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As the Baby Boom generation moves into retirement age and beyond, some communities are starting to look at how their needs can be met.

Officials from the city of Woodstock, Illinois, recently partnered with the NIU Center for Governmental Studies (CGS), within the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, to come up with a plan to help guide Woodstock into the future.

The 50-page Woodstock Age-Friendly Livable Community Action Plan contains goals, strategies and implementation plans for housing, facilities, services and activities. Some of the projects identified in the plan are already underway, including the opening of a community center, as it was approved by Woodstock officials in 2021.

Miriam Evans, Senior Research Specialist
at the CGS

“The aging of the population is going to change the fabric of our society, and every community needs to think about it. Whether it’s transportation planning or economic development or housing, this topic comes up,” said Miriam “Mim” Evans, senior research specialist at the CGS. “It couldn’t be a more relevant topic.”

By 2034, for the first time ever, the U.S. will have more older adults than children, per Census figures. The population of residents aged 65 to 74 is projected to increase by 39%, and the population of those aged 75-plus is projected to increase by 50% from 2019 to 2029.

Evans said the AARP has a program called Age Friendly Communities, and municipalities can become certified as an Age Friendly Community.

“Woodstock set its sights on that certification and that’s what started them on the road, and they asked us to help them with that plan,” she said. Woodstock officials applied for and received a McHenry County Community Foundation Transformational Grant to begin the planning process.

For their work on the plan, both the CGS and Woodstock received a Best Practice Award from the American Planning Association-Illinois Chapter, which recognizes best practice in state-of-the-art community planning on a variety of topics. Part of the process in drafting the plan included a committee and surveys for residents throughout the city, Evans said.

“I think that’s really important, that the plan is generated by a cross section of the community,” she said.

The city came up with a vision statement as part of the plan: “Age friendly Woodstock, Illinois, is widely recognized as a warm, welcoming vibrant community offering lifelong opportunity and enrichment for youth and adults of all ages, abilities and lifestyles.” Evans said the vision statement purposefully included residents of all ages, because such a plan will affect residents of all ages, not just the older population.

“Planning for the older residents in your community is planning for everybody,” she said. “To see communities begin to take that more seriously should lead to increased quality of life for everybody.”

For example, the issue of housing shortages affects older residents, but increasing housing opportunities for that demographic ultimately helps younger residents, Evans said.

“There are a lot of older people who are in their homes that are not, at this point, well positioned to maintain them or necessarily want to be in that house, but they don’t have an option of somewhere else to go,” she said.

“Now, if we had more housing that was well-suited to aging, then some of that housing would start to recycle, and recycling that housing is part of the way we can address the housing shortage for younger households.”

Evans said that when surveyed, residents in older demographics and those of younger ages expressed a desire for similar benefits in their communities, such as walkability and access to shopping and transportation.

“When you survey older folks and ask them what they want in their community, and you survey younger folks – say, those between 25 and 40 – and you ask them what they want in their community, it’s almost exactly the same,” she said.

She continued, “Older people tend to think of being so focused on their healthcare; that’s not the case. Of course they want good healthcare, but they really want a good life, and that’s the same as what everybody else wants.”

When surveyed, for example, younger people say they want to live near their parents, and older people want to live near their kids.

“That means the community has to work for both,” she said. Community planning in this way will help municipalities and other areas prepare for the next generation or generations of residents, Evans said.

“This is an opportunity where taking care of the older population can lead communities to reposition themselves to be better for everybody for the next couple of generations,” she said.