Urbana staff launches audit of historic surveys, eyes archive and GIS indexing

City planning staff reported on July 1 that they are auditing and consolidating the Historic Preservation Commission's survey records as a first step toward a more usable preservation plan and faster responses to consulting requests.

Kate Himmick told commissioners staff has scanned most extant surveys, is merging older spreadsheets with newer ones, and has completed an initial spatial join to make a GIS layer showing surveyed properties, district designations and national-register resources. "This would be a bedrock of any sort of preservation plan," she said, noting the work largely consists of data management and indexing.

Staff and commissioners also discussed boxes of assessor file cards and photographs that had been rescued from disposal; those cards were organized by tax number, which complicates address-based searches. Commissioners suggested the Champagne County Archives at the Urbana Free Library as a possible long-term repository and noted that processing the material to modern archival standards may require grant funding.

Commissioners urged staff to continue building address-based folders and to include photographs and floor plans where available. Staff said the current CLG (Certified Local Government) grant is intended to support survey work and that the grant must be closed out by June 2027; staff expects the FY27 grant round to open in early 2027.

The audit and indexing effort is intended to give commissioners a ready reference to identify previously documented resources when a Section 106 invitation or other review requires quick, evidence-based input.