Winfield considering downtown parking deck

A proposed four-level parking garage will help Winfield meet its demand for commuter parking and bolster plans for downtown redevelopment, officials say.

What it won’t do, they say, is increase the tax burden on residents because it will be funded primarily with money from grants and the downtown tax increment financing district.

Village Manager Curt Barrett said the project, which may take five years or more to come to fruition, will address a 2005 Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning study that said Winfield needs to double its commuter parking spaces within 10 years.

“We recognize it’s a long process to get a parking deck,” he said. “We want to get started.”

A preliminary study places the cost for such a deck at $5 million. Barrett stressed, however, that the figure includes only the garage’s 409 parking spaces and not any facade or lighting upgrades.

A 48-acre downtown TIF district would provide the money needed beyond that which the village receives from grants.

“I don’t see us in a position to put out that kind of cash outlay,” Barrett said. “We’ll be reliant on finding some grant assistance.”

Trustees will receive an update Thursday on the village’s progress. Officials hope to start applying for grants in May and, in a best-case scenario, set a June 2016 target date for opening the garage.

“Our biggest commitment is, what do we need to get preliminary engineering under way?” Barrett said. “There is no bigger obligation or decision made beyond that.”

The structure would be just east of village hall on the southeast corner of Jewell Road and Church Street.

“The need is there,” Barrett said. “Parking is an issue right now for businesses and as we look to grow the downtown, it will get worse.”

In 2005, a study that included Metra, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Regional Transportation Authority found Winfield’s downtown parking would need to double within 10 years to accommodate an expected increase in commuters. Initially, transportation officials indicated their preference for as many street-level spaces as possible, but the village balked.

“We don’t want parking to be the main land use for the Town Center,” Village President Deb Birutis said. “We told them we would provide those spaces to our Metra commuters but we would have to go up several levels.”

The downtown district, known as Town Center, extends from the DuPage River on the west to the corner of Jewell and High Lake roads on the east. It also runs north along Winfield Road to Central DuPage Hospital and south past the rail line to Beecher Avenue.

“I believe this board has made a focus on developing our Town Center and we need to continue to have the Town Center as our No. 1 priority,” Birutis said. “All of this is just another step in making the dream a reality.”

Village officials say plans are in the works for several other improvements downtown.

A proposed Riverwalk will upgrade the western edge of Town Center along the DuPage River, they said, and the Winfield Fire Protection District station will be moved out of downtown to make more room for possible development.

“We’re seeing movement on a number of different things,” Barrett said. “They were visions but now we’re starting to see real steps taken. We like that.”