Ad-hoc committee working to aid Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds remediation, future
Story and Photos By David Blanchette
A recently-formed local organization feels that in order to move Jacksonville forward, you need to start moving in some bulldozers to tear down the old, dilapidated buildings on the former Jacksonville Developmental Center grounds.
“The former center is surrounded by residential areas and is in one of the top commercial areas of Jacksonville,” said local resident Ben Cox. “To drive by that every day, to have our Community Park next door, to have our soccer leagues and our junior high and high school cross country meets there, is just a constant reminder to everybody in town and visitors to our community.”
Cox decided to do something about the issue thatʼs been festering for 13 years since then-Governor Pat Quinn shut down the Jacksonville Developmental Center and several other similar facilities statewide as a cost-saving measure.
Cox and a group of concerned citizens formed Moving Jacksonville Forward, an ad-hoc organization dedicated to finding solutions for some the communityʼs long-standing issues. The former Developmental Center grounds are at the top of their list.
Along with Moving Jacksonville Forward co-chair Rob Thomas of DTE Technologies, Cox has energized a group of concerned citizens whose eyes are focused on what Jacksonville can be.
“People are hopeful for the very first time,” Cox said. “This shows that Jacksonville has a group of people that are forward thinking. Theyʼve had a can-do attitude for a long time, they just didnʼt have the hope. Now they do.”
Cox wrote a Springfield newspaper op-ed in September 2024 about the need for the progress-touting political leaders in the State Capitol, primarily the majority Democrats, to convince the citizens of west central Illinois that this area of the state was not being ignored. Cox cited the stagnation of the Developmental Center grounds, deferred maintenance at Illinois School for the Deaf and the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, and no further progress on the Corridor 67 project as evidence that the Jacksonville area was not seeing the “progress” being claimed by the stateʼs leaders.
Jacksonville Community Development Director Brian Nyberg read the op-ed and approached Cox with the idea of forming a citizen action committee similar to what had been done in Springfield, where residents there helped to re-purpose the long-dormant Pillsbury Factory property. Cox agreed to give it a try, and solicited community participation through word of mouth, news interviews, a Facebook page and other methods of getting the word out.
Moving Jacksonville Forward was formed with a core group of a dozen people and had its first meeting in March of this year at the Jacksonville Municipal Building. The public meetings of the group have since grown exponentially, and some are now held at the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce building at Community Park to put the meetings closer to ground zero, the Developmental Center grounds, and make the meetings easily accessible to both Jacksonville and South Jacksonville residents.
The timing of the committeeʼs formation was fortuitous. On April 22, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, during a visit to the city to announce funding for worker housing, drew cheers when he announced that remediation funds for the old Developmental Center grounds were in the stateʼs proposed new fiscal year budget. The Governor said he was confident the funds would pass and that demolition of the centerʼs old buildings could then begin.
“The Jacksonville Developmental Center remediation funds had been proposed by Republican State Representatives for several years now but those proposals never went anywhere in the Democratically-controlled legislature, so these funds are not a new idea,” Cox said. “I think our committee has poked the bear a little bit to help move this along. Now the big challenge, if the funding passes, is making sure the state does not require the city to do certain things with the property after the demolition, and that these funds donʼt get ‘sweptʼ to be used for other purposes.”
Moving Jacksonville Forward Secretary Larry Meece has sent letters to all 177 Illinois State Legislators urging them to pass the stateʼs Fiscal Year 2026 budget with the Developmental Center remediation funds intact and to avoid the temptation to add extra “strings” to the money.
Moving Jacksonville Forward is gathering input for possible uses for the old Jacksonville Developmental Center property once demolition is complete. An Illinois College class taught by Professor Charles Riggs came up with a plan that includes building a new municipal building on the grounds, which Cox admits “is probably not economically feasible,” but also suggests some very realistic ideas such as locating a business incubator and commercial developments on the grounds.
There is also Coxʼs vision for the Sophie Leschin Building on the grounds, which he would like to rename the Ken Bradbury Performing Arts Center and develop it into what the facility once was, a community theater center. The ADA-compliant center could include changing rooms, rehearsal space and an outdoor stage to accommodate Jacksonville Pilot Club concerts and other outdoor performances.
“Over the last two years that there have been two groups attempting to create a performing arts center in Jacksonville,” Cox said. “Itʼs gone through many stages and some hard feelings have arisen because of it. It is my hope and this is my olive branch to both groups that at some point here in the future if the JDC grounds get remediated and the Sophie Leschin Building can be saved in some form, we can turn the building into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.”
Moving Jacksonville Forward is also meeting with the Jacksonville Elks Club to tear down the old youth baseball fields on the groundsʼ northwest side and make the area ready for future development. Meece has enlisted the Jacksonville High School FFA chapter to plant flower beds and pollinator gardens and to further beautify the grounds.
Cox is realistic and acknowledged that even given a best-case state budgetary scenario, the redevelopment of the old center grounds will take some time.
“It could take two years or it could take two decades,” Cox said. “If we have to do it the way Jacksonville Main Street did it, starting 25 years ago with just one building, so be it. At least itʼs progress.”
Moving Jacksonville Forward has its sights set on other community projects as well, such as the fate of the old Norris Hospital Building, the old AC Humko factory site, decrepit homes throughout the community, homelessness and economic development for the northeast side of town. The committee hopes to gain 501(c)(3) status to assist with fundraising for their efforts. The group meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month, and they encourage public input.
“Itʼs relit a fire under the community, there is tangible hope,” Cox said. “Local input is the best way to influence government decisions and chart a future course. We are optimistic about what we can accomplish by working together for Jacksonvilleʼs future.”
