Oak Park Wants Your 'Thoughts on the Ike'

From the Village of Oak Park:

As the Illinois Department of Transportation holds meetings in Chicago and Forest Park to gather public input on plans to reconfigure I-290 through Oak Park, the Village has created an online forum to informally gauge residents’ views.

The webpage is intended to help the Village Board better understand how the community feels about plans to add a lane to the Ike through Oak Park and move the ramps to the outside of the roadway. Preliminary plans are illustrated in the presentations posted on this website.

Officials are reminding residents who post on the Village webpage that they will not be officially registering their views with IDOT, which has a formal process that must be followed to make comments part of the public record.

But as Village officials determine the best strategy for engaging IDOT as more details of their plans emerge, they want to understand the range of citizen opinions on the project that will significantly impact the community for decades to come.

More than 100 residents attended a community meeting hosted by the Village Board on Sept. 30 at Irving School (click here to see a video recording of the meeting). The intent of the online forum is to offer those who were unable to attend an opportunity to share their views with the Village Board.

Oak Parkers also can officially comment directly to IDOT online, as well as communicate with the Village Board via email and on the Village’s facebook page and twitter feed.