[ Home | Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: JGWINS24@NETZERO.NET
Category: In My Humble Opinion
Date: 13 Dec 2000
Time: 20:22:57
Remote Name: 4.54.200.204
SYCAMORE SELLS OUT, GIVES AWAY A STREET
The Sycamore City Council at it’s meeting on December 4th gave the gift of a street to Dekalb County, a street paid for with thousands of tax dollars from Sycamore residents. What did the city get in exchange for this gift? An access point or two off of Peace Road, but is that really a benefit to the city or to the developer who will make hundreds of thousands of dollars from developing the land near this access point, money that will be spent somewhere other than in Sycamore most likely? The developer wins at the expense of the taxpayers of Sycamore. Maybe the developer will give the city a new school or fire station that we will need after they build lots of new homes north of town? The Sycamore Council, at the recommendation of the city planning commission, voted to approve the request from Dekalb County to vacate the block of East Exchange Street from Main to Locust Street. The county’s primary reasons for requesting the closure are for additional “convenience” parking for the new Legislative Center and the county jail and to improve pedestrian safety in crossing Rt. 23 to the courthouse at Exchange Street. It would also allow for more of a “campus” design for the county administration buildings. Many local residents attended meetings about this issue since we all found out about it after the county recently purchased a couple of homes in the neighborhood. We determined several facts and came up with questions that needed to be answered by the city. The end result of these meetings was the development of a plan that addressed the needs of the City of Sycamore, Dekalb County and the residents and driving public of both.
FACT ONE: Exchange Street is used as Route 64 and as the Emergency Ambulance and Fire route by the city of Sycamore during the Pumpkin Festival Parade and 10K road run as well as during the Sycamore High School Homecoming parade. QUESTION ONE: What is the city’s alternate route if you allow the closing of Exchange Street and it is not available for this valuable purpose? There was silence from the council.
FACT TWO: The intersection of Rt. 23 and Rt. 64 is already dangerous because it is very difficult at times to turn left onto Rt. 64 from Rt. 23 to go east because there is no left turn lane and people make poor driving decisions and go through red lights. One of the residents in our neighborhood was involved in a serious collision at the intersection this summer because someone did not stop on Rt. 23 southbound when they should have. The addition of many new homes to the north will multiply this hazard in the near future. People use East Exchange street to avoid this intersection when going to Brown’s and other eastern destinations. Have you?
QUESTION TWO: How will closing East Exchange Street impact traffic patterns in the area? Again we received no response
FACT THREE: As residents in the area and daily users of the subject portion of Exchange Street we see that there will be two primary changes to traffic patterns if the street is closed: · Traffic will become more congested at the intersection of Rt. 23 and Rt. 64 and as a result even more people will make bad driving decisions and more collisions will occur at the intersection, the potential for serious injuries and possibly death will increase. · Traffic will use Sycamore Street instead, traveling through more residential neighborhoods where there is a minimum of three major school bus stops and increasing the risk of danger to the children who live in the area.
QUESTION THREE: When will the State of Illinois be installing a left turn lane on Rt.23 eastbound onto Rt. 64 to correct these hazardous traffic patterns? Again silence
FACT FOUR: There will be two major road construction projects happening at the same time next year. · The reconstruction of State Street downtown from California Street to Main St. · The reconstruction of Center Cross Street and Dekalb Ave. past the High School. These projects will have a drastic impact on traffic patterns in the city next year
QUESTION FOUR: How will traffic be rerouted during next year’s construction season? You guessed it, no response. Residents in the immediately affected neighborhoods then spoke to the council asking for consideration of the safety of children in the area due to the increased traffic through the densely populated residential neighborhood and about the protection of property values in the neighborhood.
We then presented our alternative plan, stating “We understand that the county has a need for expansion and we feel that mutual cooperation between the city, county and residents in the expansion process is important. As you have clearly heard there is much more to the request from Dekalb County to close East Exchange Street than you may have been aware of at the time this agreement was made. We have taken these issues into consideration and developed an alternative plan that meets the needs of the city, the county and the residents of both. Our plan has three primary components that address those needs and is a better option than closing the street.” OUR PROPOSAL: PART ONE: Rather than closing East Exchange Street add diagonal parking on one or both sides of the street and a “No left turn” sign on westbound Exchange Street. This will satisfy the needs of the city, the county and the commuting public: a) The city NEEDS the street as an alternate route when Rt. 64 is closed for Pumpkin Festival and the Homecoming parade; there is no other route that is logical for this purpose. This in itself merits the need to keep the street open. b) The county has two main “wants” for the real estate · Parking space- this plan provides all of the parking the county would get by closing the street because the street is wide enough for diagonal parking on one if not both sides of the street. · Pedestrian safety crossing Rt.23 at Exchange. The ONLY traffic flow that passes thru the crosswalk at the intersection that would be removed by the closing of Exchange Street is traffic that turns left off of East Exchange Street onto Rt. 23. Our plan also eliminates the same traffic flow. c) The commuting public could continue to use the street to bypass the hazardous intersection of Rt. 23 and Rt. 64. This would lower the risk of serious accidents at the intersection. By voting to give the street to the county, the city council has given away any rights to negotiate this option now, even the transition to a one-way street was discussed and would have been very acceptable, but that option is no longer available either.
PART TWO: To help with the shortage of parking around the courthouse itself, to reduce the need for pedestrians to cross Rt. 23 and to increase revenue the city could convert the parking on the west side of the courthouse on Maple Street from the existing thirteen parallel spaces to twenty-four diagonal spaces. The only thing the city would need to do is paint the new lines and reposition parking meters. Even if the city had to shift the lanes of traffic over and eliminate the three spaces on the west side of Maple Street the city would gain eight metered parking places at a minimal cost that would be recovered quickly in meter fees and parking violation fines. This is already the most profitable block in town and this would increase those profits. This could and should still be done.
PART THREE: Living in the area and traveling around the complex we have all noticed that the existing parking lot around the Administrative building is NEVER full. When we asked the Dekalb County Administrator at our meeting with him why the county was purchasing homes for future parking when what they have now is not fully utilized he indicated that they are bound by City ordinance to have a parking space for each X number of square feet of building. Apparently the requirement is excessive in regards to what the county really needs for their purposes. In light of this the city could, for the government complex, issue the county a variance to the ordinance and increase the square feet per parking space requirement thereby lowering the number of parking spaces mandated by ordinance. This would result in the need for less real estate for county purposes in the city, saving the homes of residents, saving tax dollars used to buy the properties and protecting property values in the area. Again, the city should pursue this option in the interest of residents being able to keep their homes.
The combination of the three components of this plan is a beneficial alternative to closing East Exchange Street to the city, the county, and the public at large. This plan: · Retains this valuable route needed by the city and motorists. · Provides the needed parking the county would build if the street were closed. · Saves the county taxpayers thousands of dollars that would have been spent to reconstruct the parking area. · Solves the pedestrian safety issue the same as closing the street would. · Increases city revenue generated by parking meter fees and fines on Maple Street. We felt the city should amend the agreement with the county to adopt this plan and not close East Exchange Street. There is absolutely no need to do so!
The Sycamore City Council, even the representatives of the ward most directly affected by the closing of the street, ignored all of this common sense plan and voted to close the street anyway. Residents and motorists of Dekalb County be advised: Plan to wait at the intersection of Rt. 23 and Rt. 64 (please don’t use Sycamore Street, we love our kids) and for your taxes to go up again because the county is going to keep buying up homes and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a private parking lot. Sycamore is very generous to everyone except those who pay for these gifts! Remember also, the election is in April.