Palatine fighting planned IDOT project

Hoping to protect Dundee Road businesses and the patrons who shop there, Palatine officials are urging the Illinois Department of Transportation to reconsider a traffic improvement project in the village.

The village council Monday approved a resolution opposing the state’s plan to build a barrier median on the commercial corridor between Rand Road and Route 53, saying it will severely affect existing businesses, potential redevelopment, sales tax receipts and emergency response times.

“There’d be very limited access going north or south,” Village Manager Reid Ottesen said. “There are so many other road projects out there that communities want, so we’re saying let them redirect their money elsewhere.”

The resolution will be sent to the state secretary of transportation, IDOT’s district engineer and state legislators from the area.

The project stems back to 2005, when Palatine proposed the installation of a traffic signal on Dundee at the Park Place Fashion Center entrance by Walmart. Some business owners refer to the current median as a “suicide lane” because of the heavy traffic and frequency of pedestrians who cross the four-lane highway, usually nowhere near a crosswalk.

But when IDOT required significant and expensive modifications to the area including a barrier median, the village dropped its proposal.

“We ended up backing off the project and not moving forward because of the concerns we have: the economic viability of the businesses there as well as the emergency response times,” Ottesen said, adding that the village would still like the traffic signal installed.

Officials recently calculated that firefighters from the Hicks Road fire station responding to a business on the north side of Dundee Road will take two minutes longer because trucks will be forced to overshoot their destination and make a U-turn farther east.

When IDOT announced plans in late 2011 to build a barrier median on its own, Palatine officials said it clearly emphasized traffic flow rather than pedestrian safety. They quickly voiced their opposition, especially considering the project doesn’t even include the traffic signal originally sought by the village.