What is “Elevate Elwood?”
The Elevate Elwood 2035 Plan is the comprehensive, uptown, and thoroughfare plan for the city that will plan for the next 15 years. The concept of “Elevate Elwood” draws on assessing the city’s current condition and planning for improvements over the next 15 years, while maximizing Elwood’s historic character and values. The Elevate Elwood 2035 plan’s recommendations will guide the city’s decision makers now as well as in the future in what will best elevate Elwood based on what improvements citizens want to see made. The Elevate Elwood 2035 Plan is unique, because it is comprised of three distinct planning documents: a comprehensive plan, thoroughfare plan, and uptown revitalization plan.
The first phase of the planning process is completing the comprehensive plan, which will last approximately nine months. The comprehensive plan is on a timetable since it is being funded by an OCRA grant, and you can read more about that in the How is the plan being funded? blog post. The comprehensive plan will provide a vision for the city’s future and a road map for decision-making. The thoroughfare and uptown revitalization plans will be completed within six months of the comprehensive plan’s completion. The thoroughfare plan will focus on Elwood’s transportation network and provide key analyses of the transportation network by reviewing existing issues and projecting potential problems. The uptown revitalization plan will outline a vision for the future of Elwood’s uptown district and provide a framework for reinvigorating the city’s local economy. All 3 planning documents combined in the Elevate Elwood 2035 Plan represent a cohesive planning effort for Elwood for the next 15 years. To find out more about the Elevate Elwood 2035 planning process, visit www.elevateelwood.com/about