Synopsis:

The community of Huntley in Illinois is drafting plans for its future. While there are three different perspectives on how to move forward, all but one incorporate adaptive reuse within their programs. The village hired Houseal Lavigne & Associates as a consult to help them determine the plan. Houseal met with local business owners and residents, inventoried existing conditions, and performed a market analysis of the downtown area. The three perspectives that came out of the work are:

1. Preservationist Approach – preserve the existing buildings, update facade, convert residential buildings for future commercial use
2. Aggressive Approach – demolish some buildings, increase density downtown
3. Gateway Approach – hybrid of the first two, expand the downtown square, establish gateway entries to the downtown, adaptive reuse of existing structures

With any of the plans, the community hopes to build upon the walkability of its traditional downtown, to make it more of a destination.