Drew Awsumb,Department of Urban & Regional Planning; Bumsoo Lee (DURP) and Kathie Brown, UI-Extension

The greater Peoria metropolitan region has experienced meaningful expansion in recent decades and additional growth is forecasted for the region.  There has been redevelopment and reinvestment in the City of Peoria, particularly downtown and in the emerging Warehouse District.  Further, there is growing interest in regional transit solutions to faciliate urban redevelopment while managing automobile congestion.  This interest builds on recent urban design and complete street planning in the City of Peoria.  Drew Awsumb, a Master of Urban Planning graduate student, is working in the Peoria community with the local mass transit district, CITYLink, and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to engage cities, counties, and other stakeholders throughout the entire region to envision what a regional transit network could be, and furthermore, how it could serve as the foundation for a more livable community as a whole.  This proposal builds on past planning efforts to shape a Transit-Orientated Development (TOD) concept vision for the region, study one particular corridor in the City of Peoria.  This corridor runs from downtown through the Warehouse District and into South Peoria.  The study and engagement will consider Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) technologies as well as Smart Growth urban design principles.  Further, the work applies emergin research in Housing & Transportation.  The outcome of these deliberations could be a new approach to citylife and urban design in Peoria that is more affordable and more economically sustainable for future generations.