Prairie Grove talks development plan

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PRAIRIE GROVE – Like building a toy town with Legos, Jean Smith and other village residents Wednesday night mapped out their dream town center using colorful wooden blocks.

“We need something that is central so people can congregate, something with some green not just concrete,” said Smith at the workshop where she and other residents gave input into the proposed Prairie Grove Town Center and Transit Oriented Development Plan.

The five- to 10-year plan would include multiple uses, such as commercial, residential, office and civic, and be centered around a proposed Metra station, with land set aside for the station. The idea, said Prairie Grove Administrator Jeannine Smith, was to have a “focal point’ for the village.”

“It will prove to be a very exciting project,” she said at the public input workshop, where about 25 residents participated.

The targeted area for development is north of Gracy Road, with initial plans to develop a town center with a 1-mile radius around a Metra station, said Konstantine Savoy, principal with Evanston-based Teska Associates, developer of the project.

“Most people who do walk to the train station will walk that half-mile,” Savoy said.

The idea is to “make this a very walkable, pedestrian-friendly area,” said Peter Lemmon, senior transportation engineer with Metro Transportation Group, Inc.

With instructions to create a focal point for Prairie Grove, one where residents and visitors could park and walk to multiple businesses and establishments and to the train station, residents at the workshop began placing their blocks – each signifying a specific use, around
maps of the site eyed for development.

“It’s got to be close enough to the Metra Station,” Smith said as she positioned blocks signifying a town center near the site eyed for the station. “We probably should figure out where the parking will go around the station.”

Resident Donna Veldt wanted the town center to become a destination spot for visitors with a gazebo for summer concerts.

“They should make it like a Long Grove or a Woodstock,” Veldt said. “Have good shops and good restaurants.”

The project will be funded by the village and a Regional Transportation Authority Community Planning Grant. A steering committee meeting will be sometime early November with a meeting with transportation officials in early December. The next public workshop likely will be in February, Savoy said.

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