‘You have to get through Rolling Meadows’: Mayor stresses city’s place in Arlington Park redevelopment

The 326-acre Arlington Park property that could one day host a Chicago Bears stadium is within the village of Arlington Heights, but Rolling Meadows Mayor Lara Sanoica is quick to remind people her town will be a key player in redevelopment discussions, too.

“Anything that comes here is going to require cooperation with us, because no matter what happens, you have to get through Rolling Meadows to get there,” Sanoica said Thursday during the annual state of the city address.

Her remarks during a morning chamber breakfast came before a planned getting-to-know-you meeting with Arlington Heights Mayor-Elect Jim Tinaglia, who will be sworn in Monday night.

Sanoica said she would continue to have strong relationships with officials in Arlington Heights and local school districts, especially now that they’ve inked a deal with the NFL franchise to resolve a long-running tax dispute and there’s renewed talk of the former racetrack as a potential stadium site.

During a recent lobbying visit to Springfield, Sanoica met with suburban legislators to remind them that the sprawling Bears-owned property is bounded by roads within Rolling Meadows, including Route 53, Rohlwing Road, Euclid Avenue and Commuter Drive.

“No matter what happens — and ultimately it’s going to be up to the village of Arlington Heights and the Chicago Bears on what they’d like to do — we anticipate that there will be a development here,” Sanoica told a roomful of business leaders at the park district’s Park Central banquet facility. “And therefore we want to make sure that we are prepared, that you are prepared for the opportunities that that will bring.”

Another major thoroughfare that football fans could take to a future stadium is Kirchoff Road, where city officials have been grappling with outcry from business owners and residents over a “road diet” proposal that would trim a milelong stretch from five lanes to three.

A split city council in March decided to delay full endorsement of a 110-page corridor planning study — of which the road lane changes are a part — so that a traffic study could be done first.

Now that a request for proposals has gone out, aldermen are set to vote to hire a traffic consultant at their next meeting May 13.

The city also will seek proposals this summer from developers for two city-owned opportunity sites identified in the Kirchoff Road study: the shuttered Fire Station 15 at Meadow Drive, and vacant land kitty-corner from city hall at Owl Drive.

Other road projects several years in the making will get shovels in the ground this year, said City Manager Rob Sabo.

That includes two key projects being done in conjunction with Arlington Heights: a revamp of the Algonquin and New Wilke roads intersection, and reconstruction of Weber Drive between Algonquin and Central roads.

West of the racetrack, work started last week on a half-milelong stretch of bike path near Euclid Avenue and Hicks Road.