Message from the Manager
When it comes to community issues, ours are
good
ones to have
Today, Oak Park is a vibrant, healthy
community with phenomenal investment occurring in our housing
stock and a variety of opportunities for redevelopment in our
business districts. As a result, the focus of Village
government has shifted away from simply attracting development
to identifying what the community defines as the most
appropriate development.
Just five or six years ago the Oak Park
Village Board was still working to fend off the last vestiges
of the '70s and '80s economic decline that had
devastated many inner ring suburbs around the country. With a
shrinking commercial property tax base, residential property
owners in Oak Park had no choice but to assume a growing share
of the bill for vital public services.
During that time of economic uncertainity,
various civic groups authored reports urging Village government
to address this major community concern. The Village Board
earnestly pursued the challenge. They updated old programs and
policies and created new ones to encourage development and
eliminate obstacles to private investment. The Board directed
the rewrite of the Village's planned development
procedures in 1998 and began a major review of our commercial
zoning regulations the following year. The Village also hired
experienced development professionals to create and manage
programs that would attract investment and nurture the
public-private partnerships that had brought prosperity to
other communities.
The good news is that these actions have
been successful. Today, developers are eager for an opportunity
to invest here. With this newfound interest in Oak Park by
outside investors, we have entered a new era of increased
planning.
Over the past year, and through one of the
most extensive community involvement efforts in Village
history, plans for the redevelopment of the Harrison Street and
Oak Park Avenue-Eisenhower business districts were created with
the help of the University of Illinois-Chicago's College
of Urban Planning and Policy. The Village also worked with
Berwyn officials, residents and business owners through a
significant public planning process to create a detailed new
plan to help guide redevelopment along Roosevelt Road. And this
year, the Village will work with citizens and business owners
to update the development plan for the Downtown Lake Street
Business District, the Avenue-Lake Business District and the
Downtown TIF (Tax Increment Financing) plan, as well as begin
the update of the Village's all-important comprehensive
plan.
The public discussions surrounding each of
these planning efforts offer important opportunities for Oak
Park residents to have a say in setting the direction for our
community not just today, but for years to come. Through the
active involvement of citizens, the community will be in a
stronger position than ever before to shape the impact new
development will have on the Village.
The Village Board is eager to have citizens
take an active role in shaping the policies that will guide
future redevelopment in our community. Let's have civil
and informed public discourse about the nature and character of
development. Let's discuss the value new development
brings and how it can help stabilize our residential property
tax bills. Let's talk about how we can make certain new
development will provide the most financial benefits for our
schools and other public institutions.
But as we plan, discuss and debate let us
also act. We must be nimble and confident enough to plan for
the future, while, at the same time, making the most of the
opportunities we have today.
All in all, these are pretty good issues to
have.
Happy 2004!
Carl Swenson