\n West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey’s renderings of downtown development incorporate historical elements and new construction.
\n Courtesy of Daniel Bovey\n <\/p>\n
West Chicago residents are responding to a series of renderings of downtown improvements Mayor Daniel Bovey recently posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n
That was exactly Bovey\u2019s intent with the 19 pictures of elements, including a public plaza, courts for athletics, a marketplace and more. Several elements incorporate West Chicago\u2019s history with the railway that runs through the downtown, and a vacant, 150-year-old station.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a plan. We\u2019re inviting the community to be part of the plan from the get-go, so give us your feedback,\u201d Bovey told the Daily Herald this week.<\/p>\n
The images have drawn hundreds of views and comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to spark the conversation with people,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like part of what we need to get over the hump of making this happen is a community vision. You can sit here and talk about budgets and talk about code, and all that\u2019s good. But when JFK said, \u2018We\u2019re going to put a man on the moon in 10 years,\u2019 it captured people\u2019s imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bovey is focusing on three principles in considering downtown development: investing in smaller spaces for businesses, office spaces, food and the arts; creating a \u201cThird Space\u201d where people can gather away from work or home; and community involvement \u201cfrom the ground floor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey believes downtown development will be spurred by investing in incubator spaces for businesses, food and beverage, the arts, and professional trades.
\n Courtesy of Daniel Bovey\n <\/p>\n
Bovey said his Facebook post was planned in conjunction with a new Temporary Downtown Revitalization Commission that Business & Community Relations Director Kelley Chrisse introduced at the Aug. 18 council meeting.<\/p>\n
The nine-member panel would include residents, business owners, and city staff \u201cto try to bring all those conversations to one place to be pulling together,\u201d Bovey said.<\/p>\n
Chrisse said key facets of the commission include the revitalization, delivering services, elevating community identity and future investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like this a lot. I think this is something the city needs,\u201d Alderman Matthew Myers said as the council discussed the commission.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey’s rendering of an imagined WeGo Marketplace, in the current parking lot of Gallery 200 on Washington Street, would be a year-round facility inspired by Wheaton’s permanent pavilion for its French market.
\n Courtesy of Daniel Bovey\n <\/p>\n
Bovey said his images were the result of conversations with elected officials past and present, developers, business leaders and the residents he canvassed during his election campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to demonstrate to investors, developers, and the community that we\u2019re committed to making this a really exciting, vibrant community place that you should want to be part of, from the ground up,\u201d Bovey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause right now property values are very low, and once we get this going, they\u2019re going to go up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey’s renderings of downtown development incorporate historical elements and new construction. Courtesy of Daniel…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":164482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[64,960,12611,1109,5386,1818,50,4329,9207,9280],"class_list":{"0":"post-164481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-commercial-real-estate","11":"tag-communities","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-real-estate","16":"tag-small-business","17":"tag-west-chicago"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115068249492037290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}