Clarendon Hills officials have scheduled a pair of meetings to gather public input on the future of the village’s downtown.
An initial meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Community Presbyterian Church, 39 N. Prospect Ave., with a visioning workshop, including round-table discussions, slated for Nov. 19, also at 6:30 p.m., at the same location.
The Oct. 22 session will give residents, business owners and other stakeholders the opportunity to share their concerns, ideas and priorities for the future of downtown Clarendon Hills.
In addition, there will be an overview of the planning process, followed by an interactive issues and opportunities exercise
“Participants will identify issues and concerns, potential projects or actions, and existing strengths and assets of downtown,” said Mera Johnson, assistant village manager.
The Nov. 19 meeting is a Visioning Workshop at which there will be small-group, round-table discussions on various relevant topics.
“The Visioning Workshop will be the community’s opportunity to shape the future of downtown Clarendon Hills before plans and recommendations are crafted,” Johnson said, adding that the workshop will include residents, business owners, village staff, elected and appointed officials, commission members, and other stakeholders.
“The workshop will begin with a presentation highlighting the planning process, key themes identified during previous public engagement efforts, and findings from field work and reviewing past plans and studies,” Johnson said.
She said consultant Houseal Lavigne, which has been contracted to facilitate a Clarendon Hills Downtown Improvement Plan, will have a website available shortly after the Oct. 22 meeting, which will include information and a community survey to gather additional feedback.
The upcoming meetings and ensuing plan for the downtown come on the heels of some controversial talk of the possible addition of a downtown plaza on Prospect Avenue.
The plaza would be between Railroad and Park avenues and would include the elimination of the right-turn lane, or slip lane, from southbound Prospect onto Park. That turn lane now is part of what the village calls the Sloan Triangle, an area that would become a large part of the plaza and used for gatherings.
A plaza could be part of that, but the study is about the entire downtown and not about a plaza, village President Eric Tech said.
“There are a lot of different views on how we want to use our downtown,” he said. “We’re taking a step back and looking at what we’re trying to achieve here.”
In a memo to the village, Houseal Lavigne recommended a three-step process for the project, including a project kick-off and upfront stakeholder engagement, plan visioning and sketch plan concept development, and a draft and final downtown improvement plan.
Houseal Lavigne previously prepared the Clarendon Hills Train Station Redevelopment Plan in May 2012.
Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
