On Tuesday, July 5th, the Urbana Illinois City Council Committee of the Whole voted to send a County jail expansion plan forward to the July 11th meeting for a final vote. The proposed expansion would come at a cost of $20.4 million for the Champaign County taxpayers and would increase the number of prisoner beds from 141 to 219 by building two new housing pods.
About $5 million for the jail expansion will come from Covid relief (ARPA) funds.
The Urbana City Council is involved because such a project within the City requires a special use permit, on which the Council has final say. The Council voted 4-3 to move the jail expansion plan forward:
- Chaundra Bishop: Yes
- Maryalice Wu: Yes
- James Quisenberry: Yes
- Shirese Hursey: Yes
- Christopher Evans: No
- Jaya Kolisetty: No
- Grace Wilken: No
A final vote on the special use permit will be taken at the July 11th Urbana City Council meeting. The informational packet provided to the Urbana City Council and the public at the July 5th meeting is provided below.