The next step in Glenview’s quest to imagine itself in 20 years will be a four-day public workshop for residents to help decide how downtown, commercial and industrial areas might develop – as well as how the village can improve its transportation network.
The workshop, or “charrette,” starts at 7 p.m. on Sept. 28 in the Park Center’s Lakeview Room, 2400 Chestnut Ave.
It’s part of “Glenview Looking Forward” – the village’s effort to update its comprehensive plan, the map telling developers what residents and officials want to see, and where they want to see it. The plan and the zoning code are essentially developmental DNA dictating what can be built and where.
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This is the second charrette since Glenview Looking Forward launched in July and will build on results from the first one held July 22-23, which focused on participants’ visions of what Glenview should be in 10 to 20 years.
Participants in the first workshop collectively agreed the village should be a safe, friendly community of neighborhoods; easily accessible by car, bicycle and feet to its residents and a cultural, dining and entertainment destination for the region, according to village officials.
This workshop will focus on how the next comprehensive plan can turn that vision into practical reality, officials said. It begins with an overview of what’s been done to date, development trends and pressures in Glenview, and a focus on branding and way-finding in downtown.
The Sept. 29 session will focus on commercial and industrial areas.
The Sept. 30 session on natural/open spaces and transportation within Glenview – including discussion of developing a transportation master plan based on the “complete streets” philosophy that streets should be designed and built for pedestrians, cyclists and transit as well as cars.
The final session on Oct. 1 will summarize the charrette and next steps.
Starting times are 7 p.m. each night.
Results from the workshops will be used by Matrix Design Group, the Colorado-based consulting group hired by the village to oversee the comprehensive plan revamp, to draft the new plan.
The Comprehensive Plan Commission, chaired by former Village President Kerry Cummings, will begin parsing sections of that draft in November, Planning Director Jeffrey Brady said.
A draft of the new comprehensive plan is scheduled to be released in January 2016, officials said, with the final draft scheduled for June.
A charrette (French for “cart” or “chariot”) is an intense workshop designed to spark activity and discussion that quickly leads to conclusions and solid next steps. Common in the planning world, they can last from one to several days with each day’s results becoming the basis of the next day’s activities.
According to the National Charrette Institute, the term originally referred to art and architecture students at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 19th-Century Paris who worked up until the last minutes before a project deadline – when their works were collected in a cart, or “en charrette,” by proctors.
Charrettes are designed to get information and feedback via group participation, small group sessions, field trips or other activities. This one focuses on “visioning,” which village officials define as “a community-wide process that helps discover shared aspirations of a desired future.”
Jon Davis is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.