The Village of Oak Brook has numerous private roads that are not maintained by the village. As a result, if a certain neighborhood wants a road to be converted to a public road they must adhere to village zoning code.

In order increase development, the Village decided to update its current storm water ordinance. This updated storm water ordinance would allow land to be developed if it is at least 80 percent impervious.

Every year the Village of Oak Brook performs improvements on roads, water main and infrastructure as a part of their capital improvement program. Prior to the improvements starting, the village is required to notify all residents that are directly and indirectly impacted by the improvements.

The Village of Oak Brook hosts the “Taste of Oak Brook” annually during the fourth of July weekend. The event features fireworks, live entertainment and food from local vendors. Since the event draws in a large number of people, the Village wanted to make sure that there was adequate parking so they enlisted the help of GIS. In GIS, parking areas were designated using aerial photography and existing parking lot information. Parking spaces were drawn for field parking based on the village parking regulations and the number of spaces in these areas was determined. Parking spaces were also determined for paved parking lots.

The Village of Oak Brook Public Works department performs a wide variety of services to the village including snowplowing and street sweeping. They also maintain various street lights within the village. Prior to the implementation of GIS, Public Works referenced a hand drawn street light atlas of the village. This contained the location of the street lights as well as their id number and the location of fiber optic lines within the village. While this atlas was useful, it did not contain information on each street light for bulb type, ballast, wattage, etc. If a street light needed repair, village staff would have to reference a separate table.

The Village of Oak Brook police department deals with crime and burglary incidents on a daily basis. With the Oak Brook center mall and extensive business district multiple incidents can occur in a short period of time. Prior to the implementation of GIS, the police department would manually enter each incident into a database by shift, date, location and type of incident. In order to review the crimes for the month, staff would have to sort through the database to determine how many burglaries, residential theft, forgery, etc. occurred. In order to visualize where the crimes occurred, staff would use push pins on a village map.

The Village of Oak Brook contains a wide variety of restaurants. The village posts the list of restaurants and local attractions on their website along with the address and phone number for public use. However, this list is lengthy and contains outdated information. In order to create a more visually appealing and up to date listing, Oak Brook enlisted the help of GIS to create location points, which are then placed in Google Maps. The GIS Department created a map showing the location of each restaurant within the village as well as address information and a link to the restaurant’s website. This interactive map located on the village website allows the user to find restaurants within the village based on location.

The Village of Oak Brook contains a number paths and trails including multi-use paths in Fullersburg Woods. The paths run through Central Park and many of the residential subdivisions. They provide residents and visitors the opportunity to stay fit and explore the village. In order to assist residents and visitors the Village hired an outside vendor to create a bike path map showing the location of the various paths throughout the village as well as important places of interest such as the Drake Hotel and Historic Graue Mill.

One of the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) developments in Oak Brook IL has been the creation of two maps showing the capital improvement road projects from 2010-2014 and from 2015-2019. Prior to the creation of these maps, all of the road capital improvement projects were stored in a pavement management system or PMS. This contains information on the portion of the road to be resurfaced, the type of resurfacing to occur (overlay, microsurfacing, etc.) and the year in which each is going to occur. For example, a road that is microsurfaced in 2009 could have an overlay in 2010.

The Second annual Oak Brook Half Marathon was held on Monday, September 7th. It began at 7:00 am and consisted of a 13 mile course starting and ending at Kensington Court. The course took participants through Fullersburg Woods and around the McDonald's campus. In previous years, the Village had used an outside vendor to produce maps of the course. The maps while informative, did not contain information on the path's condition or registration information.

The Taste of Oak Brook is held annually during the Fourth of July weekend in the Village of Oak Brook, IL. It is sponsored by McDonald’s and features cuisine from area restaurants such as Maggiano’s and Ditka’s. For The Taste of Oak Brook event, attendees are given a pamphlet listing each restaurant and the food that they will be serving. This pamphlet does not provide information on the location of the restaurants at The Taste of Oak Brook or parking information. In order to address this issue, the village enlisted the help of the GIS department.

Whether it is to take a shower or fill up a glass of water, people use water everyday. Although the process seems to happen without much exposure, it is definitely noticed when the water stops running. The procedures that a local community conducts in order to provide their residents with clean and useable water are something that they take seriously. In order maintain the water system, the Village of Oak Brook decided to investigate the strength of the water utility system.

Since 2004, the gypsy moth has plagued northern Illinois, destroying oak trees in parks and recreation areas. These moths have been migrating slowly from the northern United States to the southern United States. In order to manage the gypsy moth population, the Village of Oak Brook performs aerial sprays in areas where oak trees are present. The treatment consists of a naturally occuring bacterium called Kacillus Thuringiensis (BTK). BTK is highly effective in controlling gypsy moth populations, but is not harmful to people, pets, livestock, or the environment.

The Village of Oak Brook, IL relies on accurate utility information in order to assist the community staff with their day to day activities just like any other local government does. For example, the Engineering Department utilizes storm sewer information to assess and resolve drainage issues as well as general pipe replacement. The Public Works Department needs accurate utility information in order to indentify water main size, type and location in order to respond to water main breaks. In addition, the Fire Department needs to have access to fire hydrant information for flow rate testing and to locate the nearest hydrant in the event of a fire. This information has been stored in multiple locations including engineering plans and permit applications but ultimately should reside in one centralized location.

Addresses play an important role in the day to day activities of the Village of Oak Brook, IL whether it is for water billing information, permits or locating a resident in case of an emergency. In addition, a physical address can serve as a link to answering such questions what school district do I belong to or what zoning district am I in? However, obtaining information for a specific address often requires searching through multiple spreadsheets, databases and paper documents.