WUDAC Dreams of Wheaton's Future

At the World of Montgomery Festival on Oct. 16, Ana Lopez van Balen, the director of the Mid-County Regional Services Center, asked passerby to share what they loved most about Wheaton, with many people responding “diversity.”

At last week’s Wheaton Urban District Advisory Committee meeting, van Balen asked committee members a slightly different question: “What are your hopes and dreams for Wheaton?”

Matt Barry of Westfield immediately responded that he wanted Wheaton to be an arts and culture destination, with a thriving nightlife scene.

Part of achieving this nightlife scene, other committee members chimed in, would require a more effective police presence.

“At night you can’t even get through the street because the police are parked in the street,” said Janet Yu, the president of Local First Wheaton.

“How about police officers actually walking on the street?” said William Moore, who owns the IHOP on Grandview Avenue.

WUDAC discussed the overall look of the downtown streetscape, with members saying that poor signage prevents customers from finding their way around downtown Wheaton

“We need to revisit the signage of everybody in Wheaton,” said Wu.

Barry suggested education initiatives for small businesses so that they can learn how to keep things up to standard, but Moore said he didn’t want revitalization to mean more rules for businesses.

The answers ranged from the general (a walkable community) to the specific (a microbrewery and holiday outside lights), but the discussion eventually gravitated toward the next question: “How should WUDAC be involved?”

Van Balen noted that she had started a blog and was trying to revitalize communications with the community with Facebook and the newsletter.

Marian Fryer and Janet Wu said that WUDAC needs to be more proactive, going to county council meetings and following up on legislation that affects Wheaton. Moore added that Wheaton wants a voice on the council. “We’re ready and we need it.”

The committee members noted the potential of WUDAC to bring other groups together and discussed plans to recruit community members for committees and work groups.

WUDAC members decided they want to walk through the Wheaton Urban District together or perhaps in teams in order to generate ideas for future action.