Residents tell McLean County Board the regional land‑use plan is flawed and rollout rushed

Several residents used the county’s public‑comment period to urge McLean County Board members to oppose or delay adoption of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission’s (MCRPC) draft strategic land use plan, saying the map contains errors, inadequate outreach and potentially harmful land‑use recommendations.

Ruth Burke, who identified herself as a resident of Old Town Township and a farmer, told the board the plan’s land‑use map “is riddled with errors” and argued the document would be prescriptive if adopted. “My ask, my plea to all of you is that you simply vote no when this plan comes up for a vote,” Burke said, and invited board members to visit her farm to see protected wetlands and sustainable practices she said would be threatened by proposed industrial activity.

Another resident, Trisha Braid of Hayworth, criticized the commission’s outreach and said municipal officials in multiple townships had not received substantive requests for input. Braid read an email she said came from the commission chair and called the rollout “rushed”: “This plan is being rushed to completion with a press release, a survey link, and some invitations for PowerPoint presentations. That’s not community engagement,” she said.

Board response and context: Member Leah Klein — who chairs the Land Use and Transportation Committee — thanked participants and urged board members to review the draft and share feedback with the McLean County Regional Planning Commission, noting the plan remains subject to revision. Klein also referenced the commission’s June 24 press release that said feedback would inform a final map anticipated by August 2025; Braid and others said that schedule, and the breadth of outreach claimed in the release, were inaccurate or incomplete.

Details raised in comment: Residents said the draft map places an artist’s farm and a separate earthwork near an ISU Horticulture Center at what they described as economic and ecological risk; Burke cited a figure of more than 1,400 acres of proposed industrial activity in southeast Bloomington. Burke also cited contact counts from the Illinois Stewardship Alliance — “68 contacts” within a 15‑mile radius of ZIP code 61701 and “over 400” within 50 miles — as part of her argument about local agricultural connections that the plan could disrupt.

Decision/next steps: No board vote on the MCRPC draft plan occurred during the meeting. Klein reiterated that the draft remains under review and asked board members to distribute the plan to constituents and forward feedback to the regional planning commission.

Speakers quoted in this article are the public commenters and the board member who addressed the plan; quotes are attributed to those individuals as spoken at the meeting.