Casey Unveils New Comprehensive Plan Targeting Jobs, Housing, and Childcare

City of Casey Comprehensive Plan Meeting | November 17, 2025

Casey Unveils Vision for Future in New Comprehensive Plan Targeting Jobs, Housing, and Quality of Life

Article Summary:
The City of Casey has unveiled a new comprehensive plan, a detailed roadmap designed to reverse population decline by focusing on job creation, housing improvements, and enhancing resident quality of life. Developed with extensive public input, the plan recommends concrete strategies, including the creation of a Capital Improvements Plan, recruiting a full-service grocery store, and exploring the adoption of zoning and property maintenance codes.

Casey’s Comprehensive Plan Key Points:

• Core Challenges: The plan directly addresses population loss, an aging housing stock, limited job opportunities, and a workforce imbalance where most residents commute out for work while most local jobs are filled by non-residents.

• Top Priorities: Public feedback consistently identified the need for more well-paying jobs, a full-service grocery store, more activities for youth, diverse housing options, and better childcare.

• Key Strategies: The plan proposes focusing on industrial growth near the airport and I-70, rehabilitating existing homes, encouraging infill housing on vacant lots, and creating a formal Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) for infrastructure.

• Guiding Future Development: A significant recommendation is for the city to consider adopting a basic zoning ordinance and property maintenance codes to guide growth, protect neighborhood character, and ensure building quality.

CASEY – The Casey City Council on Monday, November 17, 2025, held a public hearing to present its new comprehensive plan, a forward-looking document titled “Small Town Big Vision! Shaping the Casey of Tomorrow.” The plan serves as a strategic framework to guide city policy and investment for the next decade, with a focus on reversing population decline and strengthening the local economy.

Economic Development Director Tom Daughhetee presented the plan, which consolidates previous planning documents and is grounded in extensive public engagement, including a community-wide survey, targeted surveys of alumni and high school students, and an open house. “This is a living document that we will use to guide on an annual basis—one year, five years, 10 years down the road—about what we should be working on to address the biggest concerns that our residents have,” Daughhetee said.

The plan identifies several core challenges facing the city, including a population that has declined more sharply than in peer communities, an aging housing stock with nearly three-quarters of units built before 1980, and a significant workforce imbalance. According to the plan, 83% of employed Casey residents commute to jobs outside the city, while 81% of people working in Casey live elsewhere.

Based on this data and resident feedback, the plan outlines five key areas for action: housing, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, quality of life, and land use.

Key Goals and Recommendations:

• Economic Development: Top priorities include attracting industrial employers, recruiting a full-service grocery store, and developing opportunities for young people through apprenticeship programs and entrepreneurship initiatives. The plan suggests leveraging assets like the Municipal Airport and creating a designated industrial park to attract new businesses.

• Housing: Strategies focus on improving the existing housing stock. The plan recommends adopting building and property maintenance codes, encouraging “infill” housing on vacant lots, and focusing on rehabilitation. It also suggests participating in the Central Illinois Land Bank Authority and developing a “bulk bid program” to lower costs for home improvements like roof replacements.

• Infrastructure: A primary goal is the adoption of a formal five-year Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) to guide systematic investment in streets, sidewalks, and utilities. The plan also calls for prioritizing sewer line maintenance, stormwater management, and increasing the size of water lines in the northwest part of the city to support fire protection and future development.

• Quality of Life: The document highlights the critical need for more childcare options, calling it an “economic imperative.” Other goals include expanding recreation at Fairview Park, adding a splash pad or community pool, and investing in new athletic facilities near the I-70 interchange to boost sports tourism.

• Land Use: The plan strongly recommends that the city consider adopting a basic zoning ordinance. It states that the absence of zoning limits the city’s ability to “guide development, protect neighborhood character, and ensure consistent building quality.” It also suggests annexing unincorporated “holes” within the city’s boundary to ensure fairness in taxation and service provision.

The draft plan is available for public inspection at City Hall, with the council expected to vote on its official adoption at its December 1 meeting.