By the year 2010, Lake County could more closely resemble a planner’s dream in many ways:
The tentacles of would-be development will be less likely to choke the county’s remaining open areas; plazas and squares will be bustling town centers; and pedestrian-friendly office parks will be favored over those that encourage automobile use.
Utopian?
Perhaps. But that’s the alluring vision of Lake County that planners have crafted and published in a draft of the county’s newly revised “framework plan.”
More than 2 1/2 years in the making, the new plan suggests guidelines for how the county should reshape itself over the next 20 years. The suggestions are based on current trends and municipal plans, as well as on preferences cited by residents in a recent county poll.
The hefty volume, including maps and charts, was released by the Lake County Department of Planning, Zoning and Environmental Quality in time for public hearings scheduled to begin this week.
If the County Board subsequently adopts the proposal, it would not be legally enforceable. But the action would allow county officials to pressure municipalities to embrace the plan’s concepts either in the form of a municipal resolution or an endorsement, said county planner Barbara Berlin.
“The plan is not an ideal boundary map,” Berlin said, “but it is a map that shows the forecasted population being accommodated without opening up additional areas for premature development.”
Some highlights of the plan’s suggestions:
– Communities would retain their own characters with established boundaries and be surrounded by undeveloped “countryside” zones. With municipalities and the county following the agreed-upon boundaries, border wars among towns would cease, and developers would not be able to pit towns against each other in a bidding war.
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– Developers would get financial incentives for locating in existing business districts and be charged higher impact fees if they insist on developing untouched open spaces. This would help keep downtown centers vital and simultaneously protect remaining untouched natural areas from sprawl.
– Municipalities would create a “town center” district, a new zoning designation aimed at creating pedestrian-oriented sites that encourage mass transit use.
– Suburban centers that include office parks and shopping centers would be designed to encourage pedestrian use and preserve some of the natural areas within the development.
Public hearings on the plan will be held by the Lake County Regional Planning Commission throughout the next two weeks. All of the public hearings on the plan will begin at 7 p.m.
Hearings this week will be Tuesday in the Lake Zurich Village Hall; Wednesday at the Lake County Division of Transportation in Libertyville; and Thursday in the Gurnee Village Hall. Next week, hearings are scheduled for Jan. 25 in the Antioch Township Hall; Jan. 26 on the 10th floor of the County Building in Waukegan; and Jan. 27 in the Lincolnshire Village Hall.