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Growth Commission weighs folding YesVillaPark into village website, pushes for business development districts
Summary
Commissioners learned the village appears to own yesvillapark.com, discussed pros and cons of merging content into the village website, and agreed to pursue durable business development districts and follow up with village staff on ownership and branding.
Matt Weiss, who called the Growth Commission to order, said commissioners had learned village staff appears to administer yesvillapark.com and proposed discussing whether to fold the site into the main village website or keep it separate. "I found out that the village has access to and is administering yesphilipark.com," Weiss said, noting he had shared updated business listings and fire-inspection data with the village.
Commissioner Wong said folding the content into the village site could increase traffic and engagement, leveraging the village website’s existing audience. "Folding it in ... seems like we're filling a gap," Wong said, arguing integration could drive more visits to the content. Other commissioners favored keeping YesVillaPark as a distinct, newcomer-focused resource linked from the village site to preserve easier edits and a separate user experience.
Commissioner Stosch summarized divergent views: Schreiner supports combining the resources for sustainability, White prefers keeping a separate site so commissioners can more easily assist and edit, and Wong favors waiting for more information. Stosch — who presented data from a village-supplied spreadsheet — urged the commission to use the list to target vacant properties and support occupancy in the TIF district.
Why this matters: Commissioners said their priority is sustainability — creating a structure that endures when individual champions rotate off the commission. They agreed Weiss would bring questions and feedback to village staff in an upcoming meeting and that commissioners Stosch and Stosch (sic) would be looped in for follow-up. The commission also asked village staff to clarify current site ownership and any branding or FOIA restrictions.
Next steps: Weiss will meet with village staff to confirm site ownership, branding constraints, and the feasibility of integrating content; he will report back to the commission. Commissioners asked staff for any prior work defining business development districts so the commission can evaluate existing definitions before making formal recommendations to the board of trustees.
