JANESVILLE 鈥 After some torrential rain and minor street flooding, community members placed sticky notes on boards with different possibilities of what could be at the GM/JATCO site Wednesday night.
Some of the options included moving the fairgrounds, affordable housing, tiny homes, grocery stores, a solar farm, a gun range and so much more.
The open-house style event allowed community members to move through a series of stations where they could weigh in on future development priorities, including housing, commercial uses, industrial development, parks and recreation, and other amenities.
Consultants leading the planning effort said the workshop is one of the first steps in developing a long-term redevelopment strategy for the former General Motors and JATCO property, one of the largest redevelopment opportunities in 糖心Vlog传媒.
Participants were asked to place votes on various development concepts within four categories: residential, commercial, industrial and recreational or green space uses. Residents were given two votes per category and encouraged to submit additional ideas through written comments.
The workshop also included a mapping exercise where residents could identify locations for future amenities and connections they would like to see incorporated into redevelopment plans.
Another station allowed attendees to allocate hypothetical funding among various land-use categories, including housing, parks and recreation, retail, restaurants, entertainment and industrial development, providing planners with insight into community priorities.
The feedback collected during the workshop will be combined with responses from an online survey that launched alongside the public engagement effort
Greg Phillipps said with an important property like this one it can鈥檛 just be anything. He feels like Stantec and the committee is doing a great thing by hosting the visioning workshop because it allows the community to see and get involved with the process.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of emotion around how this property is going to be used,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 good that Stantec is saying, 鈥榣ook, here are some viable opportunities for it,鈥 because if you just leave it open to everybody, you鈥檙e going to get everything right. They brought some specific ideas, taking the community鈥檚 input and then we鈥檒l see where they go from there.鈥
He wants the city to focus more on sustainability and making sure that space is walkable and usable for the community.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to say the 19-to-24-year-olds write walkable spaces: 鈥業 would love to leave my house and be able to walk to the coffee shop.鈥
鈥淚 have to drive everywhere I go, and we need to create more of a usable community. So I鈥檓 not opposed to residential, but if you do that, it needs to be an eco-friendly, walkable, sustainable, self-sustainable type of thing.鈥
Alyssa Capoziello said that she was thrilled to see so many people show up and put there suggestions on the boards.
鈥淚 like that they鈥檙e presenting options with rooted in dream and not logic,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of an escapism. I鈥檓 not sure what all of this information will provide or how it鈥檚 going to shape anything but i like to see that we are see what the community wants.鈥
She said that this was a smart move for the city. She said this is what the community has wanted for months since a data center was brought up and she said it feels like they are finally able to give their input.