Yay for grassroots planning efforts!

The community development-lover in me is overjoyed to find out that Elgin’s Gifford Park neighborhood’s resident-driven plan was adopted as part of Elgin’s plan.

Click here for the full article.

This plan is “heralded as a ‘first’ by city leaders” and, according to Councilman John Walters, could “set the trail for future groups.”

This is a “bottom up” approach to urban planning, where residents guide the future of their neighborhood instead of having plans pushed upon them by officials who might not have first hand information of what it’s like to live in the neighborhood (a “top down” approach).

Click here for a nice introduction to neighborhood planning at neighborhoodplanning.org. For more info on the importance of this sort of thing, check out the books Neighborhood Planning: A Guide for Citizen’s and Planners by Bernie Jones or Neighborhood Planning and Community-Based Development: The Potential and Limits of Grassroots Action by William Peterman.

Tags: community planning, Courier News, Elgin, Gifford Park, neighborhood planning, urban planning
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