Dupage Policy Journal

On February 6 the Carol Stream Village Board heard a presentation from Community Development Director Don Bastian about a new portion of their village website that will make it easy for residents to view various projects in the village.

According to the Bastion, there is a link on the front home page to “development projects” that brings residents to an interactive map providing information about current, upcoming and recently completed projects. The map has four tabs showing projects that are proposed/under review, approved, under construction and completed/open to the public.

“We just think it's a good way to give customers a self-service option,” Bastian told the board. “We think it's good for government transparency. I mean, we're not trying to hide anything here. You know, here's what's going on. Then finally, we think it's really, I'm not sure if we're ever going to have a super high profile or controversial project come through again, but if we do, having something like this set up will be really helpful because again, we load all the project information here and it's accessible for anybody to look at. Whereas in the past, when we didn't have quite this much setup and structure. I'm remembering back to like the Mizner Project in 2017, we were just getting a bunch of emails from people and we kind of had to respond to them all individually because we weren't really set up with something like this where we could direct people to all the information.”

The website also has instructions on how to use the map in the first tab. He said that zooming in shows the outlined parcel and gives an overview of the project. There are also links for more information depending on the project. He added that there is an option to search for addresses or specific projects. Completed projects include links to board meetings when they approved or amended aspects of the project so residents have an accurate timeline of events, as well.

The new facets of the website will help the city and residents alike by simplifying information and making it clear for residents. He also said it takes some of the load off of responding to calls and emails when there is a big project. 

The board members voiced their excitement about the website additions, but also reminded members of the community that they can always call city hall with questions if needed. The board members also said they were excited to have the completed tab become a historical record of their projects.

“We are really happy that this is available,” said Bastian. “Like I said, we will still meet with people and talk with people, but this also gives people a chance to poke around and take a look for themselves.”