Local coverage
Project conversations across Champaign County.
Coverage depends on independent provider availability. Each page below explains useful housing and site context for that community.
Urbana
The building boom that followed Urbana's 1871 fire left the city with a dense core of late-1800s and early-1900s commercial and residential construction, built long before vapor barriers or mechanical ventilation were standard.
Local planning notes →Savoy
Savoy's building boom is recent -- it was the fastest-growing municipality in Champaign County from 2000 to 2024, more than doubling in size after incorporating in 1956 -- but new construction sits under the same humid central-Illinois climate as everywhere else in the county.
Local planning notes →Mahomet
Mahomet was platted in 1832 specifically for the Sangamon River's water, and that river-adjacent siting has meant higher ambient ground moisture near the original townsite ever since.
Local planning notes →Rantoul
Chanute Field's technical-training buildings went up over 76 years, from 1917 to the base's 1993 closure, on a construction schedule set by Air Force training needs rather than long-term residential moisture planning.
Local planning notes →St. Joseph
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Local planning notes →Tolono
Tolono grew up around an 1856 rail junction rather than a river, and its early population was largely tied to railroad work rather than farming or water access.
Local planning notes →Monticello
Monticello's Millionaires Row homes and the Allerton estate mansion, built 1899-1903, represent construction from an era before modern vapor barriers, mechanical dehumidification, or crawl space sealing were standard practice.
Local planning notes →Villa Grove
Villa Grove was platted in 1887 and rebuilt again after 1902 when the Frisco railroad chose it as a division point specifically for the Embarras River's water supply.
Local planning notes →