Why 'grass' is greener at these Naperville parkways

If a couple sections of parkway in downtown Naperville look greener than the rest as the weekend's snow melts, there's a reason.

At Main Street and Van Buren Avenue, two of the corners are coated not with naturally growing green stuff, but with artificial turf installed last spring, city officials say.

Operations supervisor John Westlove said public works crews were having difficulty nurturing real grass in narrow patches at the southeast and southwest corners of Main and Van Buren, where winter snow piles and road salt frequently damaged the grass.

So why not try turf, the public works officials thought, and they gave it a whirl.

A crew of city workers installed the artificial surface one spring day and Westlove said it's held up well. The city has gotten positive comments about the turf's bright, clean appearance and the material is not showing excess wear, he said.

These segments of turf - one just north of the Q BBQ building, and the other across the street from Q BBQ and Giordano's Pizza - are just a test, Westlove said. If everything goes well, the city could choose to install turf in other places, mainly medians in the middle of busy roads where it can be dangerous to mow grass and control weeds.

Turf also could be considered for expansion downtown as part of a review of a new downtown streetscape plan. The city's downtown advisory commission is reviewing a consultant's streetscape study during its next meeting at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Naperville Employee University room on the lower level of the municipal center at 400 S. Eagle St.

The study aims to detail which downtown sidewalk segments should be replaced first and how much it will cost to gradually repair and upgrade them all. The plan eventually will go to the city council for review.