Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary

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1 Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary Wood Dale residents once again showed great enthusiasm and energy for the planning process that is guiding development of the City s Comprehensive Plan. Over 250 community members attended the second public open house held on Thursday, October 19 th at the former SBT Bank building. The meeting featured a raffle, activities for kids, and food provided by local restaurants. While the first open house was focused on forming a collective vision for the future of Wood Dale, this time residents provided feedback on preliminary ideas and specific recommendations that they might want to see in the plan. The format of the meeting was similar to the first open house, with six separate interactive stations where participants either wrote comments, used stickers to vote on ideas, or simply discussed the concepts amongst themselves and with the project team. The input received at each station is summarized below and will help to inform the remainder of the planning process. Goals and Objectives This station presented a condensed version of the draft goals and objectives (the full draft document is on the project website here). Green and red stickers were provided for people to vote on whether they agree or disagree with each statement. Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 1

2 Comments on the draft goals and objectives included: More sidewalks and street lights Better traffic control at Foster and Central Make industrial area cleaner and more presentable Bus service to Georgetown Square and Target Better communication with Public Works Make public parks more dog friendly and improve playgrounds for children Develop a downtown area; attract new business and have more events Subareas This section featured a map of Wood Dale highlighting each of the four subareas, as well as a board which asked residents to vote for the words or phrases that best describe their vision for the future of each area. The top three winners for each subarea are listed below: Irving Park Road (Central) 1. Town Core 2. Pedestrian friendly 3. Fun! Irving Park Road (West) 1. Shopping centers 2. Walkable/bikeable 3. Attractive Irving Park Road (East) 1. Local stores 2. Attractive 3. Easy to access Thorndale Road Corridor 1. Corporate Main Street 2. Quality design 3. Business Park Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 2

3 Planning & Development At this station, participants were asked to consider the question, How can development work in Wood Dale? and a second board presented a draft concept of potential development in the Thorndale Corridor. The conversation here seemed to confirm a common understanding by residents that the market has changed significantly since the 2009 Thorndale Corridor Master Plan was completed, indicating that a Corporate Main Street concept now fits better at the intersection of Wood Dale Road and I-390. Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 3

4 Written comments included: A modern mixed-use area like Astellas/Lake I-35 Would like to build a new home but no place to build Hoping any development will be better than Lake Street & I-355 development Astellas has a better parking lot; I always feel caught in the Lake St. layout Urban Design The two boards focused on urban design aimed to gauge what types of design elements are most favored by residents, as well as how much they value quality design along commercial corridors. An overwhelming majority of participants voted that they Strongly Agree with the statement: Commercial corridors should be attractive to make them more appealing to residents and visitors. Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 4

5 Transportation The transportation section presented initial ideas for bike and pedestrian improvements, specifically regarding improvements to the Salt Creek Trail Bike Path and a potential road diet on Wood Dale Road. Comments on these include: Ped/bike signs at Wood Dale & Lake No right turn when peds present Bike path connecting Wood Dale Rd and Addison along Elizabeth Drive Safe crossing on Prospect over Thorndale frontage roads Exercise stations along bike path Foster Ave sidewalks or bike path Enhanced lighting and sidewalks Connect proposed Wood Dale Road path to Salt Creek trail, Wood Dale reservoir North of Irving not good too much traffic especially during all rush hours Enforce education of bike lanes Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 5

6 Branding Three slide presentations were made in a focus group-like setting. Participants were generally supportive of both the "Port of Wood Dale" brand positioning and the approach to the visual identity, especially in regards to the proposed use of the new logo as an "endorser" by other civic organizations. Participants in each group also commented on the need of Wood Dale to elevate its overall marketplace profile and supported the idea of a future municipal marketing program. Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary 6