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Oak- Park- Journal
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'DRAMATIC' NEW MOVES URGED FOR DEVELOPMENT
IN OAK PARK
 
By ERIC LINDEN
 
With more than $5 million spent on economic development efforts this
year, Oak Park village government needs to undertake "something
dramatic" to make the business climate better, a study released by the
League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River Forest urged Monday.
The wish for "dramatic" action to improve development during the current
favorable economic times was made Dec. 5 to the Oak Park village board,
which at its meeting that night received the report from by a six-person
committee of the league. Village board members said they would discuss
the report later, after all of them had time to digest the 32-page
report that contained 13 specific recommendations to ways to improve
development in the village.
 
The committee said new development moves would help the village
financially and in the quality of life offered to residents.
"I don't know if that [number 13] is lucky or bad luck," said Venette
Schultz, a former village trustee who chaired the league's development
committee, which also included Oak Park residents Sylvia Christmas,
Marilyn "D" Clancy, Roberta Raymond Larson, Erika Marshall and Mary Ann
Rezek. Clancy, Marshall and Schultz appeared before the board to present
the report.
 
The recommendations include some often-made suggestions for issues that
have gone unaddressed over the years, some ideas that have been tried
previously and some avenues that have been successfully implemented and,
the committee said, should be expanded. Village hall officials said a
specific report on where the various situations stand would be developed
in the coming months.
 
The recommendations included the following.
 
1.
Hire a "new business prospector," or a person who would regularly be
in touch with business representatives outside of Oak Park in attempts
to lure those operations to the village.

2.
Begin new "marketing tools" about Oak Park assets that new businesses
would find attractive.

3.
Clarify the job descriptions of development officials who work for
village hall and for the Oak Park Development Corporation (OPDC) and
also "end turf considerations on the part of village staff."

4.
Reinstate the trolley bus system that the Oak Park Visitors Bureau
formerly ran to regularly shuttle visitors and customers to sites of
interest in Oak Park.

5.
Institute Planned Unit Developments at several areas of Oak Park,
including Madison Street, North Avenue and others. The developments, the
league report said, "could include retail, office, residential and
parking areas or any combination the market will sustain."

6.
Bring a hotel to Oak Park. Two hotels currently operate in the
village, and involved officials have longed yearned for another. "Much
has been said about the need for another hotel. The committee
wholeheartedly endorses that need," read the report. The surface parking
lot at Harlem Avenue and Ontario Street was recommended as a preferable
site for another hotel in Oak Park.

7.
Have the OPDC gateway program to encourage business on and near
Austin Boulevard continue to emphasize Harrison Street as "a mecca for
art and art-related businesses."

8.
Build a parking garage at Harlem Avenue and South Boulevard, on a
surface parking lot opened last year by village government. The expanded
parking, the league said, "can serve commuters and shoppers during the
day, overnight parkers ... and restaurants at night."

9.
Lower parking fees and ticket prices in business areas. Having high
priced tickets often issued was said to be "a source of great
irritation" for shoppers and "has a negative effect on repeat business."
 
10.
"Deal forthrightly [with] employee parking." Suggestions included
several measures, including, perhaps, selling parking stickers to
businesses that want to have employees--instead of customers--park on
the streets. "There needs to be some solution so other businesses won't
follow American Scones and leave the village," the league report stated.
With no way to park its employees' vehicles, Great American Scones
recently moved from the warehouse space on the northwest corner of
Lombard Avenue and Madison Street.

11.
Update zoning laws.

12.
Improve public relations. the league committee praised village
hall's hiring this year of a communications director and would like the
position refilled, following the director's recent resignation. But in
addition, the committee has recommended that village hall hire an
outside public relations firm that would "place [pro-development]
stories in the ... press."

13.
Target specific new businesses. The committee stated a wish for both
"small, individually owned shops" and "large chain stores" in Oak Park.
Also endorsed somewhat was "a discreet number of discount stores,
especially on North Avenue and Madison Street" and the following
specific businesses: restoration and renovation store, dress shops, shoe
stores, "a small department store," a "high volume linen and bath
store," a museum shop, an office supply store, "medium-priced children's
stores" and a Target discount department store.
 
"The list is not as daunting as it seems since many of these things are
already in the works and there is no reason why several can't be done at
the same time," the league report said.
 
Monday's report essentially was an updating of a 1986-87 report from the
league. To compile the new version, the six-person committee interviewed
what they called "key players in economic development in Oak Park,"
reviewed the "major changes ... in the Oak Park economic landscape"
since the last study was done, examined financial data and other
information and perused other reports.
 
The league's development report also praised the current state of
economic development. The 1999 village hall budget allocated $5,211,098
for economic development from general tax revenue, the Downtown TIF
fund, federal CDBG funds, the parking fund, the Special Service Area No.
1 tax fund that comes solely from Downtown Oak Park property owners and
the new Development Opportunity Fund that set aside $800,000 for village
hall to make strategic property purchases. The results in 1998 were
good, according to the league committee, as sales tax collected by
village hall increased by 43 percent from the previous year.
 
Much of that increase, however, came about because the Shops of Downtown
Oak Park retail development came fully on board last year. That
development, put together at Harlem Avenue and Lake Street in a
partnership between village government and the Taxman & Associates
development firm "had a tremendous impact" on the village and "altered
how we look at retail business in Oak Park," league members said. After
its study and hearing from many on the state of development in Oak
Park, the league committee said more needs to be done.
 
"Oak Park is done well on the economic development front, but it needs
to do even better," the report says. "There are many places in the
village where something dramatic can and needs to happen."

 




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This InterNet Newspaper is published by the Oak Park Journal.com
The editor is Edward Vincent, a lifelong Oak Park Resident
Eric Linden, Columnist 
Heidi Vizzone Features Editor and Reporter