Downtown Plan Draft Elements

Unveiled at the Downtown Plan Open House, the main elements of the Downtown Plan are now available for review in draft form.  On the bottom of this page there are PDFs of the posters presented at the Open House. The Draft Plan Elements are summarized immediately below. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments on the draft elements. You can submit them to jmengstrom@urbanaillinois.us. 

Vision Statement

The Vision Statement is based on public input from the Visioning Workshop, and is a combination of visions put together by the Downtown Plan Steering Committee.

Downtown Urbana is the heart of our city.  It is built at a human scale and embraces the historic urban fabric, while also promoting a high quality of compatible new building development in appropriate locations.  It is a vibrant environment with welcoming public spaces and an active arts and culture scene.  Downtown is accessible to all and well connected to surrounding neighborhoods and to the University.The mix of businesses, residences and other attractions in our downtown helps to promote sustainable, healthy lifestyles.

Concept Plan Map

The Concept Plan Map shows four different types of areas:

The Downtown Core, in orange, represents the areas of downtown that have a traditional urban style of development. Buildings are one to four stories and are generally built up to the front property line. The streets are walkable, with wide sidewalks, benches, and shade trees. Buildings have large front windows that invite browsing.  Many structures in this area are historic or important civic buildings that should be protected through preservation tools. The walkable, traditional urban character of this district should be expanded.

The Outer Downtown, in purple, contains the areas immediately surrounding the core. This area contains a variety of building and land use types, including some traditional urban buildings, large surface parking lots, and suburban-style developments.  In order to expand the walkable core, these areas should be redeveloped in a more traditional urban style. One potential way to accomplish this is through a design overlay district. A design overlay district would create development standards that would allow for the walkable character of the core to expand over time. These standards could include build-to lines, prohibition of parking in front of buildings, minimum amounts of window space on the ground floor, and a separation of allowable uses for the ground floor versus upper floors. The scope of the design standards and exact location of its boundaries need to be studied further.

The Expanded Downtown Commercial areas, in brown, are within the downtown study area, but are not easily accessible to pedestrians.  Commercial Areas are along arterial roads, which make them easy to access by vehicle. It is recognized that arterial roads such as University Avenue and Vine Street present a barrier for pedestrians, and that these areas are unlikely to redevelop with traditional urban style architecture.

Near-Downtown Residential areas (gray) provide downtown with a large population of potential customers and employees. The existing pattern of small residential lots on a well-connected grid should remain.

Goals & Objectives

Strengthen economic activity in downtown Urbana.

• Attract a greater number of and more diverse commercial uses downtown, including businesses for everyday needs, food and beverage shops, and niche apparel stores.
• Promote and market downtown through coordination with UBA and downtown businesses.
• Fill key vacancies including underutilized lots and empty storefronts.
• Make best use of existing downtown buildings; encourage retail and restaurant uses for first floor locations.
• Create incentive programs for targeted business types as identified in the Downtown Market Study.
• Promote the continued rejuvenation of Lincoln Square and Historic Lincoln Hotel.
• Proactively recruit successful downtown businesses from other metro areas to expand into downtown Urbana.
• Identify and retain support existing downtown businesses ready for expansion.

Increase downtown’s vitality by attracting more residents and visitors.

• Increase the quantity and variety of housing options downtown and encourage upper-story residential uses, especially in City-supported developments.
• Promote visible, outdoor activity in downtown during nights and weekends.
• Attract more University of Illinois students to downtown shops, restaurants, and apartments.
• Encourage a variety of entertainment options to attract downtown visitors.

Protect and enhance the character of downtown.

• Protect downtown’s historic architecture and civic buildings through preservation tools.
• Promote downtown’s historic character with programs such as historic markers.
• Adopt design guidelines to expand downtown's walkable core.
• Promote downtown’s amenities such as the Boneyard Creek.
• Continue to invest in key public improvements, including streetscapes and parking lots.
• Establish unique identity for downtown through signage & marketing
• Assess building stock and proactively repair deteriorated buildings.

Develop engaging public spaces and streetscapes.

• Pursue the development of one or more permanent outdoor public square and performance/event space, along with more child-friendly spaces.
• Enhance existing public spaces through addition of landscaping and amenity features.
• Promote public arts to enhance streetscapes and public spaces.
• Implement the Boneyard Creek Master Plan.
• Promote the use of Lincoln Square Village center court as indoor public space.

Improve mobility to and within downtown

• Install wayfinding signage to direct the public from other areas of the city to downtown.
• Add directional signage to direct pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles to destinations throughout downtown.
• Enhance connections from nearby neighborhoods into downtown.
• Develop Green Street as a primary corridor from the University to downtown with use of gateway features and banners.
• Improve usability of streets for pedestrians, bicycles, transit and vehicles.
• Improve sidewalks, intersections and lighting to ensure accessibility and improve pedestrian safety.
• Maintain a sufficient supply of parking in easy-to-find lots and structures per the Downtown Parking Study.
• Enhance connections between different areas of downtown.

Promote context-appropriate urban-style infill development.

• Promote infill developments that relate to the street and are compatible with surrounding buildings.
• Promote compact, walkable development near downtown core and transit corridors.
• Encourage public/private partnerships to foster new development in the downtown area.
• Use tax increment financing to promote new development and redevelopment opportunities and public spaces.
• Encourage ground-floor retail and restaurant uses in new development, especially in City-assisted projects.
• Proactively identify underutilized properties and engage their owners to envision and realize redevelopment opportunities.
• Pursue redevelopment of North Broadway, Race, and University Avenue corridors.

Reduce downtown Urbana’s environmental impact.

• Promote energy-efficient construction and rehabilitation of downtown buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Establish a local foods iniative to promote consumption of local foods in homes and restaurants.
• Implement green infrastructure solutions including efficient lighting and best management practices for storm water runoff.
• Increase the amount of green space to promote active lifestyles and reduce storm water runoff and heat island effects.
• Attract green businesses and promote business practices that reduce environmental impacts.
• Implement Climate Action Plan strategies related to downtown.

 Key Redevelopment Sites

Through the Downtown Market Study, four key redevelopment sites were examined. The consultant team, Business Districts Incorporated came up with land use recommendations for the sites based on available area, traffic and other factors. Our graphics consultant, Hitchcock Design Group, designed site plans and drafted perspective illustrations to show what the redevelopment sites might look like. These projections are based on full build-out, assuming that the design guidelines and development incentives proposed in the plan are successful. Below are some of the site plans and illustrations. A more complete analysis is available on the poster sheet PDF at the bottom of the page.

Broadway (North of Water Street): 

Race Street (South of Railroad Tracks):

Vine Street (North of City Building):