Naperville Riverwalk getting $1.3 million upgrade

Naperville will be waiting awhile longer to fill the gap in its prized Riverwalk near the Washington Street Bridge.

A proposed development for a vacant building on Washington just south of Chicago Avenue has been put on hold indefinitely, which means the Riverwalk work in that area must also wait.

City councilmen voted Tuesday to instead move forward with a rehabilitation project for the original stretch of the Riverwalk.

"Just like a road that is deteriorating and needs to be repaired or replaced, we need to fix this wall on the river so it doesn't cause more problems," Councilman Kenn Miller said.

Naperville hopes to begin construction in February 2010 on the $1.3 million project to rebuild the bulkhead wall of the Riverwalk from the Webster Street Bridge to the Eagle Street Bridge. The project includes a wider lower walkway and landscaping as well as a redesigned Youth Plaza.

Last year the city restored another original portion of the Riverwalk from Webster to Main Street.

The council voted 8-1 Tuesday to move forward with the additional rehabilitation work. Mayor George Pradel and councilmen Judy Brodhead, Robert Fieseler, Kenn Miller, Doug Krause, Grant Wehrli, Paul Hinterlong and Jim Boyajian voted in favor while Richard Furstenau voted against it.

Wehrli said the improvements will make that portion of the Riverwalk handicapped accessible and the city also needs to use its stormwater permit from the county before it expires.

Fieseler said the city shouldn't compromise a "vital component to our community" and added that construction and bond costs are relatively low right now.

But Furstenau argued the city is strapped for cash and should put the project on hold.

"We need to take a look very hard at every nickel and dime that's spent and this is a million and a half dollars. We can get along without," he said.

A year ago, the city did actually postpone the rehabilitation project.

Lakeshore Development Group, Inc. had planned to demolish the vacant building on the east side of Washington between Chicago and Aurora avenues and construct a three-story building with offices and a restaurant.

The city wanted to take that opportunity to fill in the missing portions of the Riverwalk near the proposed development from the Washington Street Bridge to the Moser Pedestrian Bridge.

Naperville came to an agreement with Lakeshore last November that would have amounted to a $310,000 contribution from the developer through a combination of land and cash.

But a year later, the development project known as Riverfront Plaza has stalled due to economic conditions and city officials say that status does not appear to be changing anytime soon.