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The city could wait for a developer to emerge on its own with a new plan for the property. Or, it could embrace an opportunity to proactively consider — now — what could come next for the Creston Park Shopping Center, including the Schnuck’s site. The better the city’s plan, the more successful any future redevelopment will be.

The timing is fortunate, as a zoning code update expected to be adopted later this year by the city council provides new tools that could make this a model for modern mixed-use development in Janesville, that could be particularly suited for heavily trafficked Milton Avenue.

This is, in fact, the perfect location to test out mixed-use development that under the coming zoning code update could allow the Creston Park Shopping Center to be re-envisioned as a mix of housing and commercial retail and office space.

Other cities have successfully employed such tools, including Madison, often manifested as commercial space on the ground floor and multiple stories of housing above, and incorporating covered or even underground parking. It’s the kind of development that would work well along Milton Avenue and could be the first test of its future application in Janesville.

A grocery market could be part of the mix — but perhaps something smaller in scale than Schnuck’s, that more narrowly serves the needs of residents of the adjacent neighborhoods to the east, and that is walkable from those neighborhoods. There are models in other cities for smaller-scale urban grocery stores, as well as niche markets like bakeries and butcher shops, that could well-serve the needs of the existing surrounding neighborhood and residents of any new housing developed in the future.

If the city were to re-envision the Creston Park Shopping Center, this could also be an opportunity to consider modern public transportation needs, perhaps in the form of a bus hub, to weigh the future needs of pedestrians and bicyclists, and to consider calls for more pockets of green space along Milton Avenue.

We urge Janesville city administration, city staff and the city council to employ all available economic development tools, especially the coming zoning code update, in considering the Creston Park Shopping Center site’s future.

What’s ultimately done here could be in place for generations and be a model for other stretches of Milton Avenue, and other parts of the city.

As is planned with the GM/JATCO site on the city’s southside, we remind the city of the need for robust and transparent public participation in any future re-envisioning of the site.

Intentionally bringing to the table residents and business owners from the existing surrounding neighborhood, especially those businesses still operating in the Creston Park Shopping Center, would be key. Those who live, work and own businesses in the closest proximity deserve a voice.

We look forward to a future community conversation.