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In a vote that wasn’t unanimous, with Josh Erdman and Heather Miller dissenting after they again pushed for additional citizen voices on a newly created Redevelopment Advisory Board, there was compromise. Several additional citizen members were added by the council, making it an 11-person board, up from 9 as originally proposed.

Monday night’s vote capped a summer of debate over who should be on the panel.

Erdman and Miller, backed by the southside citizens’ groups SNOW Janesville, continued unsuccessfully Monday night their push to remove city staff from the board, to remove the city manager from involvement in board appointments, to have four southside residents on the board, and to have board members appointed by an “independent selection committee,� rather than by the council on the recommendation of the city manager.

Earlier this summer, the council rejected a similar proposal from Erdman, backed by Miller, to give nonelected citizens more control over future decisions about the site.

At that same council meeting in July, the city’s economic development director was almost not allowed to present a report on the potential for a data center on the GM/JATCO site. Several council members stepped in and that report was presented, which was key for council members and assembled citizens to hear; we’re glad that information was shared.

Fully listening to nonelected citizens but not ceding to them more power than is prudent is the definition of representative government. Final decision making needs to stay in the hands of the city council, especially for a redevelopment project of this magnitude.

The Redevelopment Advisory Board, as approved, will prudently partner with city staff and city administration, and with a contracted brownfield consultant, to make recommendations as redevelopment of the property progresses.

There’s a lot riding on the GM/JATCO site redevelopment process that the city council, partnering with city staff and city administration, launched last year. It’s arguably one of the most important undertakings in modern city history. Done right, it could transform the southside, regenerating an area that has struggled since GM shut its doors more than 15 years ago. Done wrong, it could leave the site and surrounding neighborhood in limbo at best and, at worst, bring further decline.

We look forward to the Redevelopment Advisory Board’s work getting underway, to citizens being fully heard, and to the critical guidance city staff and administration, and an outside consultant, will offer to the Janesville City Council, providing the information and input the council needs to fully lead and to make the best decisions on the future of this property.