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Community improvement – Our view: Plans for future worth watching

I t’s too easy most of the time and sit back second-guessing people trying to make a situation better. People are trying to make the community a better, more attractive place for residents and businesses to call home.
This week, small steps will be taken to plan and improve for Glencoe’s future. We hope people will take the time to participate. Glencoe is, after all, your community. If you want it to be better, get involved.
Saturday at 9 a.m., a group of volunteers of varying levels of artistic and creative skills – from the highly-skilled artists to connect-the-dots drawers – will be working on bringing a little color to the intersection of East 11th Street and North Greeley Avenue. The crosswalk-painting project is a test to see how the paint stands up to weather conditions and also to see how it is received in the community. Plenty of volunteers are welcomed. Your constructive feedback will also be appreciated.
A group of volunteers is also working on ideas for redeveloping the vacant lot at East 11th Street and North Greeley Avenue, the former home of a grocery store. Representatives of the group indicate they are looking at ideas for redevelopment that will require minimal cost with a significant impact. Ideas include a dog park on part of the property and a pocket park where people can enjoy musical performances while enjoying shade from trees brought to the site. A sound wall and fencing will screen the site from passing trains.
The city has been trying to redevelop the site for a few years. Redeveloping the site would require spending money on studying how to best use the property. But more immediately, it would also require removing the property from the market. These are decisions the city council will have to address in the weeks to come.
The motivation behind these ideas is an effort to bring more people into town. If Glencoe can make itself a more attractive location for people to call home, more businesses will eventually follow.
Another opportunity to influence the future of the community begins tomorrow evening, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. at Glencoe City Center when the city’s planning and advisory commission begins discussion on the creation of a comprehensive plan. The city has done plenty of planning over the years. Arguably, it has not been done in an all-inclusive manner.
The work will take months to complete and will eventually, we hope, look at the community as a whole. It will look at land uses, neighborhood connectivity, parks and trails, streets, and the future of the community’s commercial-industrial sectors.
This plan could eventually shape the future of Glencoe. Comprehensive plans aren’t taken on every day. In some areas, they have a lifespan of about 10 years. Plenty can happen in a decade, especially once Highway 212 is eventually expanded to four lanes. We hope you will pay attention and take the time to discuss what you like, and dislike, with your city council.
It is your community. What do you want it to become?
-jm