Zoning probably has something to do with that.  Not everything, of course; the people make a big difference.  But the underlying zoning determines much of what you see:  dwelling units per acre, building line setbacks, building heights, etc.

So why are so few residents paying attention to the Comprehensive Plan meetings that are now underway — two so far, with almost another year to go?  The second meeting held March 23 was witnessed by just six residents, one of whom was an elected village commissioner.  Where were all the residents who protested about land-use issues on 63^rd Street, on Fairview Avenue, tear-downs, affordable housing, etc.?

If you are concerned about stormwater… or trees… or teardowns… you should be paying attention to this.

If you care about your neighborhood, you should be paying attention to this.

If you live within a block or two of a major commercial street – 63^rd Street, 75^th Street, Belmont Avenue, Fairview Avenue, Ogden Avenue – you should be paying attention to this, because the planning process could make recommendations that change the character of your neighborhood!

Not only should you be paying attention, you should be attending these Comprehensive Plan meetings and speaking up.  Because this committee is going to recommend the issues and publish the report that will affirm or change future Downers Grove zoning.  And your neighborhood!

The village and their consultants are doing a good job of making information available to you.  Take it.

Meeting agendas and minutes are online at the village web site (link here)

The consultants’ draft materials (link here)

Here’s what the consultants have provided to the committee so far (these large files may open slowly):

1. Introduction
2. Existing Plans, Studies and Reports
3. TCD3 Summary
4. Market Analysis
5. Existing Land Use, Development & Zoning
6. Community Facilities
7. Existing Transportation
8. Open Space and the Environment
9. Sub-areas

Interesting background reading.

If you care about your neighborhood, do you homework and show up/speak up at the Comprehensive Plan meetings.  The next one is Tuesday, April 27.

See you there.

John Schofield is a regular reader of DGreport and chairs the Coalition for Managed Redevelopment, a citizens group working “to maintain our rich cultural, architectural, and natural heritage while promoting growth and economic prosperity.”

As for the choice of homepage images, Prince Pond — scene of  many a playground expedition, skating outing, fishing contest and Christmas card photo op — is one of my personal DG favorites.

Saying he believes “very strongly” in a one-week waiting period before voting on certain Consent Agenda items, Commissioner William Waldack requested at Tuesday’s village council meeting that four items be moved to the Active Agenda as a prelude to putting them to a Feb. 16 vote.

The items were duly removed from the Consent Agenda, but Waldack’s subsequent motions to get the items considered on next week’s Consent Agenda not only failed to gain the support of  his council colleagues, but also led Mayor Ron Sandack to suggest a rule change may be necessary to prevent a single commissioner from exercising the long-held prerogative. In a typical year, less than a dozen items might be requested moved from the Consent to the Active Agenda.

Waldack said the one-week waiting period, which was standard operating procedure until the council agreed to change its meeting format last month, allows for residents to respond and council members to obtain additional information.

Some of the items in question at Tuesday’s meeting “cost more than what some households make in a year,” Waldack said. “I do not consider them routine.”

The four Consent Agenda items in question were:

B RES 00-04034 A resolution authorizing a fifth addendum to a software maintenance agreement with Crowe Horwath, LLP, in the amount of $24,750.

C MOT 00-04039 A motion awarding 2010 traffic signal maintenance contract to Lyons Electric Company, LaGrange, IL, not to exceed $47,000.

D RES 00-04042 A resolution authorizing an agreement for prosecution services with Linda S. Pieczynski, Attorney at Law, P.C., in the amount of $35,000.

E RES 00-04040 A resolution of intent to continue participation in the Suburban Tree Consortium and to authorize certain purchases for FY 2010 in the amount of  $123,000.

The items had been added to the Consent Agenda on Friday, Feb. 5, and answers to council questions were provided only two or three hours before the meeting, he said. “What we consider routine deserves more consideration than a business day and a half.”

Council rules allow a commissioner to request any item be removed from the Consent Agenda for separate approval. However, in the interest of making meetings more efficient, the council agreed to waive the customary one-week waiting period for routine matters.

Referencing a Consent Agenda item for prosecutorial services, “we want to get it done sooner rather than later and not have to wait one week,” Sandack said.

Waldack, in making his motions to postpone action on the items, had asked village staff whether economic considerations, time constraints or other concerns made it necessary to approve the items immediately. The answer in each case was, “no.”

In his comments at the end of the meeting, Sandack said  he hopes ” it isn’t going to happen that one member of this council is going to use his prerogative to change what we did collectively and what Commissioner Waldack agreed to do because of what he believes isn’t routine.”

“If that’s the case, I’m going to ask my colleagues to consider a rule change because the one-person objecting rule was when we had five council members. We have seven now and I don’t think one person should hold up a Consent Agenda if everyone else thinks it’s a routine matter,” he said.

“This isn’t a threat, its a legitimate request for a rule change if we can’t live up to the rules we just changed,” Sandack said. “We agreed routine items would be on the Consent Agenda and now, a couple weeks into the rule change, it’s being gutted.”

Waldack noted that he expressed concerns about the matter when the meeting format change was being discussed. He also proposed a solution that would place items on the Consent Agenda one week in advance of council action to allow for discussion.

“I have a solution that would maintain efficiency and give adequate public notice and solve the problem,” he said. “There is more upside than the prospect of efficiency. If I need to go home that early, maybe I shouldn’t be here.

Waldack’s request to remove the items from the Consent Agenda came only one week after a similar request from Commissioner Bob Barnett at the Feb. 2 council meeting.

Barnett asked that approval of the Comprehensive Plan Ad Hoc Committee be removed from the Consent Agenda despite the fact that the item had been previously discussed at the Jan. 12 council meeting.

“Absolutely,” Sandack said in response to Barnett’s request.

Barnett went on to propose an amendment that would expand the committee from nine to 11 members, including four at-large members.

The amendment was approved by the council over the objections of Waldack, who felt an 11-member committee would be unwieldy.

Sandack announced Tuesday that he had made the additional two appointments, although he wouldn’t reveal the names publicly. The two members are expected to attend tonight’s Comprehensive Plan Ad Hoc Committee meeting, although they won’t be formally approved by the council until next week.

The first meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Ad-Hoc Committee is tonight, February 10, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at Fire Station 2, 5420 Main St.  Agenda is here.

The Comprehensive Plan Project website has been established to keep residents informed about the process and provide a means to give feedback.

Source for this notice is the Village website.

“I would like to see, through council action or staff, that any member who is on the commission refrain from any sort of blogging until after this council votes on this matter,” Durkin said.

“There are certain members of this committee who have blogged, blog or have their own Web sites,” he said. “So, I’m not pointing a finger at any specific person or person, but I just ask that whatever is discussed at this stays at the level it is and not on the internet.”

This is, to my knowledge, the first time such a concern has been floated by a member of the village council. Maybe because DGreport contributor Mark Thoman was about to be appointed a member of the committee?

Thoman is surely the most active blogger on the committee, which also includes Bill White and Marge Earl of the Zoning Board of Appeals; Alan Jirik, Audra Hamerik and Gregg Beggs of the Plan Commission; Mike Davenport of the Architecture Design Review Board, John Wendt of the Traffic and Parking Commission and at-large member Paul Jacobs. Two additional at-large members are yet to be appointed following Tuesday’s vote to increase the committee.

White, of course, was the publisher of the now defunct Wired Grove blog before assuming his current roles as chairman of the ZBA, D99 school board member and, as of Tuesday, chairman of the CPC. While a regular commenter during the 2007 campaign, he has offered only a very occasional comment on the DGreport since.

Marge Earl also has commented here on limited basis, most recently to report on last month’s Community Events Commission meeting, while Mike Davenport has commented just once.

None of their comments have been strident, indiscreet or otherwise objectionable. Thoman, on the other hand, has certainly come in for some push-back for his posts. However,  he’s made it clear he is stepping back from blogging on the DGreport and focusing his attentions on the CPC.

“Mayor Sandack knows I continue to be appreciative of the opportunity to serve the village, and appreciative of his appointing me to what everyone knows to be a key undertaking of the village,” Thoman said.

While I have no problem with Durkin raising the question of blogging in conjunction with boards and commissions — in fact, I think it should be raised — I would have appreciated a larger discussion of the issue.

As it turned out, commissioners Geoff Neustadt and William Waldack were the only ones to weigh in, although Durkin said he “had communications with several colleagues and there were no objections” to his proposal.

“I think there’s a different kind of respect and professionalism that comes once on an acting board or commission, Neustadt said. “I fully expect all of our appointees to respect and follow rules of conduct for the municipal organization and that board and commission.”

It took Waldack to point out that the council was framing the question in the narrowest possible terms by focusing on blogging to the exclusion of other social media — of which local officials including the mayor, Neustadt, and commissioners Bob Barnett and Bruce Beckman make regular use.

“I know the rules apply,  we  have legal standards we have to meet and I know there’s a concern,” Waldack said. “Keep in mind it doesn’t mean no blogging, because keep in mind we have council members up here always Twittering and blogging, Facebooking and everything else .

“The standards that apply to us would probably apply to them as well. It doesn’t put a kibosh on blogs,” he said.

Waldack’s point speaks to the universality of social media. This is an era when members of Congress Twitter from the U.S. Capitol during the president’s State of the Union address, policy discussions flourish on local Facebook pages and the Village itself makes regular use of Twitter and TribLocal, and also posted an official statement on the “Bring Back the Heritage Fest” group’s Facebook page.

So where to we draw the line? At all digital media? All blogs? Or just the DGreport?

I wrote in yesterday’s Sun column about the difficulties and challenges digital media present to the dinosaurs among us — journalists, government officials and consumers of the “news.” Falling into two of those groups myself, I’m certainly sympathetic to the third.

However, at the risk of sounding self-serving, I’m going to suggest it could appear that public officials are personally motivated when they single out one tiny corner of the digital universe as off-limits and apply that criterion to a single committee.

By all means have a discussion — a far-reaching, all-inclusive discussion — of what the explosion of  blogs and other digital and social media means to government business as usual. But, please. Be fair.

So the bad news is I won’t be posting here on whatever hits my fancy anywhere near as often…that’s good news too, right?

When EJ sent out the call for a little help in April of 2009 to make DGreport more than a time-crushing one person effort I said I think I can help, I hope I can help, and I’d do what I can to help it be so.  141 posts later, EJ’s given me continuing free rein to write about whatever interests me.  I know, I know…boy what pathetic interests.  Instead of writing about sexy new cars I write about buying an 8 year old Accord.  Instead of big picture stuff I bored again and again into budget meeting details, municipal code enforcement and development issues, and bored some readers to tears.

A hyper-local blog like DGreport is at its best when there’s involvement and some variety.  You guys can’t expect EJ to keep just her shoulder to the stone alone.  I’m politely and respectfully calling some of you out; time to give a little back.

Meat, you said you’d contribute and you tossed in a few nicely done posts, all net, no rim.  Few is the key word. Amp it up, Studly.  Heck half the time your comments should be posts.  Bob Lemay, you’re a great guy with a clear head who can write from the heart.  So why don’t you?  Liz, your focus broke a story about incompetence and waste on the county water commission.  How are they going to dig out of that hole?  There’s not a post or two in there that we’d all read?  Ryan, I read your stuff, I don’t know how you can type so much so fast, but you should at least cross post here.

Anyone else?  Cawthorne, you see leading indicators on livestock and foodstuff commodities way before anyone else; you could give us a heads up once in a while where that market might be leading us?  Schofield, a little photo journalism on your next foray for some pad thai might be interesting.  Chad, you’re into local football.  That alone was reason for 13 or so posts.  there’s plenty more of you that can contribute if you simply decide you will contribute.

They don’t have to be long involved stories, just put something into the basket on EJ’s desk.  None of you have to shoot for 141 posts.  Just try one.  A little one.  Then maybe another one.  See how it goes.  Give a little back.  Have some fun.

Depending on why you do it, being a citizen journalist can have its pitfalls in the Faustian bargains one might make for access.  Here there’s no such deal to be made but it’s peer review at it’s most basic.  You’re not a shill or a sycophant unless you choose to be, and then you’re on your own.  Make your points, keep it clean, and your credibility will be what it will be.  DGreport has sifted out most of the trolls, stoopids, and pot-stirrers.

Wait I have one modifier to that: EDC President Greg Bedalov has given me info in the past that I’ve been happy to tout because it’s news that impacts how we’re doing as a community.  It’s usually good news springing from good effort by his team, and the C of C, and the Downtown Management Group.  So there, I’m a shill and a sycophant for the village’s economic well-being.  I’ll be hyping the Ice Festival for sure; I’ve gone every year and it’s great how many people come out.  Did I mention the weekend of February 13 & 14 if you head downtown you’ll find that Love Is In The Air?

Like I said above, I’m not stopping as a contributor to DGreport, but I’m saying up front I won’t have as much time if this goes well.  I know some of the other nominees, and I think it will go well, I hope it will go well, and I will do what I can to help it be so.

- Mark Thoman

Comprehensive Plans are supposed to be good for up to 10 years, in some cases even 20.  They’re not supposed to be static documents, instead being updated at regular intervals.  Our village Comprehensive Plan is 44 years old and unchanged.  There’s a saying in the planning profession I’ll paraphrase as I remember CP booster Martin Tully say: “If you fail to plan, in reality what you are doing is planning to fail.”

ITEM RES 00-04019 Comprehensive Planning Ad Hoc Committee authorizes the creation of a Comprehensive Planning Committee and appoints members to the committee.

A Comp Plan is the overarching document that sets course for where we go in the future.  Almost everything else flows from it.  Comprehensive planning is tied at the hip to the economic prosperity of our village, to traffic, zoning, everything.  Each section of the plan deals with particular elements, contains descriptions of existing conditions, a discussion of issues and general goals, and policies to guide actions. Each of the sections also looks at specific strategies along with recommended actions for implementing each strategy.

You can read our current 44 year old plan at the Library up on the second floor; 1965 predates computers and on-line documentation.  Last time I checked the parchment rolls were still there.

A good Comprehensive Plan will have fiscal benefits for us all, whether residents or businesses.  It’ll save taxpayers money and help preserve and grow what’s good about Downers Grove, so it’s critical to get the best plan we can.

Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Bill White (also D99 BOE member) will chair the CPC.  ZBA member Marge Earl is also a member, as well as three Plan Commission members PC Chair Alan Jirik, PC members Audrey Hamernik and Greg Beggs, Transportation and Parking Commission member John Wendt, and two residents at large, Paul Jacobs…and me, Mark Thoman.

One of the big tasks of a Comprehensive Plan update is gathering information.  Remember last years TCD3 was all about gathering information?  Now that will be a crucial source of information about what the community wants to see in an updated Comprehensive Plan.

I know some of the other nominees, and I think it will go well, I hope it will go well, and I will do what I can to help it be so.

-Mark Thoman