Recently, Peorians have been up in arms about some decisions that were made by a certain government body without adequate input from the citizens. It made us feel left out, undervalued, like our opinion doesn’t matter about issues that affect us and our neighborhoods.

Well, if you felt that way, then you need to be at these “Studio H.O.P.” charrettes this weekend. The city council and staff are going out of their way to show you that they do value you, they want your opinion, and they want you to have a say in something that will directly affect you.

The charrette (or “citizen collaboration,” for those of you who don’t like French words) process is “to focus and record the political will of the citizens,” according to consultants Geoffrey Ferrell and Mary Madden who kicked off the Studio H.O.P. charrettes tonight (5/19) at the Civic Center. To successfully determine the “political will of the citizens,” they need as many citizens as possible to be there — to collaborate on this project.

What’s taking place this weekend is nothing less than a rewriting of the city’s comprehensive plan for the Heart of Peoria (roughly defined as the area of the city south of War Memorial Drive — think of it as the pre-Richwoods-Township-annexation area). The city will essentially be throwing out the Euclidian zoning laws which require strict segregation of commercial and residential land uses, and replacing them with something called “form-based codes.”

One website defines form-based codes as “a land development regulatory tool that places primary emphasis on the physical form of the built environment with the end goal of producing a specific type of ‘place.'” What the charrettes try to determine is just what type of “place” Peorians want to have, and then codify those desires into a regulatory document.

The charrettes will cover the entire Heart of Peoria area, but will give special emphasis to the Sheridan/Loucks triangle, the Prospect Road corridor, and the Warehouse District.

All they really want to know is how you want Peoria to look. How do you want the streets to look? The blocks? The neighborhoods? The special places? There will be a lot of ideas generated, and undoubtedly some contradictory ideas — they all get considered. When the idea gathering is done, the consultants will try to synthesize the ideas as much as possible, although there will obviously need to be some compromise on the most divergent ideas.

In the end, we’ll have a code that tells homeowners, developers, et al., what kind of physical form we want in our neighborhoods and business districts so that when they are developed and built out, they maintain the character and consistency we enjoy and expect.

And you have the opportunity to have a voice in writing this code. If you can make it, even for part of the day, it will be well worth your time to attend. The charrette goes from 8:30-Noon on Saturday, May 20.