BLOOMINGTON -- Neighbors meeting to discuss and create a redevelopment plan for the city's west side led to a national planning award.

On Monday the City Council honored the volunteers who helped create the West Bloomington Neighborhood Plan after it won the American Planning Association award for strategic planning.

Ron Kowalski, the chairman of the committee that selected the Bloomington plan, said the neighbors' involvement in the plan made it stand out among the 37 plans nominated for an APA award.

"This truly demonstrated a grass-roots effort," Kowalski said. "It is a plan drafted by residents for residents."

The planning began more than a year ago. Several meetings at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church drew hundreds as the plan was being created to help improve the area bounded by Locust, Taylor and Lee streets and Morris Avenue.

Kowalski said the plan was very workable and could be accomplished by the neighbors. He noted the corporate partnership involved in a plan that is determined at the neighborhood level also helped the plan win. The city and State Farm Bank paid the $90,000 to hire Teska and Associates from Evanston to help draft the plan.

"It is very exciting to get this award because there were a lot of people involved," said Scott Goldstein of Teska.

Dennis Arnold, a neighbor on the steering committee, said there are goals set in the plan that already have been accomplished, including starting the community garden at Roosevelt Avenue and Mulberry Street and street improvements.

"We are becoming too big to be only a volunteer effort," Arnold said. He added that the project will have an office at 800 W. Washington St. and the steering committee soon will hire an executive director.