Meeting Seeks Public Input On Future Of Curtis Road Corridor

A public meeting set for Saturday morning in Urbana will consider the future of the Curtis Road corridor that runs south of Champaign-Urbana.

The area surrounding a 4.6 mile-long stretch of Curtis Road (from U-S Route 45/Dunlap Street in Savoy to Illinois Route 130/High Cross Road south of Urbana) is mostly farmland today. However, traffic volume has been picking up. The corridor lies just a few miles east of the Curtis Road interchange at I-57.

Transportation Planner Ashlee McLaughlin with the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission says the concerns they hear at the Saturday morning meeting will be added to public feedback received at an earlier public meeting last October that attracted more than 80 people.

“People want the roadway to be safe, said McLaughlin. “There are a lot of concerns about safety, because it’s currently a rural cross-section. But it sees a wide variety of uses every day, from people walking and biking as well as agricultural vehicles.”

The public meeting runs Saturday, February 18, from 8:30 to 11 AM at the Philo Road Church of Christ, at the corner of Philo and Windsor Roads in Urbana.

McLaughlin says a steering committee of local stakeholders will use the public input, as it develops possible scenarios for future development along the Curtis Road Corridor.