What does Long Grove really need?
While there are 100,000 potential customers within just 10 minutes of downtown Long Grove, the shops available in the historic area might not be enough to appeal to them.
The Hitchcock Design Group, hired by the Long Grove village board to create a master plan for the historic business district, said at a meeting Tuesday that the downtown has a limited appeal, with only shopping and dining locations.
There's no green space or library like other downtowns have, according to Rick Hitchcock.
While Long Grove doesn't have to copy what other towns have done, Hitchcock said his group's master plan recommends putting in at least some office space near downtown to draw more people into the area.
Another idea is to have a park area for children that serves as an attraction to bring people to the area time and time again.
He said residents and business owners he's talked have also consistently brought up parking issues.
"What we heard about with parking is not so much the lack of but the inconvenience," he said.
The master plan draft recommends realigning how spaces are laid out in the two village-owned parking lots.
It also proposes ideas for using the green space around Buffalo Creek and for redeveloping the gas station downtown.
Hitchcock said the document also takes into account space on Route 83, where the Sunset Foods development is proposed, as well as areas south of that.
Some trustees had issues with the southern portion, which the plan showed as having a relatively higher retail density than the rest of town, fearing it could potentially become a strip mall.
But the village board on Tuesday agreed to send the document as is to the plan commission for review.
Hitchcock said his group plans on presenting its final recommendations to the board on Feb. 12 and having final documents in for a vote by Feb. 18.
The village board is also simultaneously working on a tax increment financing district downtown that could possibly help pay for ideas in the master plan with increased tax revenue from new development.
A public hearing on the TIF district is scheduled for next Tuesday.