A decade of strategic planning, and economic development
The City of Milton is unique in that it has two downtown districts only about one mile apart due to a merger of two villages in the 1960s: Milton and Milton Junction. The former area is now known as Goodrich Square, and retains a historical character with landmark buildings. The latter area is now known as Merchant Row, an area at the crossroads of Highway 29 and the new Highway 26 bypass which is characterized by commercial and industrial uses.
Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Plan. In 2008 V&A helped craft the City’s Comprehensive Plan update as well as a Downtown Plan that included Goodrich Square.
Addressing the areas “left behind” by a new Highway 26 Bypass. Vandewalle & Associates also worked with the City of Milton throughout a 10-year process to plan for the new Highway 26 Bypass which the DOT was scheduled to build in 2013. Vandewalle & Associates helped the City create a new TIF district and secure a planning grant for Goodrich Square and the area that would be “left behind” once the bypass opened. In 2010, prior to the opening of the bypass, the Vandewalle & Associates team updated the Comprehensive Plan to account for changing market conditions.
A new, 115-acre Crossroads Business Park was created in the Merchant Row area and positioned as Rock County’s key business, workforce, and logistics connector with the Fox Valley to the north and Illinois’ Chicagoland to the south, with easy access to the Janesville market to the west, and Whitewater to the east. Vandewalle helped the City plan and acquire strategic properties for the Park. The team also worked with the City to forge relationships, and facilitated dialogue with businesses and ag processing, packaging, and printing business clusters that would complement the area’s corporate, workforce, and locational assets.
