Dundee corridor takes on new look

Elgin's Dundee Avenue corridor is taking on a new look these days and is scheduled to step out in even greater style in the coming years.

The four-lane street, which stretches for about two miles from the I-90 Tollway interchange into the downtown at Kimball Street, sports new landscaped medians near the tollway. The city of Elgin has also purchased two properties containing used car dealers between Slade and Stewart avenues in an attempt to attract other commercial development to the corridor.

Sean Stegall, Elgin's assistant city manager, said the clean-up efforts may take several more decades but Dundee Avenue and Route 31 - major routes for visitors into Elgin off the tollway -- are a high priority among residents at the city's public input meetings.

"We are engaged on Dundee Avenue as part of our larger entryway improvement program because this in area that people tell us is important to them," said Stegall. "Dundee Avenue is our highest priority and was identified by the Elgin Image Commission some 10 years ago because of the number of visitors who use it off the tollway."

The corridor is a difficult one for city managers and planners, Stegall explained, because it was widened from two lanes to four about 50 years ago and features a wide variety of business uses and residences. As the street added more commercial uses to an area that was mostly residential, some property owners added store fronts onto homes, some of which are no longer useful to subsequent property owners and are vacant.

There are still several single- and multi-family homes along Dundee, which face a hodge-podge mix of small to medium-sized businesses.

Further, city zoning allowed for used car lots on the thoroughfare and more than one-half dozen sprouted up. The city acquisitions have resulted in the demolition of several of those, including the former Tim Bates Auto Sales at 918 Dundee, the Twinn Auto Sales & Service and another small building at 1337-41 Dundee.

Stegall said Beef Villa has proposed building on the 1337-41 Dundee Ave. property and has submitted a development proposal for a new drive-through restaurant. In return, the city would acquire the restaurant's existing 15,000-square-foot lot and building at 1055 Dundee Ave. After tearing down the old restaurant, the city would change the Congdon-Dundee intersection with more landscaping and add other road improvements and signage welcoming motorists to Elgin, said Stegall.

Todd Evanson, one of the owners of Beef Villa, said his parents, George and Barb Evanson, started the restaurant on the Dundee Avenue site 39 years ago. The small chain has grown to include locations on the west side of Elgin and in South Elgin.

As part of its revitalization efforts further south, the city also bought the former Dunkin' Donuts at 505 Dundee Ave. last year. Although the building has not been razed, the city is planning improvements to the Summit-Dundee Avenue intersection in the coming years.

"It may take us another 20 years to finish Dundee Avenue but it took a long time to get the way it looks now," said Stegall.