DuPage official joins fight to protect Oakbrook Terrace park
DuPage County Board member Patrick O'Shea is joining the fight against a proposed quarter-mile extension of Ardmore Avenue adjacent to a park and bike path in Oakbrook Terrace.
"I'm going to stop it, and I'm not going to stop it just by writing a letter; I'll go further than that," the Lombard Republican said. "I'll do anything to stop it."
O'Shea is siding with residents of a 1,000-plus unit townhouse community near Oakbrook Terrace. The complex's eastern border is Ardmore Avenue, and county engineering officials estimate traffic would increase two and a half times its current volume of 865 cars a day if the road is extended. Fellow board member Brien Sheahan has also stated his opposition to the plan.
Villa Park School District 45 Superintendent Janice Rosales, the Oakbrook Terrace Park District and York Township officials are publicly opposing the proposal along with some Oakbrook Terrace aldermen.
Oakbrook Terrace officials have said they want the extension to relieve future congestion of nearby Summit Avenue to the east as well as Meyers Road to the west. The reason they want to build the extension now is to take advantage of a federal grant that would cover 70 percent of the $1.7 million price tag. The rest would be picked up by Oakbrook Terrace, which amounts to about $700 per household, city officials said.
"At some point in time there will be gridlock here and it will have to open up," said Alderman James Bojan. "Just because a park exists doesn't mean a road can't coexist next to it."
The city's elected leaders aren't united.
"What do we need it for?" asked Alderman Frank Vlach. "Why should the people of Oakbrook Terrace pay for it alone?"
York Township Highway Commissioner Dick Schroeder appealed to the city to reject the plan, which is in the engineering phase. He said adding more cars to heavily traveled pedestrian area is a safety concern. A park, recreation center and bike path would abut the proposed extension. Schroeder said there's no way to predict the area's future traffic congestion.
"You have rush-hour congestion everywhere, but Summit has never been that bad, I've found," he said. "With so many people against this, I don't get why they want it so bad."
The residents are lobbying the county board's transportation committee to draft a resolution for the entire board to endorse that opposes the extension. O'Shea said the project's stormwater issues may be one way for the county board to have a say in the matter.
"They're alone in this," O'Shea said of the city's push. "They asked Villa Park and York Township to join them in the application for the funds and they turned them down. That's unusual and that means there's a problem."