Community leaders and residents gathered Tuesday to select action items for inclusion into La Salle’s 10-year plan during Strategic Community Planning.

La Salle Economic Development Director Curt Bedei said the process has been “exciting” and thanked everyone for their openness and participation during the meetings.

“I think it is important to engage the public and get their feelings and thoughts on everything,” he said. “The whole process went very well. Everybody was very cordial, cooperative and dedicated to what we were trying to accomplish.”

Tuesday marked the final of the three planning sessions. The city’s goal is to better understand the community and its residents’ needs and/or wants over the next 10 years in the areas of quality of life, tourism and economic development.

During the meeting, attendees narrowed 108 ideas gathered from previous meetings to their 10 favorite. They are creating a walkable city, housing rehabilitation, riverfront green space west of Route 351, a marina east of Route 351, streetscape improvements, a bike/walk path from Rotary Park to La Salle, public transportation, Illinois River walk, citywide security cameras and pedestrian priorities for downtown.

Community and Economic Development specialist Pam Schallhorn gave the estimated 30 attendees five stickers and told them to pick their top five projects.

After the first round, there were nine clear winners and a tie for 10th place.

After another tie between a community garden, diversity in law enforcement and pedestrian priorities for downtown, the attendees had narrowed it down.

Walkable city

Bedei said it’s an overall term about creating avenues for people to be able to access things without having to walk too far for them.

“Creating an atmosphere that you can walk within just maybe a mile of your residence and be able to access different types of businesses and services that you need from a day-to-day lifestyle,” Bedei said.

Housing rehab

Last week, La Salle resident Dawn Hicks said her group discussed La Salle’s downtown and its lack of development in business and residential properties.

“Finish the Maytag building and Hotel Kaskaskia,” she said. “I know that there have been issues with that ... there are no apartments downtown or we need to fix parking for the people who do live in upstairs apartments.”

Bedei said housing rehab will address issues within the housing market, including abandoned properties or properties not being well kept.

“What we are doing here is we’re encouraging people, finding avenues for them to be able to afford to fix up their home,” Bedei said.

Riverfront green space pace west of Route 351

Bedei said it would create an environment for people to enjoy.

“Whether they want to go out and walk a trail or they want to read a book,” he said. “You know, people can put up their pop-up tents and maybe have a festival out there.”

Marina (east of Route 351)

Bedei said the idea of a marina had been proposed before, but this plan is an idea to incorporate some type of marina east of Route 351 off the Illinois & Michigan Canal Trail mainly because there isn’t a similar facility.

Luke Tomsha, founder of the Perfectly Flawed Foundation, last week said his group spoke about the possibility of a marina.

“We talked about ... use of the river,” he said. “We could come up with some sort of plan for a marina where people can put their boats similar to what you would see at Heritage Harbor.”

Streetscape improvements

Roy Jones of Earlville said he was excited that the meetings had gone in such a positive direction and was looking forward to seeing the projects be implemented in the future.

“This is a new positive,” he said. “All great ideas, so it’s been a great jumping-off point for a lot of different projects. It was nice to see the green spaces mentioned in such a diverse group setting.”

Bedei said creating streetscapes is about addressing the atmosphere and the aesthetics of downtown, incorporating more trees, shrubbery, plantings, artwork and anything that helps rejuvenate and beautify the area while improving and maintaining safety.

Bike/walk path from Rotary Park to La Salle

The bike/walk path from Rotary Park has been a topic of conversation throughout the planning process. The council approved a bike path to Rotary Park during Monday’s council meeting.

“Rotary Park does kind of sit outside of the community,” Bedei said. “A bike path will be able to create a connection or gap between the community and the park that feels a bit safer and provides easier access.”

Public transportation

Deb Miranda of Earlville said she was excited about the aspect of public transportation because it would bring more people to the community and get the community “moving about.”

“Rural communities are really stressed for any type of transportation,” she said. “The [North Central Area Transit] is great, but it’s limited.”

Bedei said the city would work on creating transportation within the city itself, such as incorporating bike paths, taxi or Uber services, as well as some type of interior bus service, but also have an outlet for outside transportation.

Illinois River walk

Bedei said the riverwalk should create a riverfront area where people have easier access to the river.

“I think people would really enjoy being able to fish in the Illinois River, as long as the location was safe,” he said.

Citywide cameras

Bedei said the camera would be installed to help alleviate safety concerns.

“We’ve talked about Flock cameras,” he said. “I know some communities have put cameras in their downtowns, across the city, and it kind of helps maybe solve some issues that may come up.”

Pedestrian priority for downtown

Bedei said this initiative would focus on pedestrian safety in the downtown area, particularly elements that would help pedestrians feel safer walking on the streets.

“Some communities have done curb pop-outs in the streets,” he said. “The premise for that is to slow traffic down so that you don’t feel like you’re going to get run over by a semitruck. ... There are other methods to incorporate – certain ways they put in crosswalks, lighting, putting in different types of plantings and trees.”

Christe Pasieka of La Salle said she thought all of the projects hit on issues across the community, and she said she is most looking forward to the pedestrian walkway improvement.

“This is not just for downtown, it’s safety for crossing Third Street,” she said. “It’s needed. You’re taking your life in your hands if you’ve got a child to cross the street.”

What’s next?

Bedei said the next step will be understanding the agenda items and their scale of durability.

“You know, are they short-term?” he said. “Can we accomplish something like this in a three-year period or is this going to take a lot more planning and a lot more funding?”

Bedei said he will send out a link to the public, potentially next week, but he doesn’t know if the voting will be open for one or two weeks.

“We are going to send out a link to a survey that lists all 10,” Bedei said, “to give the public at large the opportunity to voice what they feel is important, as well.”