Des Plaines hires consultant for street improvements
The Des Plaines City Council Tuesday night authorized hiring a consultant to develop a conceptual master plan for downtown street improvements and determine which sidewalks need replacing.
The $200,000 funding to hire the Rosemont firm of Christopher B. Burke Engineering will come out of the city’s tax increment financing district No. 1.
The city staff solicited proposals from 13 engineering consulting firms for the design work and creating the master plan.
The city council earlier allocated $2.75 million in the 2012 budget for downtown street upgrades, including replacing sidewalks and brick pavers, adding street furniture, lighting, landscaping, and other infrastructure improvements.
Out of that $2.75 million total budget, $500,000 is allocated for the design and conceptual engineering portion of the project.
Des Plaines 6th Ward Alderman Mark Walsten said the city needs to have an overall plan for downtown before hiring consultants to begin engineering work.
“Do we have a plan in place for downtown redevelopment?” Walsten asked.
Walsten asked the city council to first consider what some other communities, such as Elmhurst, Wheaton, Oak Park and Tinley Park, have done to improve and promote their downtowns by hiring a consultant to handle the marketing, increase business retention and recruitment.
“This is a marketing plan, and we don’t have one,” Walsten said. “I don’t think we are doing this in the right order. I think before we go spending $200,000 on Christopher Burke, you need a marketing plan.”
Acting City Manager Jason Slowinski said the city council already has allocated $100,000 in the 2012 budget for community and economic development to be used for marketing downtown, but that will come later in the year.
City Public Works and Engineering Director Tim Oakley said the master plan to be developed by Christopher Burke will include designs for improvements throughout the TIF district, and construction plans for the first phase of sidewalk replacement work along Miner Street between Lee and Pearson streets.
That portion of downtown has the oldest sidewalks, built in 1995, that need to be replaced, Oakley said.
Walsten said he doesn’t see the need for $2 million worth of sidewalk improvements in downtown and suggested the aldermen check out the condition of the sidewalks for themselves.
Walsten and 5th Ward Alderman Jim Brookman were the only “no” votes on hiring the engineering firm for the master plan. Brookman said he still had several unanswered questions.