Orland Park is moving forward with plans for its next phase of the village’s long-term growth strategy by officially advancing its targeted sub-area development plan. Working with Houseal Lavigne, an urban planning and design firm, the board recently held a workshop to discuss design plans.
Depicted as a structural blueprint for the community’s future, the plan breaks the village down into four distinct geographic zones to ensure that future commercial, residential and recreational projects align with modern economic demands. Those areas include: Old Orland Historic District; Gateway to LaGrange District; Harlem Avenue Corridor; and the I-80 Employment Corridor.
Rather than relying on generic, blanket zoning laws, Mayor Jim Dodge and the Village Board are using this sub-area strategy to breathe new life into specific under-utilized corridors while aggressively protecting the character of historic neighborhoods.
These areas include:
Old Orland Historic District: 143rd Street Transit-Oriented District: Working in tandem with the ongoing multi-million dollar redevelopment of the Main Street Triangle, this zone aims to maximize the economic power of the 143rd Street Metra station while maintaining the historic charm. The sub-area plan calls for dense, highly walkable developments that seamlessly blend commuter parking with upscale lofts and ground-floor cafes.
Trustee John Lawler questioned the availability of commercial properties in the target area. “There are also some historical structures that are aging and they haven’t been well-maintained. The question moving forward is, what do we do with them?
“Do we continue on the historic path or do we abandon that and look at newer developments?” he asked. “The same thing with mixed use versus residential. The market’s changed. There aren’t a whole lot of people that are antiquing anymore, so is there really a need for those anymore?”
Gateway to LaGrange District: Trustees said this sub-area strategy focuses on retrofitting traditional, large-footprint retail strip malls into vibrant, mixed-use experiential centers. Plans include integrating upscale dining, open-air pedestrian plazas, and boutique fitness spaces with staying power to counter the shifting landscape of traditional brick-and-mortar retail.
Trustee Dina Lawrence called the property “a primary commercial corridor and entry point into the village. It’s a regional retail destination. It attracts visitors from far outside Orland Park’s boundaries. It’s a huge commercial anchor for the village. “
Harlem Avenue Corridor: Mayor Jim Dodge said the fundamental challenge for Harlem Avenue “is that it is two-sided.”
“At the risk of sounding facetious, I’m very serious, it’s two-sided. On the east side is Bremen Township, which has a very different tax incentive structure from Cook County, which probably explains the as-built development pattern over the years with more light industrial,” Dodge said. “And so you’ve got your as-built environment on Harlem Avenue. On the west side of this development, you’ve got a range and a mix and some vacant properties, it’s Orland Township, which doesn’t get the same preferential tax treatment if a developer asks for it as Bremen Township does.
“So, that’ll explain some of your development patterns,” he said. “Close to 159th, everybody wants to capitalize on 40,000 cars a day. And so this corridor has been a challenge for a while, and as some of the other trustees noted, you’ve got a couple of vacant properties. “
Dodge referenced the former auto dealership that moved out, and “nobody’s been in a hurry to go back and use that property,” he said. “That shopping center has been empty for a long time. So as we think about this, that’s the reality on the ground.”
The mayor said the village will have to “do a lot of work to make sure that the east side of Harlem feels connected to Orland.
“I don’t know if a lot of people know that that is a business park. I don’t know if we’ve ever imposed a certain look and feel on the facades, let alone had signage, wayfinding signage, at the front of it to make it feel like the Orland Park Business Park,” Dodge said. “There’s antecedent reasons why you had those development patterns. So all that said, you have a cohesiveness issue on each side of the street, and those two sides of the street are not necessarily compatible for very good technical tax reasons.”
The I-80 Employment Corridor: Called the Southern Gateway. Dodge called it “a long-term employment corridor where there’s significant opportunities for economic development and infrastructure coordination competing across the region in employment.”
Trustees agreed they “need a signature development at I-80 and LaGrange Road.”
More workshops will be held and the plan is expected to take between 12 and 14 months.
Josh Koonce, an urban planner with Houseal Lavigne who coordinated the meeting, said there are three things they are trying to do as part of the planning process: “First, we want to establish where we are today with regard to these four subareas. Sort of the good, the bad, the ugly. What’s working well for these key areas? What do we want to preserve and maintain looking out a couple decades?
“And then what are we well-positioned to make some changes today so we can see incremental change over the coming years?” he asked. “So where are we today? And then as we get into step four of the process, we’re defining where we want to go. We’re coordinating with your staff on the vision and goals for the comprehensive plan and thinking, what are these corridors going to be long term? “