Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 7

92 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 7 and national traveler without competing with downtown.” With so much happening throughout the city, Dixon is putting itself on the map as a destination for tourists and travelers. Voicing his hopes for the next few years as the community continues to grow, Mayor Arellano shares, “I would love to see us continue to build up our downtown, and really grow the quality of life for our town, in such a way that not only do our own residents get all of those amenities but it continues to attract more visitors who are looking to get away from Chicago or come out of the rural areas to enjoy some of the culture of our town. The second goal would be to build up that I-88 corridor and capitalize on all of the travelers that are coming through that interstate every day. To make Dixon the biggest and best rest stop and destination along I-88 between Iowa and Chicago.” just a prospective TIF, where we are hoping for projects. We have multiple live projects right now. That one is 27 acres of commercial development.” There is also an active residential project underway with HVARRE Development, who are building a 55+ community. The city plans to use the TIF as an incentive for developers, offsetting the costs of water, sewer and roadwork. “It is a vehicle for us to pay for some of the public needs for that area. It is going to be hundreds of acres, it’s a very large expansion of the city boundary,” says Arellano. “It was part of a long planning and then recruitment process, where we were specifically looking to build along the interstate to synergize with our industrial park and our commercial opportunities, while also building up residential in a way that didn’t compete with our downtown or other business quarters. We really wanted to focus on things that complemented this; appealing to the state PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Willett, Hofmann & Associates, Inc. www.willetthofmann.com Owned solely by licensed professionals on staff with a talented and diversified team of over 65 employees, WHA is poised, capable and qualified to provide our clients with a single source for an extensive range of professional engineering, land surveying and architectural design services from any of our 7 offices.