What should Geneva's downtown be?

In small groups, armed with markers, giant Post-It sheets, their desires and their know-how, Geneva residents and business owners came up with ideas on how to keep the downtown district vibrant earlier this week.

While a singles club danced on the floor above, those gathered in a banquet room at Riverside Receptions narrowed down goals for Vision 2 of the city's 2017 strategic plan to just two:

• Maintain and enhance the downtown's people-friendly environment.

• Maintain and enhance the downtown's eclectic and vital business community.

But how to do that?

They gave guidance on that too, prioritizing objectives with each goal.

The group thought the city should work on retaining existing public services, such as the city hall, library, old courthouse and post office.

It should also encourage businesses to be open later in the evenings, to be open on Sundays, and to have consistent business hours.

They want the city to "foster diversity of goods and services among the independent business community," and to consider using economic incentives to improve Geneva's chances when businesses are considering sites to open in.

Several aldermen attended the meeting, which was run by the Strategic Plan Advisory Committee.

"When we have over 80 people show up for a town meeting like that, it is a huge success," said Carolyn Dellutri, downtown development director for the City of Geneva. Dellutri gave an overview of her job and the work of the downtown development committee at the beginning of the meeting.

The SPAC will review the night's notes, then make a recommendation to the City Council for its annual goal-setting meeting later this month.

The issue of store hours has come up before. Typically, downtown businesses are not open weeknights, and many are not open on Sunday. About 60 banded together this summer for a "Thursday Night is Eight Night" program, in which they stayed open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays in conjunction with a weekly car show. Those businesses are planning a similar effort for the Christmas shopping season.

"Downtown businesses are open business hours, not retail hours," Dellutri said.

She also noted how merchants are starting to band together in marketing subgroups for special events, such as the art galleries that host the First Friday arts walks each month, or the wedding-related businesses that are coming up with a wedding products fair for January. Such efforts show a downtown has reached a high level of economic sophistication, Dellutri said.

"This downtown is the envy of a lot of communities," Dellutri said.