On Tuesday the City of Normal hosted a meeting to continue the discussion about expansion in Uptown Normal.
Normal mayor Chris Koos spoke highly of the project in front of at least 50 attendees. This is the second meeting about the expansion of Uptown which includes several new features to the area, after July’s meeting.
Koos reflected that this plan for Uptown has been over 20 years in the making.
“We’ve been working in town for long while and had the master plan done in 1999,” Koos said. “The continuity is very helpful to have the institutional memory of what has worked and the past and what will work in the future.”
Mock ups of the underpass from the South Plaza to the North Plaza.
During the meeting, Koos highlighted the future plans for Uptown Normal. With the center of normal being locked down with the circle in the middle, the town of Normal is looking to expand on that. Amongst the changes to the area would be to install an underground path from the South Plaza to the North Plaza to be finished in 2024.
The expansion seems even more necessary now for Koos thanks to the boom in Bloomington-Normal’s economy thanks to the Rivian Motors plant.
“A number of things that happened in McLean County that make a profound difference in planning principle in one word- Rivian,” Koos said. “People are moving down here in droves, there isn’t enough housing with all the new opportunities.”
Mock-ups of potential housing in Uptown Normal.
Because of this, Koos thinks it is valuable to expand the housing in Uptown, as the 1999 model shown. With the rise of workers coming to Bloomington, Koos noted that the vacancy in the county is at 2% with 5% generally being regarded as low.
Koos sees this problem arising due to what he called ‘missing middle housing.’
“It is called missed medium housing and it captures the idea that there’s single-family house on one end and then big apartment complexes on another end,” Koos said. These smaller mid-size housing options really could be exciting, and they add a kind of granularity to new places.”
With the new housing that Koos eventually expects, he is looking to bring more shopping, including a grocery store into the Uptown area.
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