A yearlong project to boost the Branding and Identity of La Grange Park came to fruition March 11 when the Village Board approved a final plan.
“There’s going to be a tremendous uplift to this community,” Village President James Discipio said after the unanimous vote, citing the plan’s call for improved “entryways, signage, street signs, landscaping, bike racks, benches and pedestrian safety.”
“We needed to uplift and rebrand our community,” he said.
Discipio stressed that the changes called for in the plan were not merely cosmetic.
“We’ve also included public safety elements into the effort,” he said. “By rebranding, we’re doing sidewalks crossing La Grange Road that are going to have our brand on it and are going to slow traffic down,” along with making improvements to lighting.
The image reshaping effort formally began in May 2024 when the village awarded Span, a Chicago based design studio, an $81,400 contract to develop a concept for refurbished public seating, village furnishings, decorative stop signs, receptacles, planters and bike racks.
Details of the finished plan, which will likely take several years to implement, are at lagrangepark.org.
The new village logo and brand standards are finalized, but other designs in the plan are intended to guide streetscape improvements, and some may change.
The village logo will be a gold maple leaf, its five stars representing the five families most responsible for founding La Grange Park in 1892.
A core element of the new plan is the development of the streetscape toolkit. It encompasses options for refurbishing or replacing village boundary lighting, street intersection obelisks, intersection signs, corridor lighting and corridor signs, such as the corridors along La Grange Road and 31st Street.
For the business district along La Grange Road, options are shown for raised flower beds and planters, sidewalk pavers, screening fences, pedestrian benches, waste and recycling receptacles, bus stop areas and maps for vehicles showing directions and parking locations.
One idea was to install a monument sign — reaching as high as 18 feet — to indicate to southbound motorists they are entering the village at the intersection of La Grange Road and 31st Street.
Span estimated that the cost for such a sign could be as high as the upper five figures, boosting the total cost if built.
Discipio indicated that total funding for the rebranding was undetermined at this point, and spoke of obtaining grants and other funding approaches.
He also noted that there was some opposition to the monument sign from others on the rebranding committee for reasons of cost, but he stressed the impact it would have.
“It’s going to be such a magnificent entry into our community,” Discipio said. “My suggestion is that we get sponsorships for it, like they do for the library and the Park District.”
He suggested a concept like selling bricks with a family or company’s name on it to help fund the sign, saying “I think it would be a great memorial.”
The rebranding effort also could be a good time to implement other safety measures outlined in the Village’s “Take Five” initiative, Discipio said.
“We want the speed limit reduced by five miles per hour on LaGrange Road,” he said, “because if you go down through Countryside and La Grange, it’s 20-25.” Currently, the speed limit is 30 miles per hour.
Discipio said village officials would be headed down to Springfield April 2 for Municipal League Lobby Day to voice their desires to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which administers the road.
“It’s something we’ve been pushing, because it’s a safety issue,” Discipio said. “All we’re asking is five miles per hour.”
The next La Grange Park Village Board meeting will be 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at Village Hall, 447 N. Catherine Ave.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
