Village To Improve Downtown Plaza

The public plaza at the northeast corner of Waukegan and Deerfield Roads will get a beautification boost from the Village this spring.

The path to the improvements came after the Village Board of Trustees unanimously approved a lease for the land with US Bank at its Jan. 7 meeting. Deerfield will take control of the property April 1.

Earlier: Lake Cook Road Corridor Plan Moves Forward

“We’re going to improve the property for use as a public plaza,” Village Administrative Assistant Andrew Lichterman told the Trustees and Mayor Harriet Rosenthal Jan. 7. There are currently trees, bushes and benches. “This is a beautification effort that’s been in need of leadership.”

There was nothing but optimism coming from the mayor the trustees after Lichterman’s presentation. “It will help make our downtown retail friendly,” Trustee Barbara Struthers said.

Rosenthal was more specific. “People can come out and sit on a bench and enjoy Dear Franks, something from the bakery or from the bagel place,” she said.

Lichterman said more specific plans will be forthcoming after the lease goes into effect.

Improving the plaza is not the only environmentally friendly thing the Board did Jan. 7. It moved forward with plans to require renovators of buildings in excess of 1,500 square feet to recycle 75 percent of their building materials.

Northbrook and Highland Park have similar programs already. Similar techniques will be used to measure what is recyclable. The proposal will begin to move through the Village Board with an anticipated effective date of March 1.

“At the end of the project they (the remodeling contractors) will get a receipt from a recycler showing it is completed,” Jenny Maltas, an assistant to Village Manager Kent Street, said.

The anticipated impact on remodelers will be minimized because they already comply with regulation in neighboring communities. “We want to be friendly to the people who choose to remodel in Deerfield,” Sustainability Commission Chairman Matt Wylie said.

The Board also took steps at the Jan. 7 meeting to allow representatives of Deerfield’s business community who do not live in the Village to be members of the Sustainability Commission.

According to the proposal, an individual who works for the company would be eligible as long as they remain employed. “It’s the same as someone moving away,” Rosenthal said equating a person leaving a local business to a commission member relocating outside Deerfield.

Though nothing specific was mentioned about future members, some people had ideas. “Baxter (International Healthcare) is one of the world’s most sustainably involved companies,” Wyle said.

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