‘Might not be right for Rolling Meadows’: Council rejects plan to narrow Kirchoff Road

After months of debate, Rolling Meadows’ city council has narrowly rejected a controversial plan to give a so-called “road diet” to a main thoroughfare through the center of town.

A milelong stretch of Kirchoff Road will remain five lanes, after aldermen voted 4-3 Tuesday not to include a three-lane proposal in consultant Lakota Group’s final Kirchoff Road Corridor Study. The elected officials did endorse the rest of the 110-page planning document, which will be incorporated into the city’s comprehensive plan.

The consultant recommended trimming Kirchoff — which has two lanes in each direction and a turn lane in the center — by removing an eastbound lane and a westbound lane, and replacing them with on-street parking spaces in the commercial area. Protected bike lanes would be nearest to the curbs.

Parkways would be expanded in lieu of on-street parking in front of single-family homes further east on Kirchoff.

But residents and business owners along the corridor objected, flooding city hall email inboxes and phones with complaints and petitions. More than a dozen opponents lined up to speak during public comment Tuesday night, arguing that removing lanes would increase traffic and congestion, slow ambulances trying to get to Northwest Community Hospital, and hinder businesses.

Some residents even joked about the challenge of parallel parking to suburban drivers.

“Even when it was presented to us in March — and now it’s become even more clear to me with all the resident engagement over the last several months — it could look good on paper,” said Alderman Kevin O’Brien. “But what I said six months ago, I feel even stronger about now: It just might not be right for Rolling Meadows.”

Supporters contend the reduction in lanes would have calmed driving speeds, improved safety, and reduced the frequency of accidents involving vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. It also would have created more on-street public parking to enable future mixed-use redevelopment and helped revive the city’s traditional downtown, they argued.

“I know that we’re not like other towns, but our city needs more retail, more things to do, and more reasons to slow down and stop,” said Alderwoman Mandy Reyez. “We want to create more reasons for people to gather and meet in our town center and not just drive quickly through it to get to Palatine or Arlington Heights. The road diet is just part of our comprehensive plan to attract developers and businesses into our town with the intention to create more value and wealth on Kirchoff.”

Reyez, who was on the Kirchoff plan steering committee, said the Chicago Bears’ planned relocation to nearby Arlington Park “is exactly why we would do” the road diet, suggesting it would deter drivers who may have been drinking at the game from traveling through town.

“We don’t want Bears through traffic on Kirchoff,” she said.

But Alderwoman Jenifer Vinezeano said the Bears redevelopment would heavily impact the traffic needs on Kirchoff, even though the degree to which was not detailed in a $39,178 study the council authorized in May. She apologized for spending money on that Civiltech Engineering report.

“I do agree that restriping Kirchoff Road is easy, but it is a waste of taxpayer money,” she said. “I am not willing to waste anymore of our taxpayer money.”

The traffic study found the thoroughfare could function as a three-lane road and accommodate future growth with minimal delay to drivers, according to Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Glen Cole.

Cole suggested it would be a “harder proposition” if the transportation section of the Kirchoff plan is removed, since it supports other components of the plan. But he also acknowledged it’s not “unworkable.”

Vinezeano, O’Brien, Stefanie Boucher and Mike Koehler voted against the road diet, and Reyez, Karen McHale and Nick Budmats voted for it.