Oak Park’s village board last week heard more from the consultant group it hired to develop a plan to promote economic vitality in the village.
Trustees heard from staff at Camoin Associates, Inc. as they presented a near-final draft of their economic vitality plan for Oak Park. The consultants went over highlights from the 197-page report that contained 62 total recommendations, taking questions from the trustees throughout the study session.
The consulting group sent staff to Oak Park several times and administered a community wide survey to develop its recommendations.
Camoin’s recommendations included forming a new economic vitality commission within the village government and, in some form, resurrecting the now shuttered Oak Park Economic Development Corporation. It also recommended streamlining processes for businesses through the village’s development services department and working to increase resident and business owner diversity across racial and generational lines.
All these strategies would look to counter the perception that Oak Park is less friendly to businesses than its municipal neighbors, Camoin Associates Vice President Daniel Gunderson told the board.
“The goal should be to achieve a positive assessment of the business climate,” Gunderson said. “We heard time and time again, ‘meh, compared to its neighbors Oak Park is not very friendly to business.’ That is so deeply ingrained. Be it true or false, it is deeply ingrained and it needs to be addressed.”
The consultants also recommended that the village hire an assistant village manager for economic vitality to oversee growth efforts across the village. Last month, the village put up a job posting for the role, advertising a salary range of $134,000 to $194,750 for qualified candidates.
Camoin hopes that that new official will oversee a new economic vitality commission “to serve as an advisory body for guiding village investments” and work with a restarted nonprofit Oak Park Economic Development Corporation which would use technical expertise to “implement new (re)development and lending projects,” according to the consultant’s report.
The village board voted to stop funding the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation in 2023 after 49-years of operation, effectively shutting down the entity.
“It’s an integrated approach to economic vitality,” Gunderson said. “We see different skillsets working with one another.”
The consultants also recommended developing more infrastructure to support minority business owners, in an effort to promote diversity throughout the village.
Oak Park also needs to attract younger residents, Gunderson said.
“There’s quite an interesting and stunning figure of those residents aged 25 to 40 being lower here than in surrounding areas,” Gunderson said. “We need to do a better job of helping those people find homes here and decide to stay here. That is the future, that is so critical to prosperity going forward.”
In addition to supporting the closing of the “missing middle” affordable housing gap, the work of attracting younger residents could include amending the village’s liquor code, Village Manager Kevin Jackson said.
“This is a strategy to declare that we actually want to create a nightlife,” Jackson said.
The board will likely vote on if it will adopt Camoin’s plan later this month.