Des Plaines lays out plans for Cumberland station area

Plans to transform the Cumberland Metra rail station and nearby commercial buildings drew roughly 120 Des Plaines residents to a community meeting at the Frisbie Senior Center Wednesday night.

Residents were largely concerned about short-term improvements at the station and changes that would affect neighborhood streets and daily commutes.

Metra proposes replacing the aging Cumberland station house with a new building and expanding the parking lot south of the tracks. Officials also hope to improve pedestrian access to the station.

Residents peppered city officials and consultants with questions about possible street closures, plans for increasing parking throughout the area, and a new traffic signal planned for the intersection of Broadway Street and Northwest Highway.

The Regional Transportation Authority gave Des Plaines a $125,000 community planning grant to create the Transit Oriented Development Plan for the half-mile radius around the Cumberland rail station, on the Union Pacific's Northwest line. The idea is to promote development around public transit hubs so people can take mass transit to work.

City officials have worked on the plans for about 18 months. The study is entirely funded by the state grant, said Michael Conlan, Des Plaines director of community and economic development.

"None of this is coming out of our local tax dollars," he said.

Steve Friedman, president of S.B. Friedman & Co., the firm heading up the city's team of consultants, said they are looking for improvements without a lot of outside private market investment.

"We don't know what the markets will do,"he said.

Friedman said consultants can't predict when private redevelopment might occur, but public improvements such as street beautification could be done within five years.

Residents asked whether taxpayers would be paying for future redevelopment, to which Conlan said the city has no plans to acquire land and any redevelopment would be driven by private businesses.

He also told residents there has been no talk of imposing a special taxing district or TIF in that area.

Officials talked about public improvements such as wider sidewalks, building a pedestrian walkway leading up to the tracks, adding planters and benches, and generally beautifying commercial building facades and parking lots.

Consultants showed examples of what other communities have done around train stations. However, officials admitted the city does not presently have the funds to pursue such improvements.

The meat of the discussion began more than two hours into Wednesday's meeting after the audience had started to dwindle.

Among the biggest concerns that brought residents to the meeting was an idea floated earlier in the process to block off State Street from the Cumberland traffic circle. Officials said that idea was dropped after residents vehemently opposed it at the last community meeting.

Overall pedestrian safety near the station also has been a concern.

Resident Linda Schultz attested to how dangerous it is to cross Northwest Highway by State Street to get to the station. She said she sees near-misses all the time as pedestrians have mere seconds to scurry across the roadway because there is no way to trigger a signal change.

"Trying to cross Northwest Highway is absolutely brutal," Schultz said. "You cannot do it safely. I think putting in the extra light on Broadway will help."

Once in place, the two signals on State and Broadway would be synchronized to slow traffic down and allow more time for pedestrian to cross, Conlan said.

Next year, the Illinois Department of Transportation is expected to begin designing the signal planned for that intersection. Construction would likely occur the following year, at which time the city would be responsible for sidewalk installation, Conlan said.

Residents also suggested runway-style lights at pedestrian crosswalks.

The Metra station reconstruction would be paid for through the Capital Improvement Bonds Program approved by state legislators last year.

Yet, the state has not identified any funding sources for the program at this point since lawmakers are grappling with a monumental budget deficit, said David Kralik, section manager with Metra's Office of Planning and Analysis.

Kralik said Metra would pursue federal funding for the parking expansion.

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<h2>Related documents</h2>

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<li><a href="/pdf/ltconcept.pdf">Long-term concept </a></li>

<li><a href="/pdf/stconcept.pdf">Short-term concept </a></li>

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