Meeting Wednesday on Cumberland Station development plan

Des Plaines residents, business owners and commuters are invited to weigh in on conceptual plans for future development around the Cumberland Metra Station.

A community meeting is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Frisbie Senior Center, 52 Northwest Hwy.

The Regional Transportation Authority awarded Des Plaines a community planning grant to create a Transit Oriented Development Plan for the half-mile radius around the Cumberland rail station, which is on the Union Pacific's Northwest line.

The idea is to promote development around public transit hubs so people can take mass transit to work.

S.B Friedman & Co. is heading up the city's team of consultants for the plan.

Concepts were drafted with input from residents given at two community meetings last October and again in March.

Those designs have been refined and residents will get to see new renderings tonight, said Michael Conlan, Des Plaines director of community and economic development.

"We're going to be talking about some of the future, potential land-use plans," Conlan said. "We're going to be spending a lot of time on public improvements, streetscaping, urban design."

Metra's long-term plans for the area involve building a new train station at Cumberland.

Des Plaines will have to work in partnership with Metra going forward with any development plans in the area, Conlan said.

"I think we'll start to see things happening within a year or two," he said. "And then we're looking at building on from that. A lot of it, hopefully, will be developer-driven depending upon when the economy turns back around."