City council convened Tuesday evening to discuss a comprehensive plan for the city of Champaign and a housing survey that was conducted to assess housing needs in the city.

Members of the city planning department gave an overview of Champaign Tomorrow, an extensive plan outlining growth and development in Champaign over the next 20 years.

Bruce Knight, planning director for the city, said it is an umbrella document, an over-arching plan that anticipates the future needs of the community.

This will be the third time the council will be briefed on the plan, the first time occurring in 2007.

The last comprehensive plan for the city was created in 2002; plans usually take three or four years to create, said Lacey Rains-Lowe, city planner.

Public input on the project has been encouraged via its website, www.Champaigntomorrow.com.

The website provides many different kinds of information, including strengths and weaknesses of neighborhoods, existing sewer, fire and arterial road capacity and information on different kinds of development.

The plan is intended to be a policy guide for future development in Champaign. It will also serve as a future land use map, said Rains-Lowe.

Knight said expectations of the plan include a more complete transportation system, a stronger center city and growth of the knowledge based economy.

Due to the fact the document is simply a plan, council members stressed the importance of implementation.

“We’re not laying down the law, there are real limits to what this document is able to do,” said Michael LaDue, district 2 council member.

LaDue said the document should be a leadership document, one that should be translated to reality rather than one maintaining the status quo.

He added that the document needs to be more than sweeping idealistic goals.

The final draft of the project will be in December, and it’s slated for final adoption in February 2011.

The housing study survey outlines the housing market in Champaign and addresses housing needs in Champaign.

LaDue said lack of appropriate housing has been a problem for transitioning families or individuals.

“If you’ve got money, we have plenty of housing. We don’t have housing for those that most need it,” LaDue said.

He said there is a need for single room occupancy housing for those transitioning out of homelessness.

Brian Higgins, member of Vogt Santer Insights, the group that conducted the housing survey, said there is an increased need for rental housing in Champaign.

He said there is a new renter population and a need to replace obsolete housing stock.

Higgins said there is existing housing for low income families or individuals, but it is not good housing.

Subpar housing for the renting community in Champaign is a growing problem.

No further action will be taken by the city to address the information recovered by the housing survey at this time.