"Road Diet" Proposal Cut

Downtown Skokie won’t be going on a diet anytime soon, at least not a road diet.

At a spirited village board meeting Monday night, trustees unanimously rejected the “road diet” proposal that would have widened sidewalks to allow for outdoor dining on Oakton Street and narrowed traffic lanes from four lanes to two. would have created a pedestrian-friendly environment that would draw more consumers and create new businesses opportunities downtown area.

However, would only cause traffic problems and keep people away from Oakton Street, which many laid out in anecdotal terms from an experiment conducted earlier this year.

“I don’t know if it would necessarily lead to greater economic development,” said Mayor George Van Dusen in summing up his opposition. “In the downtown area, we have brought in 10 new restaurants in the last couple of years and we need to build on that success. We need to make some
improvements but not change the traffic flow.”

Read more:

Van Dusen’s comments echoed those of a stream of many of residents at the meeting, held at the to accommodate the larger than normal crowd who were not interested in seeing Oakton Street permanently reduced to two lanes on Monday night.

Such sentiment was not a surprise, as the village received 226 responses — be it electronic or in person — regarding the road diet and more than 80 percent were against the plan, the village reported.

The traffic engineering firm Gewalt-Hamilton, which received $91,866 in TIF funds from the village to conduct a road diet pilot, said data they collected led them to believe that not only was the project feasible, but would lead to improved safety and a better environment for the downtown area.

During that six-week period, Oakton Street was narrowed to one lane in each direction, with a center turn lane from Long to LaCrosse avenues.

After displaying the pilot over several months, Gewalt-Hamilton revised the plan by moving the western edge near Lincoln Avenue and Oakton Street, which would have created an additional 23 parking spaces, the firm noted.

Yet the changes weren’t enough for many of the audience members on Monday night.

“I’m not sure what we are trying to accomplish. It is kind of a pipe dream,” said resident Jim Hudson, who brought up that is expected to open in the next few months. “When (the Oakton) stop opens up, I just don’t see what is wrong with downtown Skokie right now. Squelching off traffic flow is not going to help.”

In explaining his opposition to the proposal, trustee Don Perille, who said he has now seen six efforts at revitalizing downtown Skokie, was concerned about the possible residual traffic issues that might arise.

“More and more traffic is going to go into these residential areas and I think that is a travesty,” he said. “As much as I think downtown needs help, I don’t want to do it on the backs of the residents.”

Agreeing with Perille, trustee Randall Roberts said, “We all share a desire for the development of downtown but I think we are getting the means to that mixed up with the goal.”

They may have been in the minority, but there were some road diet supporters Monday night.

“The road will create some momentum for a better downtown,” said Peter Nicholas, a member of the Independent Merchants of Downtown Skokie (IMODS). “I don’t think downtown Skokie is okay the way it is. It is dying; it has been dying for many years. I don’t think we should rely on the politics of fear.”

Randy Miles, the president of IMODS and owner of Village Inn Pizza, was disappointed by the board’s decision. “Why spend (money) on consultants and then not listen to them,” he said.

Another road diet supporter, Howard Meyer, executive director of the Skokie Chamber of Commerce, was beginning to look to the future. “There will be another plan,” he noted.

With the road diet proposal discarded, the village has another predicament on its hands: Elected officials have to decide how to spend $5 million in TIF funds that must be used by the end of 2013.

Regardless of whether the road diet was implemented, staff has said throughout the process that Oakton Street is in urgent need of repair.

Village Manager Al Rigoni said the engineering and planning personnel would be reconvened to come up with the best way to spend approximately $5 million in TIF funds.

“It is not like we aren’t going to do anything,” Rigoni said. “We are going to sit down and see what can we do. We have pavement that is falling apart. We have water mains and light bulbs [that need to be fixed]. We’ll sit down given the board’s direction tonight and come up with a list of items physically and bring them back to board and say this is the skeletal design.”

Rigoni was not certain when such a plan would go back before the board, but given the deadline of the TIF funds, he does not expect much time to expire before a wish list of proposals is delivered.

Like us on Facebook