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Village
of Oak Park Community Participation
Project Started: September 2002
Project Completed: August 2003
Project
The Village of Oak Park, Illinois (VOP) and the College of Urban
Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC) conducted a joint yearlong collaborative planning process
using new visualization and communication tools. The joint effort
produced commercial character plans for the Harrison Street and
Oak Park Eisenhower commercial districts, as well as guidelines
and tools to prepare additional commercial plans in the future.
Process
The collaboration tapped a variety of participants including local
property owners, renters, business people and youth; Village elected
officials, appointed commissioners and staff; and University of
Illinois planning graduate students and faculty. The collaboration
proceeded in three phases. Fall 2002 involved extensive information
collection, brainstorming and idea development that set the stage
for making commercial district plans informed by extensive public
input. Stakeholder groups formed in Spring 2003 reviewed and modified
the initial plan alternatives proposed by the UIC team through
the end of spring. The UIC team developed the final plan recommendations
during Summer 2003.
Product Project
details.
The commercial plans for Harrison Street and the Oak Park/Ike
districts recommend future changes in each area drawing on the
analysis of current trends, the goals of different stakeholders
and estimates of anticipated economic, traffic and parking impacts.
The plans provide guidelines for Village trustees and others to
use to anticipate and prepare for future development tailored
to these two districts, as well as other districts throughout
the Village. Village staff received training in some of the new
electronic communication and visualization tools used to conduct
the planning process and produce this report. The Village will
receive an electronic version of this report for placement on
the Oak Park Home Page. This visually attractive and user-friendly
plan will improve the accessibility and usefulness of the plan
ideas and recommendations.
Reading this Report
The report has six parts: Chapter I describes the planning issues;
Chapter II offers detailed accounts of the goals and objectives
of the collaboration; Chapter III lays out the planning recommendations
and impacts for each district; Chapter IV describes the participatory
process, Chapter V describes the innovations in electronic visualization
and communication and Chapter VI offers some ideas about implementation.
For further information, contact Prof. Laxmi
Ramasubramanian at laxmi@uic.edu or Aimee
Quinn at aquinn@uic.edu
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