Villa Park trustees delay vote on 2025 comprehensive plan after late public comments

Trustees on April 14 reviewed the draft 2025 Comprehensive Plan and voted to delay formal adoption until the board’s next meeting on April 28 to allow additional review following public comment.

Consultant Josh Levine of House Levine Associates presented the plan and summarized the multi-year public engagement process, saying the effort produced roughly 900 points of public input including two open houses, an online community survey with about 671 respondents, workshops, stakeholder interviews and a set of “do-it-yourself” four-question exercises with community groups. Levine described the plan as a policy document intended to guide future land use, transportation, housing and infrastructure decisions and noted it meets relevant Illinois statutory plan requirements.

During public comment, resident Joe Amore requested that the plan explicitly identify a section of Elm Street (between Euclid and Villa) that lacks sidewalks. Director Mark McLaughlin told the board that a revised draft labeled “adoption draft 4/14/25” incorporated the Elm Street sidewalk notation requested earlier that evening. Trustee O’Fano and others asked about floodplain mapping; staff responded that FEMA floodplain layers are included in existing-conditions work and will inform future, more-detailed studies, but floodplains are not customarily drawn on the high-level comp plan map.

Trustee Patrick and Trustee Kumar both said they would prefer one more meeting before adoption to allow trustees time to review the updated draft; Trustee Corkery and others said the public had ample opportunity throughout the multi-year process and favored moving forward. After discussion, the board voted to postpone the adoption vote to April 28. Manager Harling and consultant staff said the board would be presented the updated “draft 4/14” in the interim and that staff will accept final input until the April 28 meeting.

The plan’s chapters include community vision, land use and development (with a future land use map and six subarea frameworks), transportation and mobility, community facilities and public infrastructure, and an implementation matrix that ties recommendations to potential partners and funding sources. Levine emphasized the plan is advisory — “should” statements that set direction for future zoning and capital budgeting — and that the action matrix at the back of the plan is intended as an implementation checklist for the village.

Trustees asked staff to ensure that sidewalk gaps raised by residents are clearly marked in the adoption draft and requested that floodplain and infrastructure constraints be explicitly noted where they affect action priorities. Staff also said it will make the current revised draft available online and invite any remaining written comments prior to the April 28 vote.