Neighborhood Planning

Teska Associates, Inc. worked together with the City of Aurora to implement the Aurora Neighborhood Planning Initiative (ANPI), a program designed to help residents and other stakeholders shape the way their neighborhoods will grow and change over the next 20 years and beyond. The Near West Galena Neighborhood was the third neighborhood to complete the ANPI process. Located west of Downtown and the Fox River, the Near West Galena Neighborhood is a historic neighborhood characterized by ethnic diversity, historic architecture, and a predominantly residential character. However, the neighborhood faces many issues, some of which relate to the perceptions and incidences of crime, an aging neighborhood infrastructure, and infringement of property standards and building codes. The neighborhood planning process defined by the ANPI provided the neighborhood with a mechanism to formally record their concerns and ideas and take a more proactive stance to address the issues it faces.

Under the leadership of Teska Associates, Inc. and with the assistance of City staff and a volunteer Leadership Team, residents and local stakeholders undertook a planning process that included a series of public neighborhood meetings designed to identify and prioritize neighborhood issues, draft a neighborhood vision, and collect constant community feedback. The Near West Galena Neighborhood Action Plan established a physical and organizational framework for neighborhood improvement that allows the neighborhood and City to work together to effectively and efficiently address the neighborhood's priority issues. The action plan is guided by a structure of task forces and action items that provides the neighborhood with a unified voice. Constant communication of progress and finding practical solutions to the priority issues will not only help foster a sense of community pride but also potentially encourage other residents and stakeholders to take part in the grassroots efforts of the task forces.