Progress Being Made On Alton Comprehensive Plan Update

City of Alton - Committee of the Whole Meeting

ALTON – Efforts are underway to update the Alton Comprehensive Plan as community members seek to shape the city’s future over the next 20 years.

Adam Jones, a consultant with Stantec, gave a presentation on the ongoing Alton Comprehensive Plan update at the Feb. 23, 2025 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting.

Jones said he’s been meeting with members of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC), a group of local residents, business owners, school district personnel, and more assembled by Mayor David Goins to identify key focus areas as the updated plan moves forward.

This part of the Comprehensive Plan update represents the group’s vision for Alton’s future over the next 20 years based on a review of its current circumstances. Among the group’s top priorities are preserving Alton’s unique sense of identity and making the city more affordable and accessible for families and homeowners.

“If somebody wants to live in Alton for the rest of their life, they should be able to be free to do that and be able to raise a family here, and be able to find affordable housing within the city,” Jones said. “So that’s what we’ve chosen to focus on.”

To that end, Jones said a major piece of the city’s future Comprehensive Plan will concern housing and the adaptive re-use of existing buildings. This includes building more affordable and senior housing to encourage home ownership, given the city’s large population of renters, as Jones explained homeowners tend to invest more in their properties and communities.

“We’ve heard a lot through the city that it’s hard to buy a home here in Alton,” Jones said. “The houses that are available are the houses that people don’t necessarily want to live in. You have a very high percentage of renters within the city, and we want to be able to allow them to buy a house if they choose to by opening up housing supply.”

CPAC members also noted a need for more youth recreational activities, based on reports that the city’s younger residents feel there isn’t much to do in Alton. Jones emphasized the importance of creating a “pipeline” to higher quality education and career pathways.

Multi-modal transportation is another key focus of the updated plan, as the CPAC seeks to reduce the public’s reliance on motor vehicles, decrease traffic, and make Alton’s streets safer for pedestrians. This includes streetscape improvements like more visible crosswalks and expanding the city’s public transit offerings. Equally important is ensuring spaces around Alton are interconnected and accessible by walking, biking, and more.

Describing the Mississippi Riverfront as Alton’s “most unique asset,” Jones said preserving local parks and making the best use of the riverfront will also be key in guiding Alton’s growth over the next two decades. He added that a review of the city’s current land use will evaluate industrial growth and other trends to see where land is being used efficiently and inefficiently around Alton.

Jones emphasized the CPAC’s work so far has focused on identifying key problem areas, and that more detailed solutions to the problems identified would be discussed and worked out over the next couple of months. He added that public outreach opportunities will be scheduled in the near future.

A full recording of the Feb. 23, 2026 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting, including the full Comprehensive Plan presentation from Jones, is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.

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