Mayoral Candidate Todd Morgan calls for new study to determine future of downtown Frankfort

Mayoral Candidate Todd Morgan calls for new study to determine future of downtown Frankfort

Former Village of Frankfort trustee and current mayoral candidate Todd Morgan believes that a community can only be strong with the input of its citizens and the implementation of strategic goals for its future.

Morgan proposes the creation of a new study for the downtown area of Frankfort to re-evaluate development goals and community impact. The study would be a broad solicitation of input from civic leaders, downtown business owners, residents and urban planners to consolidate a common objective within the Frankfort community on the downtown’s continued revitalization and its surrounding impact.

Morgan states, “Our downtown has made considerable progress in its revitalization over the past ten years. The study commissioned by us as village leaders in 2007 outlined goals and objectives for the downtown’s redevelopment. But that was ten years ago. Along with the downtown’s success, we are now experiencing ‘growing pains’ particularly with regard to parking and residential impact issues. I believe that the community needs to refocus and develop an updated strategy that will carry us forward together for the next ten years.”

Morgan said that as a trustee he was happy to be a part of achieving many of the goals established in 2007. However, as mayor he would put a process in place to take a fresh look at today's downtown and establish a clear plan with community support going forward to make the downtown the best in the region.

He stated, “We need to update the input from our citizens, business owners and local residents in a balanced way and work together in consolidating our goals for downtown Frankfort's continued development. The study drafted ten years ago served us well but we are moving past revitalization and now need to understand what our longer term growth and sustainability efforts for downtown need to be. In addition, the financial resources that the Village of Frankfort has deployed in our downtown’s redevelopment efforts are not endless. We have many growing financial needs within our community that will command those resources so we need to make sure our downtown is healthy, vibrant and self-supporting.”

Morgan feels Frankfort is fortunate that its downtown remains an attraction and that the community wants it to continue to be the ‘beating heart’ of the village. He continued, “Especially at this point in the growth of our downtown area, I feel that everyone needs to be on the same page regarding development goals so that we as a village can be proud of our efforts. I want to avoid guesswork on the next ten years of downtown development or a ‘patchwork’ strategy of dealing with impact issues one at a time. Having a clear plan and community support will take the guess work out of our future and establish the direction we are heading.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Todd Morgan, 815-464-1730, Morganformayor2017@gmail.com