The Village of Hoffman Estates on Oct. 13 adopted the "Hoffman in Motion" multimodal transportation plan, a 20-year strategy that recommends new bicycle routes, expanded sidewalks and measures to improve transit access after about 18 months of public engagement.

The plan, presented by Phil, a staff member who led the presentation, calls for roughly 16 miles of new bicycle routes, just under 1 mile of new on-street bike lanes, about 42 miles of side paths, approximately 12.5 miles of corridors needing further engineering study, nearly 9 miles of sidewalk to close gaps and safety improvements at 77 intersections. Trustees voted in favor by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting transcript.

Phil said the plan grew from an Illinois Department of Transportation grant and a series of community activities. "We are at the end of the beginning of a whole new approach to transportation in the village," he said, summarizing the outreach and technical work. He told trustees the outreach included an interactive online map, pop-up events and focus groups that produced thousands of website visits and hundreds of in-person engagements.

Why it matters: Hoffman in Motion bundles active-transportation infrastructure, transit access policy and implementation steps into a single document intended to guide capital planning and grant-seeking. The plan advises forming an "active transportation" advisory committee, replacing the village's road improvement impact fee with a multimodal improvement fee to capture development contributions, and using an online, GIS-based dashboard to track progress.

Key recommendations and supporting details include: an Active Transportation Plan with mapped infrastructure projects; a Transit Access and Expansion Plan that addresses paratransit and on-demand pilot services in coordination with PACE and neighboring jurisdictions; a package of 10 policies and programs including stronger public-private partnership language; and an implementation action plan divided into immediate, near-term and long-term steps. Phil described the implementation categories as a way to match effort and funding availability and to account for jurisdictional issues when roads are controlled by other agencies such as the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Trustees asked about prioritization and the plan's cost/feasibility matrix. Phil said the appendices include a matrix that ranked projects by cost, ease (including whether the village controls the road), and community interest. "We did an appendix that shows all of that," he said, noting that some items would require engineering studies before final design decisions.

On transit, the plan notes the village's taxi-discount program and recommends exploring on-demand pilots that pair PACE service with commercial on-demand providers for paratransit and other trips. Phil said the plan also includes strategies to improve bus stops at high-use locations with amenities such as heating, charging and secure bicycle parking.

Trustees and the mayor praised the outreach and called for swift startup of the plan's immediate actions, including forming the advisory committee and beginning engineering studies. Trustee Mills asked the presentation team to extend thanks to the plan's steering committee; several trustees noted that the plan will be used to prioritize capital-improvement projects and to strengthen future grant applications.

The village will return the plan to the committee for final adoption steps and to incorporate immediate items into the capital-improvement program and other near-term budgets. The presentation team emphasized the plan's flexibility: specific projects may change after engineering and right-of-way review, but the strategic goals remain the benchmark for future decisions.