Village of La Grange adopts comprehensive plan calling for more density near transit

In November, the Village of La Grange voted to adopt La Grange Forward, a comprehensive plan developed as part of the RTA's Community Planning program. The document presents a forward-looking vision, goals, and strategies for various subareas of the village on topics like economic development, transportation and access, environmental sustainability, and community character. It calls for increased residential density along the Metra BNSF Corridor, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and more.

RTA's Community Planning program provides funding and technical assistance to local governments to help foster growth of sustainable, equitable, walkable, and transit-friendly communities. This comprehensive plan kicked off in spring 2023 and was developed with engagement among residents, businesses, organizations, staff, and elected and appointed officials. The total project budget was $195,000, and the RTA contributed $80,000 toward the transit-oriented development (TOD) subsections and community engagement efforts.

Recommendations

La Grange Forward outlines numerous goals and strategies for different subareas of the village. Some highlights include:

• Increase residential density along the BNSF Metra Corridor, which includes the La Grange and Stone Avenue Metra stations
• Increase residential density along the South La Grange Road corridor, which has Pace bus service
• Enact new design review guidelines for new developments, shifting some of the review responsibility to Village staff and speeding the process for developers to build their projects
• Create an affordable housing task force and complete a housing needs assessment
• Advocate for increased Metra service, especially at the Stone Avenue Station
• Support transit-oriented development through the recommendation of increasing allowable building heights, reducing parking minimums, and streamlining the design review process
• Improve pedestrian safety throughout the Village with a particular focus on street crossing upgrades that will be high-impact
• Extend on-street bicycle infrastructure and invest in neighborhood greenways
• Reduce parking minimums in the zoning districts that allow attached single family (townhouses) and multi-family residential development, encouraging the development of this type of housing by reducing building costs
• Eliminate parking minimums for existing commercial buildings in the West End

Extensive public engagement occurred throughout the planning process. Engagement efforts included a project website with an interactive comment wall and map, stakeholder interviews, several community event pop-ups, two community workshops, two workshops for Village elected and appointed officials, and several workshop meetings of the Plan Commission. Two online input tools, the comment map and ideas wall, collected more than 500 comments throughout the course of the planning process.

Read La Grange Forward: Comprehensive Plan on RTAMS, the RTA's mapping and statistics website.