The Envision Ellettsville Vision Plan defines the community’s vision for the future as a complete community and then identifies supporting goals and big ideas for achieving that vision – one step at a time. The Envision Ellettsville Vision Plan is just the beginning of a meaningful transformation for Ellettsville.
Why Plan? Why Now?
The Envision Ellettsville initiative was created by the Greater Ellettsville Area Chamber of Commerce and Ellettsville Main Street Inc. and funded through a Community Impact Grant by the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County (CFBMC). This initiative was born out of the need for a shared vision in order for the community to take thoughtful, community-driven steps forward.
Process and Community Engagement
Visioning is a participatory process where stakeholders and residents develop a consensus around what a community will look like or be like in the future. The Envision Ellettsville Vision Plan was completed in a 6-phase process over the course of 8-months.
An extensive public and community engagement strategy was utilized to broaden the input of this Vision Plan. Its purpose was to cast a wide net with the intent of capturing a broad array of input, direction, and feedback from community leaders, business owners, and residents. Public input is more than just getting ideas, it’s about communicating with residents, working with business owners, and bringing the community together. It was understood from the beginning that this plan needs to inform and educate those groups while allowing for input of ideas, suggestions for improvements, and continuous ongoing dialogue in the community.
Where is Ellettsville Heading?
The Envision Ellettsville Vision Plan framework, as well as the final action agenda, is intended to position the Town of Ellettsville, its partners, and the Greater Ellettsville community to realize the future envisioned throughout the process.
Using four geographic focus areas as organizational elements, this chapter explores a series of big ideas that originated from community feedback. The big ideas include connectivity, gathering, branding, enhancements and beautification, and growth and development. Each of these big ideas was continuously at the forefront during community conversations and are thought of as things that could have the greatest impact on achieving the vision for the Town of Ellettsville.
The four geographic key focus areas include North Residential, Central Ellettsville, the Westside Business Park, and Southeast SR 46 Commercial Corridor. Each of these focus areas was born out of the 2018 Town of Ellettsville Comprehensive Plan and then refined through the Vision Planning process. Within each focus area, there is a suite of visual and written components that make up the recommendations including:
Focus Area Introduction - Each focus area is introduced with a written overview of the focus area. This overview highlights the geographic boundaries, why it was identified as a focus area, and describes the overall vision for the area. An illustration is used to supplement the narrative and highlight how the various recommendations come together within the built environment.
Big Ideas – Each of the 5 big ideas are accompanied by a short project description and an illustration to depict the big idea concept with a set of corresponding character images. Additionally, a concept diagram highlights the geographic location of each of the recommended improvements.
Action Agenda – At the end of each focus area, there is an action agenda provided in the form of a matrix table. The action agenda identifies action steps related to each big idea. The action agenda also includes more information related to the type of initiative, how it relates to the overall vision, what areas are impacted, and other implementation details.
This organization is repeated for each of the four key focus areas.
Next Steps
Ellettsville has put forth the significant time and dedication to establishing a community identity and building community consensus around the vision for the future.
Moving forward the Envision Ellettsville Vision Plan should serve as the context for evaluating future development, prioritizing investment, and crafting long-range plans. The goal was to facilitate a process that generated excitement and encouraged residents to get involved in a meaningful way. Through a robust public engagement plan, the Envision Ellettsville process did just that - getting people involved and excited.
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