Wood Dale Comprehensive Plan Open House #2 Summary www.wooddaleplan.org | 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 Citys Comprehensive Plan. Over 250 community members attended the second public open

house held on Thursday, October 19th 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 goodtoo much traffic especially during all rush hours

Enforce education of bike lanes

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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.

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