After almost a quarter century, the village of Western Springs is reviewing and updating its Comprehensive Plan.
That process started with an open forum Sept. 29 at the Park District’s Recreation Center, 1501 Walker Street.
“This has been a strategic goal of the Village Board for a number of years,” said Heather Valone, community development director of the village. “Ours is from 2003, so this has been the accumulation of a lot of years acknowledging that our plan was very helpful to the village to make a path forward.”
Last summer, the village issued a request for proposals that led to hiring Teska Associates, an Evanston-based consulting firm that will put together a process that is scheduled to produce a new, final Comprehensive Plan plan by summer 2027.
“This is our visioning process,” Valone said. “So from this we’ll take the consensus of this and make a draft plan. Likely after the first of the year, we’ll have a draft plan.”
The open house lasted two hours and included various stations with detailed maps of the village’s main commercial areas where visitors could make suggestions.
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The downtown area along Burlington and Hillgrove avenues and the intersections of 55th Street and Wolf Road, 47th Street and Gilbert Avenue were the primary areas of study.
Deputy village manager Casey Biernacki said he didn’t have a set vision for what a new Comprehensive Plan would include. But he acknowledged topics such as land uses were areas of interest.
“That’s definitely a part of this process,” he said. “I would envision that we’ll certainly see different opinions than we did back then (in 2003). There was a public process back then, but now I feel like it’s a lot easier for folks to give us their feedback in a bunch of different ways.”
Biernacki said walkability would likely be a new focus.
“There’s definitely folks who are looking for pedestrian friendly space,” he said. “We also see a (of interest) in bike friendly spaces — safe routes to schools. And what we heard time and time again is that (residents) just want ways to walk to schools or walk to places downtown. I think that’s a trend we have certainly seen.”
Tom Kelleher, who has lived in Western Springs for 40 years and is currently in his second residence in the village, said he’d like to see the village attract more entertainment options and “nightlife” in the downtown area.
“You look at La Grange, and that’s kind of thriving,” he said. “It would be nice to see another restaurant or two, and maybe some restaurant stability. They come and they go.”
Nina Adams, 81, said she was glad that the village was planning ahead.
“I think it’s really good to have a comprehensive plan,” she said. “To be honest with you, I expected more of a presentation … but I like this, because now we can give ideas.”
Adams had a particular interest in senior housing, saying “of course” it was a concern of hers.
“I can’t figure out if I’m going to stay in my house,” she said. “I’m leaning toward staying in my house and having somebody stay with me.”
Selmin Cicek, the village’s communications manager, said there would be additional opportunities for residents to make their case for what the new Comprehensive Plan should look like.
“I think there are going to be multiple opportunities for the community to provide feedback and to share their vision for the comprehensive plan,” she said. “This is just the first formal event, but prior to this, our team has been out at some of the public events around town, the Gathering on the Green, things like that. Speaking to people informally. But this evening is our first, more formal opportunity to actually put ideas down in writing and share feedback.”
Residents can share that feedback online at wsprings.com/compplan.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.