Online survey asks Mt. Prospect residents about downtown
Mount Prospect residents and business owners interested in the future of the village's downtown have a chance to be heard.
A Community Visioning Survey has been posted online; it asks for feedback on a number of redevelopment ideas being considered for the downtown area.
The survey can be found at thelakotagroup.com/mountprospect, a project website maintained by the village's Chicago-based consultant, the Lakota Group.
The survey will likely be up for another one to two weeks. It is a follow-up to a meeting about the downtown that the village hosted on Feb. 21.
“It gives residents who couldn't attend that meeting a chance to weigh in,” Nellie Beckner, a long-range planner with the village, said Thursday. “We're trying to gather as much input from the public as we can.”
The village and Lakota are working together on what is known as a Downtown Implementation Plan, a guide to future development of the area. The effort is being funded in part by a grant from the Regional Transportation Authority, and transit in all its forms is a big component of the study.
At the Feb. 21 meeting, the about 40 residents who attended looked at some of the specific redevelopment opportunities under consideration, including the nearly vacant shopping center at Central Road and Route 83 and the Chase Bank site at Busse Avenue and Emerson Street.
The village and Lakota have also identified development possibilities south of the railroad tracks that cut through the downtown. These include streetscape enhancements in the existing Prospect Avenue business district and new residences along Prospect Avenue near Lions Park.
Lakota will compile and study the feedback from the open house and the survey. In mid-April, a third and final open house meeting will be held, giving residents a chance to look at Lakota's recommendations and talk about how to implement them. The village board is expected to review Lakota's report this summer.
“I'm really happy with the feedback we've gotten from residents and business owners so far,” Beckner said. “People clearly feel they have a stake in the downtown.”