Morton Grove residents have until Aug. 11 to view the village’s proposed strategic plan online and provide input before the Village Board approves the final version of the sweeping document.
The 21-page proposal targets the four strategic categories, or “pillars,” of character, community, governance and economy, identifying 23 particular objectives.
“Those pillars are strong in our community,” Village Administrator Ralph Czerwinski said. “We look at them when we’re budgeting and making plans.”
The strategic plan was first created in 2015, Czerwinski said. The proposed version is the first time it has been updated, he said.
Trustee John Thill said the plan is very comprehensive and left no significant issues unaddressed.
“It’s a fantastic project. It’s going to give us a map for the future,” Thill said. “We’ve got to keep our fingers on the pulse of the future.”
Village President Dan DiMaria said the entire contents of the plan are important.
“It has to be a fluid thing. I like the input we got from staff, residents and consultants,” DiMaria said. “It was very nice to update it. The last one was much more of a community-based plan, and this one is a little more functional. That is the primary difference. It’s got more priorities of operations and procedures.”
In order to make the plan as “contemporary” as possible, Morton Grove set out to highlight certain themes on top of each pillar, Czerwinski said.
“For example, it talks about sustainable infrastructure,” he said. “We’re talking about service delivery and facilities, with sustainability in mind. We’re making sure the products are green.”
The plan embraces diversity and promotes unity in the community, Czerwinski said.
“We have a very diverse community,” he said. “We have to make sure our pillars –which are usually tactical – are strategically correct in what the community is feeling.”
The plan also addresses communication and business investment to make sure the village does not negatively impact the “bread basket” of the community, such as restaurants, shops and other businesses, Czerwinski said.
“We’re expanding our communication to make sure our constituents know what we’re doing,” he said. “We will carry it through to our budget to make sure our money is in the right place. The capital plan contains a vision of our future.”
In preparing the plan, officials asked residents what they want to see over the next 10-15 years, Czerwinski said. The public spoke and now the village can focus on those items, he said.
“We also developed long-term and short-term goals for the community,” Czerwinski said. “Many of those are already underway.”
The goals were vetted by non-profit organizations, schools and places of worship, he said. Village stakeholders met with a management team from Northern Illinois University to help formulate those goals, Czerwinski said.
“Now it’s on our website until Aug. 11,” he said. “We’re looking for comments from citizens, residents and businesses to make sure we didn’t miss anything. After the open communication period, we will take it back, scrub it, see if something needs to be added or made clear, and bring it back to the board for approval.”
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Under the category of economy, the document pledges to “enhance and maintain our economic development programs and efforts.”
As part of that, in June Morton Grove re-established its Economic Development Commission, which had not been operating since Community Development Administrator Zoe Heidorn arrived in 2018, she said.
“We’re looking to that to come up with ideas,” Heidorn said. “We’ll really focus on the Dempster (Avenue) and Waukegan (Road) commercial corridors and the Lincoln and Lehigh (Avenues) area. We’ve been active in advertising available opportunities. We want to get opportunities that fit to generate tax revenue and provide amenities to the community.”