By Valerie Hardy I Photos courtesy of the Village of Downers Grove

If Downers Grove had a crystal ball, it would be Guiding DG, a series of plans for the future of the community. Guiding DG has four distinct but interrelated subcomponents: a comprehensive plan, mobility plan, sustainability plan, and streetscape plan.

Most of the plans encompass the full community, but the streetscape plan is specific to the Downtown and Fairview areas. This plan focuses on “sidewalks, parking, benches, public art, landscaping, streetlights, outdoor dining…everything you’d see when you’re walking down the street,” explained Stan Popovich, the Community Development Director for the Village of Downers Grove.

Popovich is coordinating Guiding DG along with consultants from Houseal Lavigne, an urban planning and geospatial design firm. The Village has been holding standing meetings with Houseal Lavigne about community development and the comprehensive plan, a blueprint representing a community vision that will guide the Village for the next 20 years.

The plan will address commercial corridors; community facilities and infrastructure; diversity, equity, and inclusion; economic development; environmental sustainability and resiliency; land uses; residential neighborhoods; and transportation and mobility. The existing comprehensive plan (last updated in 2017) will be reviewed to inform the new one.

“Guiding DG is not a staff vision; this is a community vision.”

– Stan Popovich, Community Development Director

Popovich said the Village also meets with Guiding DG’s four sub-consultants as needed, and Houseal Lavigne has standing meetings with the sub-consultants as well “to make sure they are all going down the path together.”
These sub-consultants include Baxter & Woodman (transportation and the bicycle and pedestrian plan), GZA (the sustainability plan), Hitchcock Design Group (the Downtown and Fairview Focus Area Streetscape Plan), and All Together (communications and engagement).

Downers Grove residents Bill and Liz Chalberg share input on streetscape priorities during the Guiding DG Kick-Off Celebration.

Doug Kozlowski, the Communications Director for the Village of Downers Grove, is coordinating with All Together on community outreach and engagement, which began with a Kick-Off Celebration on April 4 at Downers Grove’s Lincoln Center. This free, family-friendly event introduced community members to Guiding DG and solicited their input. Stations were set up so members of the public could “come up and tell the consultants what they liked, didn’t like, and what they thought should change [about the plans],” Popovich said.

Over 200 community members attended the Kick-Off Celebration, which included a table for children to color pages to communicate what they like about Downers Grove. “It is our goal to reach out and get as much community feedback from all age ranges and interests as possible,” Popovich said.

While the Village Council undertook a long-range planning process last summer and identified the four projects as action items they want to take on, “Guiding DG is not a staff vision; this is a community vision,” Popovich said.
Popovich and other staff members “have done outreach to targeted groups in the community, namely students at District 99 and seniors at Immanuel Residences in Downers Grove,” Kozlowski noted.

More than 100 students from Downers Grove North and South High Schools combined and 14 senior residents from Immanuel Residences weighed in on the Guiding DG plans. They shared how they would like to see the Village develop in years to come.

The consultants also met with various other stakeholder groups, including Downers Grove Economic Development Corporation, Downtown Downers Grove Management Corporation, Downers Grove Historical Society, Downers Grove Bicycle Club, and Greener Grove.

The plans for each of the four projects are set to be substantially completed by late spring of 2025. These “visionary documents will then guide policy, land use decisions, investments, how sustainability is woven into the Village’s day-to-day operations, [and more],” Popovich explained.

Guiding DG and its subcomponents will be an ongoing topic at Village Council meetings, which are open to the public. There will also be additional Guiding DG “pop-ups and visioning workshops this summer to see what people want the Village to be in the future,” Popovich said, including at the Concert in the Park at Downers Grove’s Fishel Park the evening of July 9.

Community members can also complete an online survey to provide input on the plans. Over 1,400 surveys were submitted at the time of publication, which Popovich and his team are “really proud of.”

To take a Guiding DG survey, learn more about Guiding DG and its resources, and check for upcoming community events, visit GuidingDG.com. Consult the Village’s website (Downers.us) for upcoming meetings as well.

Community Development Director Stan Popovich and Planning Manager Jason Zawila hold a visioning session with seniors at Immanuel Residences, a retirement community in Downers Grove.