accessible housing. The vision for Champaign County is all based on what was on people's minds.
The group says in order to keep moving forward, we have to go back to grassroots.
Some say Champaign County is on a roll, and they want to make sure it keeps moving forward. On Thursday, the BigSmallAll released its final report on its hopes for the future for the area. It focuses on how to get everyone working together. Co-chair Barbara Wysocki says, "we really do realize that we don't work together as much as we possibly could."
About half of the 34 goals call for government groups in the area, to get together and brain storm how to make us more efficient. One example is to form a county transportation system. Wysocki says in the 1100 people that spoke out, many say they couldn't get around the County. " In this day and age to have people tell us they feel so isolated feels like an anomaly."
The plan also hopes to double the number of parks and natural areas in the county. Regional Planning Commission CEO John Dimit reasons they need more land, "as far as recreation in Champaign County, we have to make our own, there's no lake out there, no mountains."
The question now is where does this plan go from here. Organizers say it's all up to us. Committee members say people need to take these ideas to the next step. "Part of the problem in the past is that everybody or some peope have sat back and expected some people to do it," says Wysocki. Organizers say the goal of this plan was to set themes and put ideas on paper. not find the solutions. They hope the community will take the first step to bringing this plan into play. Wysocki adds this plan is just the beginning, "I think we basically scratched the surface with this project." Dimit adds this vision spans 30 years, and it can't just happen in six months."
These are ideas now, but organizers hope they turn into something bigger. To give you an idea, Illinois Terminal and Willard Airport came out of the last vision like this; so they hope people will take the same initiative here.
If you're interested in taking up a goal, you should call the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. It, along with the Farm Bureau have people working on two of the goals. They hope more will join in.
You can find the full report of County goals here .
Some highlights include creating a county-wide recycling program, finding a new way to fund education and building more affordable and accessible housing. The vision for Champaign County is all based on what was on people's minds.
The group says in order to keep moving forward, we have to go back to grassroots.
Some say Champaign County is on a roll, and they want to make sure it keeps moving forward. On Thursday, the BigSmallAll released its final report on its hopes for the future for the area. It focuses on how to get everyone working together. Co-chair Barbara Wysocki says, "we really do realize that we don't work together as much as we possibly could."
About half of the 34 goals call for government groups in the area, to get together and brain storm how to make us more efficient. One example is to form a county transportation system. Wysocki says in the 1100 people that spoke out, many say they couldn't get around the County. " In this day and age to have people tell us they feel so isolated feels like an anomaly."
The plan also hopes to double the number of parks and natural areas in the county. Regional Planning Commission CEO John Dimit reasons they need more land, "as far as recreation in Champaign County, we have to make our own, there's no lake out there, no mountains."
The question now is where does this plan go from here. Organizers say it's all up to us. Committee members say people need to take these ideas to the next step. "Part of the problem in the past is that everybody or some peope have sat back and expected some people to do it," says Wysocki. Organizers say the goal of this plan was to set themes and put ideas on paper. not find the solutions. They hope the community will take the first step to bringing this plan into play. Wysocki adds this plan is just the beginning, "I think we basically scratched the surface with this project." Dimit adds this vision spans 30 years, and it can't just happen in six months."
These are ideas now, but organizers hope they turn into something bigger. To give you an idea, Illinois Terminal and Willard Airport came out of the last vision like this; so they hope people will take the same initiative here.
If you're interested in taking up a goal, you should call the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. It, along with the Farm Bureau have people working on two of the goals. They hope more will join in.
You can find the full report of County goals here .
