In Collinsville there is much hoopla about the widening of Illinois 159 to go straight through downtown and all the way through town. The wide majority of the towns (aka, everybody that I've talked to or heard of) are pretty pissed off about it as it stands to level pretty much everything along IL 159/Vandalia. The townspeople preferred the option of swinging IL 159 around Collinsville. However, the prevailing thought was that swinging the traffic around the town would be bad for business in the city, and that widening it would encourage people to stop. The townspeople's fear is that all that widening 159 is going to do is allow people to drive through Collinsville faster, much like Maryville.
Anyways, the positive of this, in my eyes, is that the city has finally started to focus on its old core. The widening of 159 has already forced some business off of 159/Vandalia and they have relocated to Main Street and have reported an uptick in business. For a long time, we heard our town politicians talk about wanting to focus on the downtown (which the locals call uptown, hence the name) for a long time but with really no specifics to talk about. However, as I was home for Thanksgiving I discovered the master plan for the "Uptown" district.
The plan is to divide the district into three districts, The Gate District, the Central Business District, and the Market District.
The Gate District is the farthest West along Main Street and Clay Street. Today, this part of Uptown consists of the library and some businesses such as garages and hair salons housed in old residential sites, along with a couple cheap car dealers, a rough apartment complex, and a few vacant lots. The plan is to tear most of this down in favor of a mostly residential area. New residential construction is purple, new retail is orange, and existing structures are the light tan.
The core of Collinsville has patches of larger, nicer homes among the multitude of smaller, miner home. I like how the larger homes line Main Street as they will provide a nice entrance on this side of downtown/uptown. I was surprised how, farther east along Clay, they have also drawn up what appears to be dense, urban residential plans. Being that I am someone who appreciates urban design, I am obviously pleased with this. However, Collinsville isn't really known urban housing and it has few examples compared to Granite City or East St. Louis, so I am optimistically curious as to how these will turn out.
As we move east, we come to the Central Business District. Which today contains a variety of businesses, from restaurants/bars to jewelry stores to furniture stores to a comic book shop, just to name a few. The future of it looks like this:
The plan is to keep it the same except for the block in the middle, which as you see, consists of all new construction and a new plaza. This has me disturbed. The block as it stands today is far from perfect, as many of the buildings have some structural issues. However, Collinsville has a fairly nice street wall for its size and the destruction of this for a plaza is troublesome. I would much prefer the renovation of the current buildings (a few already have been) as I see a plaza completely useless except for weekend movies on summer nights.
The farthest east of the districts, the Market District, is the most affected by the widening of 159 as it runs straight through it. The area contains a bank, in the process of being demolished for the new 159, a family pharmacy, a hair salon, and a few bars that are rougher than the ones farther west on Main Street.
The new retail construction will replace one of those bars which lays in a rather unspectacular building, along with what I believe is a rundown garage. This is absolutely a positive as this part of Main Street, east of 159, is rather dead and rundown and needs this much needed boost.
Overall, I like the master plan, but not at the price of sacrificing an urban block at the very center of downtown. But take away that, and the hope is that Collinsville may have a smaller version of what Belleville has, a vibrant downtown that extends in both directions past 159.
Official Website: http://uptown2.collinsvilleil.org/index ... &Itemid=91
Anyways, the positive of this, in my eyes, is that the city has finally started to focus on its old core. The widening of 159 has already forced some business off of 159/Vandalia and they have relocated to Main Street and have reported an uptick in business. For a long time, we heard our town politicians talk about wanting to focus on the downtown (which the locals call uptown, hence the name) for a long time but with really no specifics to talk about. However, as I was home for Thanksgiving I discovered the master plan for the "Uptown" district.
The plan is to divide the district into three districts, The Gate District, the Central Business District, and the Market District.
The Gate District is the farthest West along Main Street and Clay Street. Today, this part of Uptown consists of the library and some businesses such as garages and hair salons housed in old residential sites, along with a couple cheap car dealers, a rough apartment complex, and a few vacant lots. The plan is to tear most of this down in favor of a mostly residential area. New residential construction is purple, new retail is orange, and existing structures are the light tan.
The core of Collinsville has patches of larger, nicer homes among the multitude of smaller, miner home. I like how the larger homes line Main Street as they will provide a nice entrance on this side of downtown/uptown. I was surprised how, farther east along Clay, they have also drawn up what appears to be dense, urban residential plans. Being that I am someone who appreciates urban design, I am obviously pleased with this. However, Collinsville isn't really known urban housing and it has few examples compared to Granite City or East St. Louis, so I am optimistically curious as to how these will turn out.
As we move east, we come to the Central Business District. Which today contains a variety of businesses, from restaurants/bars to jewelry stores to furniture stores to a comic book shop, just to name a few. The future of it looks like this:
The plan is to keep it the same except for the block in the middle, which as you see, consists of all new construction and a new plaza. This has me disturbed. The block as it stands today is far from perfect, as many of the buildings have some structural issues. However, Collinsville has a fairly nice street wall for its size and the destruction of this for a plaza is troublesome. I would much prefer the renovation of the current buildings (a few already have been) as I see a plaza completely useless except for weekend movies on summer nights.
The farthest east of the districts, the Market District, is the most affected by the widening of 159 as it runs straight through it. The area contains a bank, in the process of being demolished for the new 159, a family pharmacy, a hair salon, and a few bars that are rougher than the ones farther west on Main Street.
The new retail construction will replace one of those bars which lays in a rather unspectacular building, along with what I believe is a rundown garage. This is absolutely a positive as this part of Main Street, east of 159, is rather dead and rundown and needs this much needed boost.
Overall, I like the master plan, but not at the price of sacrificing an urban block at the very center of downtown. But take away that, and the hope is that Collinsville may have a smaller version of what Belleville has, a vibrant downtown that extends in both directions past 159.
Official Website: http://uptown2.collinsvilleil.org/index ... &Itemid=91
