By Bob Seidenberg
A collection of businesses and individuals in the busy Chicago Avenue area are raising strong objections to city plans for a two-way protected bike lane to run the length of the street, arguing that the project could have a damaging effect on business and urging officials to consider an alternative route.
The group outlined its concerns in a Nov. 13 letter to city officials, including City Manager Luke Stowe, Mayor Daniel Biss, Third Ward Council Member Melissa Wynne (in whose ward most of the businesses are located) and Katherine Gotsick, executive director of the Main-Dempster Mile district, which partnered with the city on Phase 1 of the project.gh
In her ward newsletter from last Wednesday, Wynne, who is not seeking re-election next year, announced that the city will discuss the impact on parking on the Chicago Avenue corridor at a joint Third and Fourth Ward meeting scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 10 at Robert Crown Community Center, 1801 Main St.
The city’s proposal, first introduced as Evanston was grappling with COVID-19, calls for the bike lanes to be located along the east side of Chicago Avenue, reducing on-street parking for a two-mile stretch.
“Despite several construction projects over the past several years, the Chicago Avenue retail district has performed pretty well,” pointed out developer Kent Swanson, a representative of a group of concerned Main-Dempster Mile retail businesses on the issue. “However, when you wipe out 75 to 100 parking spaces on the east side of the street and make access much more difficult, you are going to permanently harm or close numerous small businesses and harm the viability of a great walkable local shopping district.”
The group’s letter noted that Chicago Avenue is home to nearly 200 small businesses that depend on street parking for customer access.
“Making access difficult for their customers and eliminating half of the parking in the area is likely to cause significant reductions in sales and result in the closure of many of these businesses,” the letter said. “The Evanston share of sales taxes and liquor taxes collected in this area are substantial, putting the City of Evanston’s finances at risk in a time of budget challenges. Finally, the small businesses of Chicago Avenue are a critical component of the walkable city and a key component of the quality of life in Evanston. Risking jobs, tax revenue and the community fabric with the proposed project is not a sound decision for our City.
“Moreover, the benefits of this bike safety improvement are limited at best. Currently, very few bikes use Chicago Avenue because Hinman and Judson are low-traffic streets that are pleasant and safe for cyclists. Aside from Calvary Cemetery, these streets run the entire length of the proposed protected bike path on Chicago Avenue.”
Some cyclists call for reappraisal, too
A second letter to city officials was signed by a variety of individuals and members of small and medium-sized cycling groups in Evanston, backing the businesses and residents in their concerns about the loss of parking space.
“While we applaud any effort to provide safer bike passage, we do not think that the proposed design is the solution. We frequent a number of businesses in this corridor, and that loss of parking would be devastating to them,” the bikers wrote.
“We think a much better solution would be to utilize Hinman Avenue and/or Judson Avenue as the designated biking corridor(s). This could be accomplished with simple, inexpensive road markings and signage with no impact to parking along those residential streets. Both streets are already de-facto bike routes for the cycling community. At South Boulevard, the route could go back to Chicago Avenue, and from there to Howard Street the protected two-way bike lane as contemplated could be employed along the cemetery as it would not impact any parking. On the north end, a connector to the protected bike lanes on Sheridan could be made via Clark Street. Whether it is better to designate one Avenue for two-way, separated bike traffic, or have each of the Avenues only handle one-way bike traffic is debatable, but in either case, a much better solution.”
No more a sleepy corridor
Evanston officials have been laying the groundwork for the project, which would be supported with federal grant funds since 2021, with most of the major public comment gathered when the city was still confronting COVID.
At a lightly-attended meeting held in the Volkswagen Evanston Chicago Avenue’s showroom on a cold November night in 2021, Sat Nagar, the city’s senior engineer heading the project for the city, noted the extensive development Chicago Avenue has undergone in recent years.
“This is going to be not a sleeping corridor,” he said. “This is going to be changing for the next 15 to 20 years. So whatever we do now has to accommodate the future.”
Qualifying for federal support
Council members, including Wynne, approved staff-recommended proposals as part of their consent agenda in back-to-back meetings earlier this year, moving the project forward.
- At their Aug. 26 meeting, council members approved a staff recommended contract with A. Epstein & Sons International to provide Phase II design engineering services for nearly $1.1 million. The firm had received a contract totaling over $400,000 for Phase 1 design services back in 2020.
- At the Sept. 9 meeting, Council members authorized City Manager Luke Stowe to submit an application for grant funds from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP) for the corridor project, acting without the normal two-week hold on issues designed to give citizens the opportunity to comment.
The ITEP funds would cover 80% of the engineering and construction project cost in the projected $14.9 million project, with the remaining 20% of ther funding provided by the local municipality. The maximum ITEP funding award is $3 million, Nagar said in his memo.
Council members approved the proposal on Sept. 9 as part of their consent agenda, which means no council members requested that the item be taken off for discussion.
Contacted after the meeting, Laura Kushner, a resident of Courts of Evanston, a 90-unit townhouse community located on the 500 block of Chicago Avenue., expressed disappointment that Wynne had allowed the project to pass without giving public voice to the numerous concerns brought to her attention, going back to last year. They included residents dropping in at the alderperson’s coffee house ‘office hours’ to press their concerns.
“Although we are biking advocates, this decision is going to create a plethora of safety and accessibility issues for area residents,” Kushner said in an email response. “It significantly infringes on customer access to many businesses and it increases traffic congestion on Chicago Avenue and area alleys. Chicago Avenue will be severely impacted by service and delivery vehicles which will be forced to double-park.”
Later asked about the residents’ concerns, Wynne noted that the Sept. 9 approval of the application “was a step in the process of applying. It isn’t the final step by any means,” she stressed.
She said also that she had talked with the city’s engineering team about the possibility of narrowing the sidewalk that runs adjacent to the proposed bike lanes at the Courts of Evanston site. “But we would lose all the trees on that block and lose all the greenway on the embankment,” she said, suggesting from an engineering standpoint that wouldn’t work.”
In her announcement of the Dec. 10 meeting, she noted that the goal of the Chicago Avenue Corridor project is to enhance safety and comfort for all roadway users, including pedestrians, cyclists, buses, cars and other modes of transportation.”
City officials emphasized safety in their Sept. 26 ITEP application, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Using data from existing bike lanes in Evanston, officials predicted a 52% reduction in crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians with protected lanes installed.
