Lombard receives award for Downtown Lombard Plan/Guidebook
LOMBARD, Illinois-- The Village of Lombard's Downtown Revitalization Project Guidebook has won the 2011 American Planning Association-Illinois (APA-IL) Award for a Strategic Plan.
The annual competitive award recognizes plans targeting a specific area of the community with strategic actions designed to produce change and improvement. Lombard's Downtown Plan was honored for its innovation, comprehensiveness, transferability, quality, and implementation.
Adopted by the Village Board in March, 2011 as an amendment to the Village's Comprehensive Plan, the Downtown Plan was the culmination of a nine-month planning process. Teska and Associates of Evanston and seven consultant groups coordinated the effort, working closely with Village officials.
A Downtown Plan Working Group, which consisted of elected and appointed officials, Lombard Town Centre, Pace, Metra and the Regional Transportation Authority guided the consultant team. Public input to develop the plan was extensive, including direct notification to over 1,400 property owners, stakeholder focus groups, two well-attended open house events, a web-site blog and targeted individual meetings with business and property owners.
Seven village committees and commissions also reviewed and commented on the plan. All of these efforts were undertaken to develop a document that could be embraced and supported by residents, businesses and property owners.
The plan includes development concept plans for seven sites within the downtown core as well as six sites along East St. Charles Road.
Other items addressed within the Plan include strategies for streetscape enhancements, façade enhancements, visual identity and signage, branding and transportation enhancements. The Plan also includes an implementation plan that recommends specific actions that can be undertaken to obtain short and long-term results. The Plan serves as a distinct example of how a project can create a cohesive document that builds upon past planning efforts, balances a variety of planning principles to meet a common end, ensures market feasibility of development concepts, and utilizes innovative strategies that are emerging in the planning industry. Funding for the Plan was obtained through a Community Planning Grant from the Regional Transportation Authority.
The Missouri Chapter of the American Planning Association independently judged the 37 submissions from Illinois, undertook the evaluation process and selected the winners. In addition to Lombard, six other communities across the state were recognized by APA-IL for their achievements in comprehensive planning, strategic plans, best practices, implementation, community outreach, and sustainability. The Village will formally receive its award at the 2011 APA-IL Annual Conference on October 6.
“The award is a tribute to the work undertaken by the many interested groups and individuals in the community that have contributed to the Plan's development. It is our hope that the commitment going into the creation of the Plan with be fully realized in its implementation”, said William Heniff, Lombard Community Development Director.