More mixed-use here, taller buildings there: Glencoe’s future has its guidebook

A vision for the future of Glencoe is set.

Glencoe trustees during their last meeting of 2024 approved the village’s new comprehensive plan, a long-term, big-picture, policy-guiding document that town officials say will serve as a resource for the “community’s future decision-making.”

The new comprehensive plan — “All In, Glencoe,” which has a dedicated webpage — is centered on a set of five priorities, which are identified in the plan as “big ideas.”

In an introductory statement that is part of the approved final document, town officials say those five “big ideas” are seen “as the main priorities for the Village’s future, with supporting goals, objectives, strategies, and actions that guide the implementation” of them.

Glencoe’s last comprehensive plan came in 1996, village officials said, noting that a supplement addition was made prior to that in 1985.

The 1996 plan did receive an update in 2016 when the section touching on Glencoe’s downtown was updated, per village documents. Village officials then adopted design guidelines for Glencoe’s business district in 2019.

According to details included in the new comprehensive plan, the “All In Glencoe” name was selected to “emphasize the engagement-focused nature of the plan.”

“Just as there is not one singular way to implement a plan, there is not one best way to approach community engagement,” it reads in the plan. “In Glencoe, the planning team designed a wide-reaching and multi-pronged outreach approach that provided many avenues for two-way communication and idea sharing with the public.”

Approval of the comprehensive plan is the culmination of a development process that took nearly two years, said Taylor Baxter, Glencoe’s development services director, during the Dec. 19 meeting where the plan was approved.

Francesca Lawrence, of Teska Associates, the firm aiding Glencoe in the development of the plan, described the community feedback aspect as “wide reaching and multi-pronged,” adding the “intent was to provide many different avenues of two-way communication.”

Data collected showed that the webpage dedicated to the comprehensive plan on the village’s website garnered more than 7,000 views from more than 3,400 visitors with upward of 300 people subscribed to receive regular updates on the plan.

“While much of the analysis and the study that takes place and leads up to the plan recommendations is fairly technical by nature, the ultimate document is not,” Lawrence said. “It’s really intended to be a statement of the community’s vision and the values that Glencoe residents and leadership hold for the future.”

Much of the public feedback Glencoe’s Plan Commission received throughout the second half of 2024 “dealt more narrowly with the issue of density and land use,” said Bruce Huvard, chair of the Plan Commission.

In a more broader context, Huvard said the heights of potential buildings in downtown Glencoe, the possibility of something other than single-family homes in other areas of the village, and the encouragement of multi-family buildings along Green Bay Road and selected corridors were some of the recurring feedback themes.

Additionally, some of the key concerns brought forward were preserving the character of the community and finding a way to have other types of housing so that people who have lived in the village long can stay in the community.

The five priorities highlighted in the plan touch on several areas that have been key points of discussion throughout the last several years of village discussions. The priorities, as listed in order they’re included in the plan, are: Build Upon Glencoe’s Character; Integrate Sustainability; Maintain Economic Resilience; Care for and Support the Community; and Deliver Excellence in Planning, Management, and Governance.

Although each of the five priorities in the plan includes goals and proposed strategies to reach the village’s overarching objectives, Section 6, which heavily details future land use opportunities, is perhaps the most forward-looking and visionary part of the new document.

The section highlights potential and recommended changes to land uses throughout the village while focusing on several key areas that “are most likely or most ripe for future change.”

The plan describes a potential relocation of the town’s public works building, 675 Village Court in downtown Glencoe, as the “single most anticipated redevelopment opportunity.”

“As the Village and the (Central Business District) have evolved and matured, the Public Works function at this location has become increasingly incompatible with its surrounding business and residential uses,” the plan reads.

“Redeveloping this site would allow for much-needed new housing and commercial building opportunities without expanding the footprint of the CBD, which is considered by most to be perfectly scaled to the community.”

In addition to the public works building, the plan also earmarks the Temple Court parking lot as a key redevelopment site in the Central Business District.

A portion of Green Bay Road, particularly its intersection with Washington Avenue, is identified in the plan as a potential location for housing development.

No land use study of Glencoe would be complete without a review of Hubbard Woods Plaza. The plan suggests that the shopping center could support greater heights and a more diverse set of uses than its current single-story, low-density design given its surrounding context.

Buildings of four to five stories could be options for the site if they meet a number of parameters outlined in the plan.

Glencoe Village President Howard Roin, as part of concluding remarks during the Dec. 19 meeting, said he was “grateful for all the work that” was put into developing the plan while adding that he believes “the plan commissioners and our planners got it right.”

“I think the boundaries that have been created by the plan … they look sensible to me and I think they get us to a place where we can make, as a community and as a village board, thoughtful decisions moving forward,” Roin said.

Roin concluded by noting that exploring the possibility of relocating the public works facility is something the board will be thinking about.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Subscribe to The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a subscriber? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.