Teska prepared a Comprehensive Plan for the City of Wood Dale, working with Business Districts Incorporated (BDI), Gewalt Hamilton Associates, and wohltgroup. The City’s location near O’Hare Airport and major roadways place it at the center of a major Chicago area logistics, distribution, and business hub. Wood Dale residents (about 14,000 persons) expressed an appreciation for the City’s small-town feel and local assets like open spaces, access to the Chicago region, and local services.
The plan focuses on subareas in the mostly built-out community, including its main thoroughfare Irving Park Road. That corridor is characterized by development from a different era that lacks a cohesive look and feel. Plan recommendations consider transportation improvements to benefit all modes, development and redevelopment opportunities and approaches to better integrating the corridor’s intersection with Wood Dale Road into a more vibrant business district. The plan also highlights opportunities for a signature development along the newly opened IL-390 Tollway. The planning process included significant public engagement with the community through a Steering Committee, electronic, and in-person contact – highlighted by two highly successful open houses that were organized as celebrations of both the plan and the City.
As an implementation task of the Plan, the City has hired Teska and the law firm of Ancel Glink to update its Unified Development Code.
