Suggestions to DeKalb’s Sustainability Plan include making the city more bicyclist-friendly and changing the NIU campus to make it more green.

The Citizens Environmental Commission and the Sustainability Plan Citizen Task Force have worked together since 2011 to come up with a plan that will help DeKalb become environmentally friendly in the short term and that can be extended to provide long-term sustainability and dependence on renewable energy. The plan is meant to act as a guide for the city to become more environmentally friendly.

The groups allowed the public to issue comments and ideas about how DeKalb could become a greener city between Aug. 18 and Sept. 8. The public comments can be found on the Oct. 27 City Council agenda on the city’s website, cityofdekalb.com.

“This is something that the Environmental Commission plans on using as their guidebook, so to speak, as they develop their annual list of goals and achievements they want to accomplish at the beginning of each year,” said economic development coordinator Jennifer Diedrich. “So, they should be looking at their goals starting in January.”

The commission will look at cost effective and easy to implement parts of the plan, Diedrich said.

“Some of the comments were actually incorporated into the plan by the sustainability group and the Environmental Commission, but I don’t think all of them made it in,” Diedrich said.

A common recommendation was to make the downtown area more bicyclist- and pedestrian-friendly so it would be safer to take a bike. Residents suggested adding bike paths on the streets, providing more bike racks and improving the maintenance of existing trails and sidewalks.

The idea of a bicyclist-friendly city had already been added to the Sustainability Plan before the comments were issued. One of the goals of the plan calls for the promotion of transportation efficiency and alternative forms of transportation other than driving.

Other comments included ideas like getting rid of NIU’s Pups — 11-passenger shuttles that drive around campus — since DeKalb has other transportation systems, planting wildflowers or native plants and having something done about the river flooding near NIU North Forty, a field behind Barsema Hall. Though the Pup recommendation was not implemented, the plan included landscaping with native wildflowers and restoring floodplains such as NIU North Forty.

Melanie Cortes, junior nutrition and dietitian major, said she has not seen many people use the Pups and they do not contribute to a more environmentally sustainable community. Cortes said she likes the idea of the city creating the Sustainability Plan.

“I think that in general we need to be more environmentally aware,” Cortes said. “I think that sometimes we tend to forget, especially in college. We tend to live in our own little bubble.”

Mayor John Rey said he plans to give City Council a framework to make a difference in the long run. The committees have put in good efforts while creating the plan, said Rey.