Elmhurst Park District: New website will improve 2-way communication

Elmhurst Park District continues to develop a vision for its future, and this week officials again are asking residents to help set its course.

The district unveiled its Vision 2020 strategic plan last spring based in large part on resident input that, among other things, called for the district to focus on several major projects that would include a new indoor sports center, its first dog park, a new senior center, an expansion of the Wagner Community Center, new walking and biking trails, additional open space and improved maintenance of existing parks and assets.

Since then, the district has held several meetings to solicit input and this week it launched a new website, vision2020.epd.org, to make it even easier for residents to provide feedback.

The website provides information about proposed Vision 2020 projects, a short video featuring unscripted residents discussing potential projects and ways to become engaged, and a "Tell Us More" page to send input directly to the district.

Executive Director James Rogers said the website is designed to help the district maintain "two-way communication with the community."

He said the district expects it to remain active for several years or "as long as we continue to pursue initiatives."

District officials have made it clear many of those initiatives will come with significant price tags and almost certainly require the district to go to referendum to seek resident support for a tax increase to pay for them.

"We're trying to be very intentional about this," Rogers said. "We want this plan to be built around what the community tells us."

He said administrators hope to come to the park board in mid-2019 with plans for how to tackle each of the proposals both financially and operationally and then leave it to elected officials to determine which to pursue.

"We want to put the pieces together of what we want to do with how much it would cost and how it will be financed," Rogers said.