As I noted yesterday, I sat in on last Wednesday's Comprehensive Plan Review Committee meeting. According to the committee's analysis, C'dale faces a number of problems with three paramount (two of which are housing related):
--large amount of sub-standard housing throughout all areas of the city
--critical shortage of single family duplex housing ($100,000-$125,000 price range)
--revitalization and upgrading of downtown and the square
Other issues cited as important to the plan but not paramount are: recreation, city appearance, transport and utilities.
A couple of points were debated. First was the importance of the university to the city's future. Though the committee appeared to agree that the health of the university is vital to the health of Carbondale, mention was made of the riots of May 1970 as evidence of a one-sided relationship between Carbondale and SIUC, that is, SIUC will do whatever benefits the university with the city's welfare as an afterthought. There was disagreement expressed with this view but most members seems to agree it's in the city's best interest to seek out other economic engines to supplement the university, though I'm not sure how feasible that is.
Another major point of discussion was the focus of point 3 on downtown rather than the entire community. The west side of Carbondale has a number of empty storefronts, easily comparable with the 13+ in downtown, and maybe the focus ought to be on upgrading buisness areas on both the east and west sides, as well as downtown.
Members also commented on the focus on $100,000 homes in the plan with a note made that there were no $250,000 homes availalbe in town either and buyers for those were locating in Carterville and Herrin. Meeting adjoured at 7 p.m.
There's another meeting of the review committee on March 25 and a community wide meeting at Carbondale Middle School on the 26th.
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