The Des Plaines City Council voted Monday night to support the awarding of up to $50,000 in tax increment financing district funds for landscape design work downtown.
The 7-0 vote, taken during a committee of the whole meeting, is expected to be confirmed at the May 15 City Council meeting.
Representatives of Naperville-based Hitchcock Design Group will meet with officials from the city’s Streetscape Committee to the determine specifics of the design plan, said Streetscape Committee Chairman and Ald. Wayne Elstner.
Jerry Lecocq, city forester, said the committee was appointed about a year ago and includes a “cross-section” of the community, including Park District and city officials, business leaders and residents.
“We will be working with Hitchcock every step of the way, and the focal point of this project will be the area around the new library and the train station,” Elstner said.
The project will encompass walkways, turf, plantings and site furnishings for the downtown area bounded by Jefferson and Pearson Streets between River Road and Graceland Avenue, officials said. The project will include Gateway Park at River Road and Miner Street.
Richard Hitchcock, Hitchcock Design president, said his company would oversee all aspects of the project, which could be completed by Memorial Day 2001.
An eventual cost of between $500,000 and $600,000 “wouldn’t surprise” Hitchcock, he said, given the expense of plantings.
The company has designed and overseen landscaping projects in towns including Schaumburg, La Grange, Naperville and Northbrook, Hitchcock said.
