I am trying to learn more and more about McLean County because often times this county is used as a model, most recently related to the county board approving $15,000 for the local Convention and Visitor Bureau based on what happens in McLean and the many ongoing conversations to create an airport authority as exists in McLean, and my students more times than not looked at McLean as a model in urban planning accomplishments. I have posed this to many folks in the community so now I am doing so here because the blog readership is most knowledgeable. And there have been over time a number of thread discussions about economic development, best practices, continuing to make Champaign county the best place to live, etc.

Here are some of the aspects that have been shared with me. The county is predominately Republican and has been for years. The county board has a Republican majority and has for years. The county structures will be almost parallel after the 2012 election. McLean has 10 districts with 2 members/district and 4 of the districts are rural. These individuals since 1973 have voted to put in place a zoning ordinance for the preservation of farmland (Section 5 of the Ag section of the zoning ordinance) because the view is that agriculture has high value and is economic development. A friend/colleague is the zoning administrator. He points out that one does not see the scattering of lights throughout the agriculture area when one flies into BMI as compared to what we see here. In addition, they have taken steps to preserve the streams and develop a greenway around the communities in the county. During a conversation with the zoning administrator, I learned that 360 wind turbines are now up. In siting fees alone, these turbines generated $600,000 for the county let alone the amounts in property taxes, predominately going to the rural schools. The $600,000 is actually a low permitting fee amount. (Potentially in Champaign County if all 30 turbines are built the amount will be $135,000 @ $4500/turbine.) An intergovernmental agreement resulted in the well used Constitutional Trail, an abandoned railroad bed. The McLean County RPC is structured entirely differently than the RPC here.

The city of Normal under the mayoral terms of Mayor Kris passed the first "green building" ordinance in the state, not just south of I-80. This resulted in the building of the LEED-rated Children's Museum and the Bank of Illinois building along with the renovation of downtown Normal.

We all know that there are two insurance headquarters in B-N plus two factories along with two institutions of higher education.

I am looking forward to your insights.