Nearly eight years after the state supported a study calling for a streetscaping project on North Avenue along its border with Oak Park and Chicago, area residents are asking state leaders to get the project off the ground.
Galewood Neighbors, a community organization for the Chicago neighborhood, began taking signatures last month for a petition calling on state agencies and law makers to “support the completion and implementation of the North Avenue Streetscape and Business Development Project.” The high traffic street has been plagued by unsafe, high-speed driving, parking issues and lackluster pedestrian access making it challenging for residents and businesses to thrive, neighbors said.
Close to 200 Oak Park and Chicago residents have signed on to the petition thus far, including many who own businesses on the street, according to Galewood Neighbors chair Steve Green.
“We decided to create the petition as a positive reinforcement, because this has been going on for so long, seven years or eight years have passed almost and nothing’s been done,” he said. “There’s just a long list of examples of people driving way too fast. The traffic needs to be slowed down. For the businesses, if they don’t have parking in their back, it’s just a struggle for them. If there was some streetscaping so people could safely park in front of the stores on North Avenue, it would help business tremendously.”
The need for the project has been clear for years while visible progress has been nonexistent, according to North Avenue District Chair Judith Alexander. She is an Oak Park resident.
“Never was a streetscape more wanted or needed than ours,” she said. “We have two interrelated issues: safety and economic development.”
In 2018, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning produced a detailed report on strategies for revitalizing businesses in the North Avenue corridor and improving traffic safety on the road through streetscaping improvements. That study was followed by another from the Chicago Department of Transportation produced in 2020, which reached similar conclusions.
The studies found that infrastructure improvements for North Avenue like curb extensions, sidewalk improvements, added parking and other traffic calming measures were needed to support vitality and safety in the area.
While the state reportedly allocated millions for the work back in 2019, a groundbreaking date is still a mystery, Alexander said.
“That was 2019 in the capital budget and we still don’t have a streetscape,” Alexander said.
Oak Park’s current capital improvement plan mentions state funding for the project, along with a potential start date for North Avenue streetscape construction in 2028, according to village documents.
“The State of Illinois approved $27.4M to the City of Chicago for a joint streetscape on North Avenue from Harlem to Central. Funds were released in the summer of 2023 and the Chicago Department of Transportation is working with the state to get the agreements in place with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity so that design work can get started,” village staff wrote in Oak Park’s most recent capital improvement plan. “Construction would be no sooner than 2028. The state funds should cover all costs for the streetscape project although the village will likely need to pay for design and construction costs associated with any of the village’s water and sewer improvements which are still to be determined. Design of the water and sewer projects would start in 2026 with construction possibly starting in 2028, depending on the scope and schedule of the future streetscape project.”
Neighbors drafted the petition with the hope that it would emphasize resident and business owners’ support for the planned work and bring a start date for streetscape construction into reality, Green said.
“The opportunity here is fantastic,” Green said. “We want to see a thriving North Avenue corridor in our part of the city. Independent small business owners have it tough already with everything else going on in the world. This is just one more thing that you know they really shouldn’t have to worry about.”