Infrastructure and housing improvements are among the top priorities facing Galesburg, according to the 2024 Strategic Planning and Goal Development Initiative.
The city last week released the Strategic Planning Final Report and Executive Summary. The planning study was conducted by Northern Illinois University (NIU) Center for Governmental Studies.
Galesburg City Manager Eric Hanson tells Galesburg’s Morning News, “Successful communities plan their work, and work their plan. You stay focused and stay honed in on the things that you believe are important to help the community grow and prosper.
“I think when you tie back your approach to planning, tie that into budget and priorities, you hopefully will achieve better outcomes.”
Based on an evaluation of the process—including interviews, focus groups, discussions at the workshop, and the goals developed—four high-level strategic priority areas were identified. Strategic priority areas can change slightly from one strategic planning process to the next. These priority areas represent larger themes or priorities that encompass all the strategic goals.
Community Development and Beautification
Prioritizing beautification efforts and dedicating funds to accomplish beautification goals will not only help to enhance the City’s aesthetic appeal, but also build a sense of community pride. By improving the gateways, streets, and sidewalks through public/private partnerships, residents and businesses can be inspired to invest more deeply in their community, fostering a stronger, more trusting relationship between the City government and its citizens.
Economic Development and Job Creation
Continued focus on revitalization and rehabilitation of downtown historic buildings will be important to achieving Galesburg’s economic and community development goals, including creating jobs, increasing tourism dollars, and recruiting new businesses that will complement and diversify the City’s business mix. The City can focus on areas of growth and expansion by employing tools such as façade grant programs, rehabilitation assistance, talent pipeline partnerships and other incentives to recruit and retain businesses.
Community Engagement and Governance
Community engagement and effective governance is vitally important for communities of all sizes. Whether it is listening to the needs of residents and businesses, delivering a cohesive message, or promoting the City’s events and activities, clear communication and active engagement are high priorities for City staff and elected officials. Highlighting what makes Galesburg unique to current and potential residents, businesses, and tourists is essential for successful marketing and branding of the community. Moreover, community engagement enhances transparency, which is fundamental to effective governance.
Infrastructure and Housing Improvements
Proactively planning and rehabilitating the City’s existing facilities along with strategic investments in the City’s water and power infrastructure are essential to ensuring City facilities are sustainable and can accommodate potential growth. Additionally, diversifying the housing stock is crucial to meeting the needs of both current and potential residents across various life stages. Exploring housing need, availability, and future developments will enable the City to adapt to, and plan for, changes in population, demographics, and tourism, positioning the community for long-term success.
The strategic planning process launched in June and included internal and external stakeholder focus groups, and leadership interviews. In August, the strategic planning workshop was held to set priorities and a vision for the future direction of the city. The staff at NIU Center for Government Studies encapsulated the results of that strategic planning workshop into the attached reports, which illustrate the prioritized short and long-term goals for the city.
Hanson said he believes maintaining and improving the city’s infrastructure is key for Galesburg.
“From my perspective, the most important is most certainly the infrastructure,” Hanson said. “Without that, we’re not going to achieve substantial business growth, and we’ll have a problem with housing —roads, water, sewer is kind of the foundation of everything.
“As far as being attainable, right up there is communication and how we tell our story — both internally to our residents and externally to prospective investors to our community. That is something I feel we can make pretty significant in roads in a pretty short amount of time.”
The City Council and administrative leadership developed 17 short-term goals and 15 long-term goals at the workshop.
Among the short-term goals, defined as a 1 to 3 year time frame, are:
- Develop a multi-year plan to invest in infrastructure improvements.
- Improve the City’s marketing and external communication strategies to ensure cohesive and accurate messaging to the variety of stakeholders, residents, and businesses across the community.
- Use the 2024 Galesburg housing study to develop policies, programs, and approaches for short- and long-term housing needs while working to improve the mix of housing and housing stock.
- Explore funding source options for long-term road and infrastructure maintenance needs across the community.
- Analyze and resolve the City’s water sourcing options and solutions for the next 60-100 years.
Among the long-term goals, defined as a 4 to 8 year time frame, are:
- Continue to increase the City’s investments and activities to foster and support broad economic development opportunities and actions in the community.
- Capitalize on the City’s airport as an asset with regular maintenance, improvements, and enhanced marketing for tourism.
- Work with downtown businesses to make downtown a vibrant and active hub, including attracting outdoor dining and residential housing developers for mixed-use development.
- Work to address power infrastructure needs and deficits and improve the power grid in and around the City with electric utilities/providers.
- Partner to help reduce and/or alleviate elements of poverty in the City.
- Foster and facilitate a redevelopment plan for the Sandburg mall and the area surrounding the mall.
“Long term, it’s all about growing our economy and strategic investments, and that includes the ability to find new partners and create new jobs,” Hanson said. “It’s not surprising that is near the top.”
WGIL reported last week that Texas-based investors have purchased the vacant portion of Sandburg Mall, but say the future use of the former retail center is still to be determined.
Addressing the sale of the mall, Hanson told Galesburg’s Morning News, “The only thing standing in the way of progress is the rightful owner of the property. We can want to do a lot of things to the mall, but for ownership of it, it’s a little challenging. If we control it, it’s all our cost vs. what hope it to find the right partner.
“I can say we had probably run our course with the previous owner. It clearly wasn’t going in the direction we wanted it to, therefore with new ownership is new opportunity.
“In our conversations with them, I think they understand most of the existing structure needs to come down. That will be the ultimate precursor to redevelopment.”
According to project coordinators, the strategic plan is meant to be a roadmap for the City with the flexibility to adapt to those changes. Therefore, it is recommended that the City undertake a regular review (monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually) of the strategic plan, its goals, and implementation schedule to identify the need for updates or modifications so the entire City consistently recognizes and meets changes in community needs and expectations. In addition, the City is encouraged to continue to engage in regular strategic planning process updates and renewals every three years.
