Peotone Trustees Take Part in 90-Minute Strategic Visioning Session

By Andrea Arens

Looking ahead to the village’s future, Peotone trustees spent 90 minutes on Monday night participating in a strategic planning vision session designed to help shape long-term priorities and goals.

The session took place during the Feb. 23 Committee of the Whole meeting and was led by Cory Plasch of CP2 Consulting. Rather than focusing on routine village business, the meeting centered on discussion, collaboration, and big-picture thinking.

Plasch guided trustees through a structured conversation aimed at identifying Peotone’s strengths, challenges and opportunities. Board members were asked to share their perspectives on what is working well in the village, what concerns need to be addressed and what they envision for Peotone in the coming years.

The session encouraged open dialogue among trustees, with ideas ranging from economic development and infrastructure planning to community identity and quality of life. Plasch facilitated the discussion to ensure each trustee had the opportunity to contribute and to help identify common themes.

The ideas generated during the meeting will be compiled by C2E Consulting into a formal report. That document is expected to outline key priorities and provide a framework to guide future decision-making by the village board.

Plasch emphasized thinking big and some big ideas were presented, and trustees, along with the mayor and administrator, were asked to vote. Some grand ideas were shared like bringing a Bucee’s or a casino district, even a data center was added to the giant post-it papers hung around the room.

Ultimately, some of the winning idea goals were to create community gathering places and enticing younger people to stay or come back. Creating an identity for Peotone that included more parks, bike paths and walking paths, and more subdivisions. Future goals 20 years from now included water recycling and central garbage removal. Revenue growth ideas included brewery, winery, distillery trail, auto dealerships with a test drive track, and interconnected rooftop bars.

“I mean, look at this way, there’s a lot of people who have a lot of the same ideals, and it’s all different ages. I’m the youngest one here,” said Trustee Nick Strba. “I don’t want to rub it in, but I have a lot of the same, we all have the same thoughts crunched out through all different ages. We all don’t want the same thing.”

Trustee Jackie Richards added, “Absolutely, I learned that there’s a lot of creative minds on this team, and we’ve never had the opportunity to brainstorm like this. So thank you for that.”

Plasch added that developers often look to the strategic plan to see what development and future planning a municipality will favor.

“That’s why we do this. A little bit of brainstorm, a little bit of thinking through what the future could look like, because you will be able to target that,” said Plasch.

Plasch also added that community participation in the online survey was sitting at about 260. The goal would be 400 participants and encouraged the board and administration to share and encourage participation.

Village officials said the strategic planning effort is intended to create a clearer roadmap for Peotone’s growth and development, ensuring that policy decisions align with a shared vision.

The finalized report will be presented to the board at a future meeting.