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A call has gone out to planning
firms asking them to present their qualifications for
helping draft a comprehensive master plan for the
greater downtown area, including the Marion Street and
Lake Street-Oak Park Avenue business districts. The
Request for Qualifications (RFQ), which was developed
with citizen input, was submitted to more than a dozen
firms with related experience. The firm selected to
help craft the downtown plan will be required to look
at a range of factors, including quality of life,
economic viability, building height, building design,
density, parking, traffic, housing types, public
improvements, environmental impacts and land use. The
plan also will address the Downtown Tax Increment
Finance District (TIF), a necessary step should the TIF
be extended beyond its 2006 expiration date. The
Village Board likely will interview potential planning
consultants in April, and make a selection by May. The
actual development of the plan would include extensive
input from residents and business operators through
tools such as public meetings, focus groups and a
community survey. The RFQ is part of increased efforts
to focus on planning during the current budget year in
response to the growing interest in the greater
downtown area. Funds also have been earmarked to update
the Village's award-winning Comprehensive Plan,
which was last updated in 1990. For more information on
planning, call 358.5425 or email comsvcs@oak-park.us.
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Blue carts have replaced the familiar blue
bins as the Village's official recycling containers. The
new 64-gallon recycling containers, which hold about three
times as much as the blue bins they are replacing, are part of
a broader program that also allows residents who opt for a
smaller garbage cart to pay $2.50 less per month for waste
hauling services than those who keep the current 96-gallon
container. Every household received the larger recycling
container, but only those property owners who request a smaller
garbage cart will get one. Effective March 1, residents served
by the Village's refuse hauling program who don't
downsize their garbage carts will pay $15.80 per month for
disposal services, while those who choose a smaller container
will pay $13.30 per month. The pay-for-use program was created
as part of a new contract with the Village's private
contractor that required the first residential refuse hauling
rate hike here in three years. The move to larger recycling
bins coincides with modest, but steady, increases in the amount
of recyclables collected in Oak Park over the past five years,
and an increase in the range of containers that can be
recycled. The larger recycling carts should make it easier for
residents to take full advantage of the latest
"single-stream" collection approach that eliminates
the need to separate recyclables. In addition to providing more
space for recyclables, the new carts have wheels, which will
make it easier for residents to move the recyclables to the
collection point, and lids that should help reduce litter by
keeping out animals and eliminating wind-blown paper. To
request a new, smaller garbage cart, call 358.5700 or visit www.oak-park.us -- click on news,
then the recycling program icon along the right margin.
Requests also can be made by email to publicworks@oak-park.us. Email requests
should include the property owner's name, property
address, water billing account number, number of units in the
building and the regular refuse pick-up day. The Village
provides collection services only to single-family homes and
multifamily buildings of five or fewer units.
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