Northwest Quadrant Master Plan

The Board of Trustees accepted the report of the Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force in early 2016 and asked Village staff to further engage some of the stakeholders in the quadrant. A Northwest Quadrant Stakeholders Working Group worked for about eight months to develop specific provisions that pertained to the southwest corner of the Northwest Quadrant. The Board of Trustees adopted Ordinance O-16-27 on October 17, 2016 approving the Northwest Quadrant Master Plan as an amendment to the Deerfield Comprehensive Plan. 

The Master Plan provides an opportunity to make the Northwest Quadrant an attractive public campus. The Northwest Quadrant Master Plan document will serve as a guide for the Northwest Quadrant that will be implemented over the next 20 years when public institutions and property owners in the Northwest Quadrant make improvements to their properties. Some improvements outlined in the Master Plan may take place in the near future, and other improvements may be accomplished 15 to 20 years from now.
 
Click here for the Northwest Quadrant Master Plan which is now part of the Village's Comprehensive Plan.  

Background of Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force

In 2013, the Village Board of Trustees appointed the Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force in order to create a Master Plan for the northwest quadrant of the Village Center for the benefit of the entire community. The Northwest Quadrant Task Force consisted of all of the major stakeholders in the northwest quadrant. The task force provided the direction to develop the master plan for the northwest quadrant of the Village Center. The northwest quadrant master plan provides a conceptual framework for recommended improvements to enhance the northwest quadrant of the Village Center for the benefit of the community.
 
The Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force consisted of 17 members and 2 staff members. The Task Force was made up of all of the major stakeholders in the quadrant including the Park District, Library, Village, Presbyterian Church, AT&T, the commercial property owners, and Chairmans of the Plan Commission, VCDC, ARC, and a member of the Sustainability Commission. The Northwest Quadrant of the Village Center currently suffers from a lack of pedestrian friendliness, disconnected parking lots, a disjointed roadway/circulation system, a lack of adequate space for safe drop offs for children’s day care, and a general lack of a unified campus.

The purpose of the Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force was to bring together the stakeholders to study the northwest quadrant and develop a Master Plan for the entire quadrant. As the majority of property in the northwest quadrant is public lands, the Task Force believed that property lines should not be a consideration in developing a Master Plan. The Master Plan ignored property lines so a campus setting can be developed to better serve our community. The Task Force also stayed within the current Comprehensive Plan that advises no further commercial development be allowed in the Northwest Quadrant.

The Task Force held meetings in February, March, and April of 2012. The first meeting was an introductory meeting and the next two meetings were workshop meetings. The workshop meetings helped the Task Force to define the issues, develop a list of items they would like to see accomplished, and establish a vision and the goals for the Northwest Quadrant. The summary of the Task Force’s workshop meetings, their vision and goals for the Northwest Quadrant, and their minutes can be viewed below.
 
After the completion of the Task Force’s goals and visioning process in April of 2012, a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was sent to ten qualified design firms to assist the Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force in the creation of a Master Plan for the Northwest Quadrant. Seven design firms submitted responses to the RFQ. A subcommittee of the Task Force interviewed the four qualified finalist firms and selected Teska Associates as the firm to design the Master Plan for the Northwest Quadrant. The design team selected consists of Teska Associates, Hitchcock Design Group, Gewalt Hamilton, and Bondy Studios. On August 20, 2012, the Board of Trustees approved Teska Associates as consultant for design services to assist the Northwest Quadrant Unified Task Force to create a Master Plan for the northwest quadrant of the Village Center.

The creation of a Master Plan resulted in a comprehensive design plan. This Master Plan document will serve as a guide for the Northwest Quadrant that will be implemented over the next 20 years when public institutions and land owners in the Northwest Quadrant make improvements to their properties. All property owners, both public and private, will still be required to go through the Village’s zoning approval process as they make improvements to their property. The creation of a Master Plan for the quadrant does not waive the future zoning approval process as each property in the Northwest Quadrant will be required to obtain zoning approval of their projects. The Master Plan will serve as a detailed guide when each public entity/property owner in the quadrant makes improvements to their property in the future.