The Dixon City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Dixon’s comprehensive plan that will influence city leaders’ decisions for the next two decades.

The plan outlines long-term goals for the city of Dixon and how those can be accomplished focusing on five major areas aimed at increasing available housing, improving transportation, growing the city’s economy through commercial and industrial developments, and investing in community services and public infrastructure.

“Thank you, personally, for everybody’s input and the work to get this done,” Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said Tuesday, specifically noting city staff and department heads.

It’s been over a year and a half since the city began developing the plan with Chicago-based urban planning firm Houseal Lavigne and Fehr Graham, a civil engineering firm based in Freeport. Throughout the process, the city asked for input from its residents online in a survey and interactive map. It also held a workshop at Loveland Community House in August 2024 and showcased a draft of the plan a year later at an open house at City Hall.

[ Dixon’s proposed comprehensive plan outlines city officials’ goals for increased housing, walkability ]

“This is the result of many months of collaboration that we feel is a good outline for Dixon’s future,” City Council member Mike Venier told Shaw Local.

“It’s a good strategic measure for future growth of the city. It gives us a solid set of parameters in which to operate, knowing strengths and weaknesses are what we look to combat, and this will help us for a number of years to come,” Venier said.

“Some of this transition may easily take 20 years,” but the plan is “definitely not boilerplate. I like it,” Hughes said in a previous interview with Shaw Local.

Increasing housing options

One of the top priorities is increasing housing availability with options that meet the needs of people at different ages and income levels. To achieve that, city officials are focusing on how to better utilize the space that’s available, Hughes said.

The plan outlines one solution referred to as the “missing middle,” which would mix small apartment buildings into existing neighborhoods made up largely of single-family homes. Currently, this type of housing makes up only 11% of Dixon’s total housing stock, according to the Nov. 17, 2025, draft plan.

Transportation

Another area the city’s plan looks at is transportation, with the goals of enhancing regional access, reducing congestion and promoting alternative methods of travel such as biking and public transit, according to the draft plan.

Already, the city has developed two multiuse pathways that run east and west of Heritage Crossing and is planning to extend the west path to reach Bloody Gulch Road. The first part of that extension is underway with the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the Rock River known as Project Rock. The more-than $12 million development is planned to be completed in June.

Other areas of focus in the plan

The plan outlines ways city officials can continue to grow Dixon’s economy by balancing locally owned businesses with chain restaurants and “big box” stores like Walmart, for example. It also goes over how the city can improve the quality of life for its residents while attracting new ones, by promoting investment in the community and public safety services like the police and fire departments, parks and schools, along with infrastructure like its water and sewer facilities, according to the draft plan.

City officials are working to upload the final copy of the plan online. The Nov. 17, 2025, draft can be viewed at dixon-il-comprehensive-plan-hlplanning.hub.arcgis.com.