The Geneva City Council approved moving forward with a professional-services agreement with the Lakota Group to prepare a consolidated comprehensive land-use plan and a unified development ordinance at an anticipated cost of $384,949.

City staff said the project will consolidate multiple existing plans (affordable housing plan, bikeway implementation plan, downtown station-area master plan, historic-preservation plan and a Southeast master plan) and will begin with roughly six months of public engagement followed by drafting and ordinance updates, a process staff estimated to span about two years with additional code updates afterward.

"The first 6 months or so will be public engagement, just getting people's input onto how these plans ought to be updated," a staff presenter said, outlining a steering committee composed of council representatives and advisory bodies.

Council members generally expressed support for the scope and said they welcomed the promised implementation tools and clearer development pathways; the committee recorded the motion in favor and staff will return finalized contract language for council action.