DANVILLE — City officials have had it pretty easy during the last eight years as a direct entitlement community.

The city has received about $1 million annually in Community Development Block Grant funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

When the city was renamed an urbanized area by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2002 after the 2000 Census and new guidelines, the area also started receiving about $180,000 for Danville Area Transportation Study planning projects.

Under Census 2010 proposed criteria changes for designating urban areas, however, the funding could vanish.

The city again would have to competitively apply for CDBG grants, and more of the city’s budget would be needed to cover administration costs in the city’s public development department. Transit and other local agencies also will be affected.

In addition, without an urbanized designation, federal funding for the DATS staff and planning would halt.

“It would cease the entire program — the committees, staff, dissolve the cooperation among the agencies. That whole structure would cease based on that,” DATS Director Adam Aull previously has said.

“The proposed (urban area designation) changes may hinder the recertification of our urban area,” Aull said.

The Danville urban area — which includes Danville, Tilton, Catlin, Westville and Georgetown — is being hit by a possible population loss from 53,223 to 50,325 or about a 5.44 percent loss based on 2009 place estimates.

Now, the proposed urban area criteria changes announced last month would mean the populations from Catlin and Georgetown might be subtracted from the local urban area.

This is because of the potential return to a maximum jump distance of 1.5 miles — the distance was increased to 2.5 miles in the Census 2000 criteria — between eligible census tracts and blocks based on population density and area.

The Census Bureau includes additional noncontiguous areas in using a “jump” connection.

The Georgetown jump is about 1.6 miles between eligible blocks. This would mean losing an estimated 2007 population in those eligible blocks of 3,741.

The Catlin jump is about 2.4 miles between eligible blocks. This would mean losing an estimated 2007 population in eligible blocks of 2,202.

All of this could put the Danville urban area under the 50,000 required minimum population to retain its urbanized area designation.

There is a public comment period through Nov. 22 on the proposed criteria changes.

Aull said DATS will send a letter protesting the changes, and letters likely also will come from the city and county, Vermilion Advantage and other federal and state officials.

“It’s kind of a grassroots effort to keep status quo,” Aull said.

“Catlin and Georgetown are crucial to maintaining our status …,” Aull said.

He said Catlin and Georgetown rely on the Danville area for shopping, employment and medical services.

“This would be another serious hit,” added Public Development Director John Heckler.

History

Danville lost its urbanized area designation in the 1990s due to population losses determined after the 1990 census. The first Metropolitan Planning Organization in 1980 covered Danville through Westville.

By picking up Catlin and stretching south along Route 1 to Georgetown, Danville’s urbanized area population now totals about 53,000. The designation returned in 2002, after the 2000 Census.

The designation requires that a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), DATS, be put in place to coordinate and oversee planning efforts throughout the area.

The federal dollars it receives are spent on planning activities and projects such as: the Fairchild Subway study; Catlin alternative corridor feasibility study; Illinois Route 1 Access Enhancement; Danville Mass Transit transfer zone study; and Westgate Land Use Alternative Study.

Danville Neighborhood Development Manager John Dreher said even with the potential loss of the CDBG funding for home rehabilitation and economic development projects, the city can reach the $1 million it receives now through multiple competitive grant applications.

“We were doing well (with the competitive grants). (But) there was a level of uncertainty in all of that,” he said.

What will suffer more, however, is the city’s flexibility and creativity in using the money, Dreher said.

Dreher said the city would no longer be able to help with building repairs and renovations for the Danville Rescue Mission and Your Family Resource Connection.

The city also wouldn’t be able to rehabilitate homes and resell them, like it is just starting with a house on East Main Street.

Projects have to be more public infrastructure, such as sewer lines, he said.