Wheaton Grand Theater leads city's list of priorities

A re-opened, bustling Wheaton Grand Theater is the star of Wheaton's list of things to accomplish this year.

The city council told city staff Monday to pursue six main priorities this year. In order of importance, they are:

1. Pursue economic development. The key focus is the Wheaton Grand Theater. Development of the Roosevelt Road corridor stretching from the eastern city limits to Carlton Street is the second focus area. The downtown is the third target zone, followed by the rest of the city.

2. Pursue infrastructure improvement. This includes street repairs, more sidewalks and sanitary and stormwater sewer upgrades.

3. Pursue a pedestrian underpass in the downtown. The focus is finding a way to keep foot traffic moving downtown even when trains come rumbling through. The city will hire a consultant to see if an underpass or overpass at the train tracks is possible.

4. Pursue affordable housing options. The city has not defined what affordable housing is, but the council as a whole has publicly recognized the need for more of it in the city.

5. Pursue revenue enhancement options. Property and sales taxes are the primary income sources for the city.

6. Pursue green policies. This may include everything from city initiatives to urging developers to incorporate environmentally-friendly design elements in projects.

Mostly open competition

City attorneys are working on writing a new law that would open competition on commercial land in Wheaton.

Right now, private property owners may place restrictions on land they sell that limits what can be built on the site.

For instance, if the downtown Jewel Food Store wanted to move someplace else downtown, it could sell its land on Willow Avenue. In the deed, it could restrict the buyer from building a grocery store on the site that would compete with Jewel.

The city wants to ban most of those restrictions and spur development.

The new law may allow some sale restrictions when it benefits the city's desires. For instance, if Jewel really did want to move, the city may allow a restriction to block a competing grocery store from opening on the Willow Avenue site for up to 10 years. City officials have put the whip to the owners of the downtown Jewel for years to upgrade and expand the Willow Avenue location. It has yet to bear fruit.