Elgin bike plan has bumpy start for some

The first visible step in Elgin's citywide bike plan - painting dedicated bike lanes on a stretch of Walnut Avenue - has some small business owners upset.

"It's a real pain," said Mike Nelson, manager at B&G Train World, 829 Walnut. "No one wants to park across the street because they'll get hit. It's like a drag strip at this end of Walnut. People are going to get killed."

Last week, councilmen voted unanimously to eliminate on-street parking on the south side of Walnut to make room for two, four-foot-wide, striped lanes running east and west. Most of the eight-tenths of a mile stretch has homes with driveways; a few blocks have a collection of small businesses.

The street was recently repaved, and officials saw this as a step toward linking neighborhoods together, which is one goal of the plan. On-street parking is still available on Walnut's north side.

"It's mind-boggling," added Susan Hess, manager at Kindness Inc., a no-kill animal shelter at 815 Walnut. "It's always been a problem. We've never had enough parking and now they've eliminated it. It's just wrong."

On Monday, business owners were stunned to see the parking spaces replaced, even though the city surveyed them about the idea weeks ago.

"I don't know who actually said yes, but no one here did," Nelson said.

David Lawry, the city's general services manager, noted that the plan was endorsed by South West Area Neighbors group, or SWAN.

Also, 34 of the 56 property owners contacted by the city supported the plan. Fifteen opposed it and eight expressed no preference.

And, Lawry said, the survey that city employees showed business owners stated a date in which a council vote was planned.

"I'm not sure what more we could have done," he said.

Councilman John Walters said he believes the area has enough parking. Several businesses have their own lots and parking is permitted on residential side streets.

"It's difficult and it will take some getting used to, but people will still find the place and be able to get there," he said. "I would not have approved it if I thought there wasn't sufficient parking in the whole area."

Councilman Mike Powers said ideally the city would prefer not to sacrifice parking spaces. But in this case the number of lost spaces is minimal and the community will benefit from the bike plan in the long run.

"We gave up eight or nine spaces for business that already have parking to improve our bike paths. That's a pretty good tradeoff," he said. "People will adapt, and I think those businesses will continue to do fine, I hope. I don't see it as a big problem, and on top of that you have the full endorsement of SWAN."