Lake Forest residents would like to see more shops and restaurants, an Amtrak stop and better street lighting in the next 10 years, according to a citywide survey.
In the nearly 50-question survey posted last week on the city’s website, Lake Forest residents said overall they are pleased with their city with more than 95 percent saying they are satisfied or very satisfied living in the city.
“It’s similar to what we had five years ago when we did our last survey,” said Lake Forest Mayor James Cowhey Jr. “It’s encouraging to know that overall satisfaction is so high.”
Residents are most happy with the beach, community appearance and open space. They are most concerned about aging infrastructure and economic development in the next 10 years, said Robert Kiely, city manager.
Dissatisfaction with the city’s store selection increased about 8 percent from five years ago when the last survey was taken. In 2006, 33 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the variety of stores. Now it’s about 41 percent.
“I think people are concerned about the number of storefront vacancies,” Kiely said.
A large percentage wanted more restaurants, citing Chipotle Mexican Grill as the most desired choice. Others desired more clothing stores, including Macy’s, Carson Pirie Scott and Nordstrom. Other common requests were a hardware store, motive theater, grocery store and gas station.
While residents were most satisfied with police and fire services, many were least happy with local infrastructure. Of the major issues cited, street lighting was at the top of the list with 22 percent saying they were dissatisfied with the street lighting. About 16 percent cited their discontentment with the state of city streets.
Transportation options also garnered strong responses from residents.
Nearly half of respondents said they’d use an Amtrak train if a stop from Milwaukee to Chicago were installed. City officials have been interested in negotiating with Amtrak to put in a stop at its west side Metra station, Cowhey said.
“That would open up a huge corridor,” Cowhey said. “Residents could get to Milwaukee in 45 minutes.”
Residents were less interested in bus service. But about 75 percent said they would not use public transportation in the city, according to the survey.
The city council will use the survey when it meets later this week to discuss the city’s strategic plan, which outlines the city’s general direction, Kiely said.
Last November, the city sent the survey to more than 7,500 households in November. About 20 percent of residents responded, officials said.
