Planning Manager Lacey Rainslow told the Champaign City Council on Sept. 23 that staff recommends the city’s East Side as the first priority for a Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan, a data-driven 18-month study that will combine local maps, stakeholder interviews and policy options to identify displacement risks and guide city investments.

The SNAP effort grows out of the city’s 2021 Champaign Tomorrow comprehensive plan and the recently adopted Garden Hills strategic neighborhood action plan. Rainslow said the Garden Hills work combined assessor data, walkable-access analysis and deep community engagement to shape projects such as the Hedge Park reconstruction and stormwater upgrades on Paula Drive. “We really have to pair that analysis with engagement. And the field work is where that magic happens,” Rainslow said.

Why it matters: Council members and residents raised concerns that development pressure near Campus Town and other high-value areas could push longtime, lower-income residents from the East Side, which contains a high concentration of cultural and historic sites including multiple churches and 14 stops on the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail. Staff said the SNAP would create a publicly adopted plan that the city could use to inform the capital improvements plan, pending TIF timelines and other funding programs.

Staff presented the data inputs that produced a citywide block-by-block index. The analysis uses local assessor records; recent building-permit activity; vacancy and vacant-private-property overlays; a range of Census-based affordability measures from the American Community Survey; tax-sale hotspot mapping; and livability indicators such as crash frequency and perception-of-safety measures. Lily Wilcock, associate planner, said assessor data provides a near-real-time snapshot of building and land values and helps identify blocks where high land value sits next to low building value, which can indicate redevelopment pressure.

Staff highlighted several specific metrics discussed with the council: about one-third of Garden Hills residents are under 18 compared with a citywide 17 percent; the city averages roughly 1,000 tax-sale filings a year and staff estimate 30 to 50 of those annually result in actual title loss; and staff will use hot spots for tax-title risk as one signal of instability. Rainslow said staff indexed property-value disparity, recent residential development inquiries, vacant private property, affordability metrics, perception of safety and subdivision age to form the final priority map.

Council questions and public comments focused on protections for existing residents. “How will SNAP protect long term residents from being displaced as development pressures grow?” asked Council member Williams. Rainslow said the plan will inventory existing tools — including the city’s historic-preservation ordinance — and research other municipal approaches used in suburbs of Chicago, but noted that staff expects to identify additional tools and recommendations only after stakeholder interviews and policy research.

Two public commenters urged the council to prioritize affordable-housing protections. Resident Steven McGuire told the council: “Please please make this a priority,” and asked the council to consider commitments to preserve affordability when properties come up for redevelopment.

Next steps and decision: Staff asked for direction to proceed. Council members voted to direct staff to complete the SNAP analysis, begin stakeholder interviews and community engagement, and return with an existing-conditions report and draft recommendations. Rainslow said staff aims to present the existing-conditions report at a council study session in the first quarter of 2026. The staff-recommended timeline for the full neighborhood planning process is roughly 18 months per neighborhood, after which council and staff would reassess priorities for the next area (staff identified Kenwood/Centennial/West Springfield as a likely subsequent priority).