Algonquin Downtown Study Ready for Approval

Algonquin’s downtown may be known for its traffic congestion but someday it will be transformed into a pedestrian-oriented district, according to the vision detailed in the village’s Downtown Planning Study.

The 132-page study incorporated numerous steps including an evaluation of the area’s land use, buildings, traffic patterns, workshop meetings with the community and a consumer survey.

Land Vision Inc., Business Districts Inc. and Sam Schwartz Engineering conducted the study, which is available on the village’s website.

Algonquin trustees are scheduled to approve the study at its meeting Tuesday, March 5. The study must adopted to the Village Comprehensive Plan and will update its Capital Improvement Plan to reflect the recommendations in the study. It will become be a framework the village can use when making decisions about the downtown, officials said.

The exhaustive study has lots of recommendations for Algonquin including getting more downtown offices so there will be activity during the day that will help drive retail' preserving building of architectural significance that contributes to character of downtown and creating a marketing campaign for the downtown.

While the study is complete, Algonquin has a list of priorities it must implement to begin the process to transform its downtown.

Algonquin must also figure out how to fund the recommended changes.

“I spent several hours going through this,” Trustee Jim Steigert said. “After many years, we’ve gone through millions and millions of dollars of cosmetic work (that) didn’t go any thing to add dollars to businesses. This is perhaps one of the most impressive documents I’ve seen” as a trustee.

“It certainly gives me hope for the future of downtown,” he said.