Plaza Planning

The News-Gazette had some updates on potential ideas for a future Champaign "Neil plaza." From today's paper:

Champaign city planners test fitting Neil plaza ideas
City planners working on a downtown public plaza are putting ideas to paper and seeing what sticks.

Faced with a parking lot about the size of a football field, located at the corner of Neil and Washington streets, the planners will see which publicly-submitted plaza ideas are physically and financially feasible...

Some specific plaza features that the public has expressed interest in, according to Rains-Lowe: — An open-lawn area with some form of grass or seating.

— Ground-level water features that people can

interact with but aren’t like a children’s splash park.

— Movable seating and spaces to eat and work outside.

— Being family-friendly and pet-friendly.

— Shade and areas for kids to play.

— Components that change throughout the year to keep people coming back.

Because the plaza is being planned to occupy a parking lot, the city could replenish the lost spaces in different areas. Rains-Lowe said it will be a tricky decision because some people want to keep the same amount of parking spaces, while others don’t mind letting them go.

The city’s Neil Street corridor, which spans from Interstate 74 to the future plaza, is also being redeveloped. Planners on each project are working together to make sure that none of their designs clash, Rains-Lowe said.

A combination of private, public and grant dollars will go toward building the plaza. The city has created the website planourplaza.com for the public to describe their preferred plaza vision in five words or less.

Full article here.