What's in the works for Glen Ellyn's parking garage, streetscape redesign
When it comes to talking about Glen Ellyn's downtown, the streetscape and parking are sure to stay hot topics.
Needless to say, there's a burst of activity in village planning for the central business district. A new parking garage and a major streetscape redesign are some of the projects in the hopper, not to mention efforts to replace the Metra station.
So here's a rundown of the latest developments:
Parking garage
Construction of a parking garage on a surface lot behind the Civic Center would mark one of the first significant steps toward downtown improvements. The five-level deck could cost $15 million to $16 million.
Plans for the parking structure will move through the public approval process starting with a plan commission meeting scheduled for November. The village is working on securing easements from neighboring property owners.
"We are trying to work through what everybody wants from us and our neighbors together to make sure that everybody's happy in the end," Assistant Village Manager Bill Holmer said. "And that was really the whole purpose - the whole evolution of the design was to involve the neighbors to get it to the point where everybody was happy with it. So we realize it's a new structure, but there's really nothing else, nothing better you could do with that site back here behind this building."
The design calls for a partial brick facade to match the Civic Center. Of the five levels, one would be built below grade due to the sloping nature of the site.
"We wanted to make it acceptable for the residents behind us and really the businesses as well," Holmer said. "We think from a design perspective we've accomplished that. So now we've got to get past these easement issues."
With about 285 spaces, the structure would provide parking for commuters, merchants, village employees and staff at Innovation DuPage, a hub for business development operated by the College of DuPage. For commuters especially, the deck would put a dent in parking demand, considering there's already a yearslong waiting list for permit spaces available only to residents.
If everything goes according to plan, the village hopes to break ground in spring 2020 to open the parking deck by the end of next year.
As for funding, a new food and beverage tax that took effect last March will repay loans financing the parking garage and the streetscape overhaul. At the end of 2018, the village issued nearly $10 million in bonds.
"We'll most likely do that next year," Village Manager Mark Franz said of a second bond issue.
Streetscape
Shock's Square has a festive new look thanks to the street division of the public works department. Festoon lighting now adorns the plaza-like space beside a parking lot along Pennsylvania Avenue between Main Street and Forest Avenue, the same block as A Toda Madre.
It's one of the mock-up displays going up around downtown as the village continues to seek feedback on potential building materials and amenities in the streetscape redesign.
"It has been well-received by the public based on conversations I have had with several citizens that frequent the area," Public Works Director Julius Hansen said in an email Wednesday. "We wanted to demonstrate the new decorative lighting improvement that creates a nice ambience for the square that is mostly known as a no-frills place to park a vehicle."
The village plans to install three other sample displays by the end of October. So if you've got an opinion on decorative features such as exposed aggregate concrete sidewalks, light poles, tree planter boxes and benches, head to the following three locations:
• Northwest corner of Main and Crescent Boulevard.
• Southwest corner of Main and Pennsylvania.
• Southeast corner of Pennsylvania and Glenwood Avenue.
The displays will remain in place to see how they weather over the winter months.
More streetscape
Trustees this week agreed to hire Civiltech Engineering Inc. to complete the second phase of an engineering study into a large-scale project that will encompass beautification efforts, roadwork and infrastructure upgrades. The village will pay the Itasca firm no more than $1,003,174.
Officials are far from defining the scope of the project, but the overall cost could reach $20 million to $25 million.
The village would look to stagger the work over multiple construction seasons to minimize the disruption to businesses. First, crews would replace water mains and make other utility improvements tentatively scheduled for construction in 2021 and 2022. Then the village would target the aboveground streetscape construction for 2022 and 2023.
The broader goal of the project? Making the downtown more "more accessible, give it a clean look, try to enhance the connectivity in some of the areas," Franz said, through wider sidewalks, reconfigured parking, new landscaping and resurfaced streets.