Ezard touts RISE development as workforce housing, growth plan
RISE could bring about 500 homes to Jacksonville’s east side, but 65% would have to count as workforce housing and the city still needs money, land and a developer.
Andy Ezard is pitching RISE as a test of whether Jacksonville wants to grow in a way that keeps workers living closer to home instead of commuting in from Chatham and other places to the east. The mayor said the proposed subdivision on Massey Lane is about more than a housing map, because it could help the county seat add population and hold onto the people who keep local employers running.
The concept calls for roughly 500 homes on about 100 acres bordered by the Western Knolls subdivision, Massey Lane and Lincoln Avenue on Jacksonville’s east side. Under the grant rules tied to the project, 65 percent of those homes would have to qualify as workforce housing, a detail that could shape who buys there and what kind of neighborhood emerges if the plan moves ahead.
Ezard also pointed to a package of amenities that would make the site feel more like a planned community than a basic subdivision. The layout shown to Jacksonville aldermen included a pool, pickleball courts, a playground, a dog park and athletic fields, although Ezard said that may be too much for the final project. Dr. Charles Riggs of Illinois College helped shape the student-developed site plan the city reviewed.
The biggest hurdles remain outside the drawing board. The city still has to negotiate with the property owner, secure the $2 million state grant in the budget and choose the right developer before any construction can start. Earlier reporting linked the award to a workforce-housing grant process that was announced in downtown Jacksonville by Gov. JB Pritzker on April 22, 2025, but the money still has to clear the state budget process before it can be used.
For Jacksonville, the stakes reach beyond one east-side tract. The city’s population fell from 19,446 in 2010 to 17,616 in 2020, and the Census Bureau estimated 17,801 residents in 2024. Median gross rent stood at $711 and median owner-occupied home value at $128,200, numbers that underscore why officials are looking at middle-income housing as part of the city’s long-term future. Jacksonville, founded in 1825 and the county seat of Morgan County, has spent nearly two centuries reinventing itself, and RISE would ask residents to accept more growth, more activity and a different east-side landscape in exchange for a larger housing base.
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