Town Center Visioning

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TOWN CENTER VISIONING


The idea of a town center for Homer Glen has a long history. The 2005 Comprehensive Plan talks about the potential. Residents want a pedestrian-focused and family-friendly center special to Homer Glen where they can gather to meet friends and enjoy dining, entertainment and shopping. The Town Center Visioning process undertaken in 2023 responds to this community dream. 

 

The Town Center Visioning process was designed to listen to resident input, study the market and create concepts for how a town center could feasibly be developed in Homer Glen. The results provide land use concepts and do not constitute actual development proposals. As part of the visioning process, a key finding in the study of real estate conditions indicates many more rooftops would need to be built to attract and keep the restaurants, eateries and independently-owned shops desired by residents in a town center. Current codes do not allow denser housing and further discussion would be needed.

 

If and when the community supports moving forward, many more steps would need to occur before the Village could be prepared to attract developers. This will take years, even if there would be support to start now. The land use concepts resulting from this visioning process are just the first step.  

 

Thank you to the hundreds of residents who participated in focus groups, surveys, and workshops! A wrap up of the visioning process with resulting concepts for development of a town center was presented to the Plan Commission on March 21, 2024 and to the Village Board on April 10, 2024. The Village Board will determine what, if any, future steps it may wish to take.


Overview

The Homer Glen Town Center Visioning Summary Report presents the results of a year-long exploration undertaken with the community to envision a future town center. In this visioning process, the consultant team considered residents’ preferences, the market and the development environment in order create achievable town center design options. Results from the visioning process include four town center framework concepts along with next step strategies for the Village. If the Village chooses to move forward, these concepts and strategies can serve as a starting point to guide more detailed planning and proposals sought from the private sector. The Summary Report describes the visioning process, illustrates the progression of concept design and details the community engagement and market assessment inputs that informed the concept design. 

 

Summary Report

Appendix 1: Community Engagement

Appendix 2: Market Assessment

Appendix 3: Workshop 2 Feedback

Appendix 4: Workshop 2 Survey Results

Appendix 5: Concept Statistics

 

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Visioning Process Timeline

  • August 8, 2022 – Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee unanimously recommends to start the process of researching a land planner to move forward with planning for a town center. Staff recommends using a land planner to guide the process.
  • September 14, 2022 – Village Board authorizes the solicitation of an RFP seeking professional land planner services.
  • February 22, 2023 – Village Board approves agreement with The Lakota Group.

  • Phase 1 – Engage (February 2023 – May 2023)
    In the Community Engagement phase, the goal was to give Homer Glen residents multiple opportunities to contribute their thoughts and ideas on what a town center means to them and to engage with citizens on multiple platforms, both digitally and in-person. 
    • In all, the planning team connected with well over 500 Village residents, including over 400 survey responses, 25 focus groups and interviews, a Community Workshop in May, eblast and social media outreach, a project website with comments and ideas submissions, and Pop-Up Stations at Kite Fest, Stargazing, and Homer Fest. About 50 residents participated in the Community Workshop held on May 16, 2023.
  • Phase 2 – Assess (June 2023 – August 2023)
    Highlights from the Market Assessment report:
    • A successful town center depends on traditional design elements like compactness and walkability. It will also require a mix of uses including housing, retail, and public or civic spaces.
    • Homer Glen households provide an affluent market. At the same time, the Village population has not grown significantly in the last 20 years and the local consumer base is small.
    • Demographic shifts will influence housing preferences in coming years. Older residents will seek to downsize and younger residents are likely to want smaller homes, too.
    • The housing market in Homer Glen remains strong, with recent experience showing higher demand for small-lot homes. Current real estate conditions indicate that housing will need to anchor a town center and drive the development pro forma, with light retail uses provided as an amenity.
    • With the rapid rise in the costs of building materials, construction labor, and interest rates, the Village will need to provide some development incentives.
    • Developers place a high value on regulatory predictability – the assurance that their proposal will be approved if it aligns with the Village’s vision. One of the most important outcomes of this work will be for the Village to entice the development community with a consensus concept.
  • Phase 3 – Envision (September 2023 – March 2024)
    1. October 11, 2023 – The Village Board amended the scope of work to focus on a single location between 151st Street and 159th Street south of Village Hall for concept development based on resident feedback. The tie in with the existing civic complex on 151st Street and master planning for Heritage Park has many advantages. 
    2. The planning team envisioned the proposed town center through concept plans and renderings. The concepts include commercial and housing strategies, massing and scale, and phasing opportunities. Suggested Village strategies support the final concept plans to spur development of Homer Glen’s new town center.
    3. January 30, 2024 – Community Workshop #2 for feedback on the Framework Concepts (about 65 residents participated).
    4. January 31-February 23, 2024 – An online virtual workshop (survey) was available for a 3-week period for residents who could not attend the workshop (127 responses).
  • Residents were kept informed and invited to participate throughout the visioning process. Email notifications were sent to 568 contacts on the Village's opt-in list. Additionally, Village website news alerts, social media postings, press releases and printed flyers and posters were used.
  • A total of seven (7) steering committee meetings provided guidance and feedback for the Lakota planning team throughout the visioning process.