NO to Flat platform w/ bollards - zero/grd plaza is not safe w/ our traffic level in Clarendon Hills

Update on Zero-Grade Plaza with Permanent Bollards.  Awaiting engineer plans...

At the next Village Board meeting on July 20 (or before if a Special board meeting is called) Christopher Burke Engineers (CBEL) will present the "concepts" for turning our busy slip-lane into a flat plaza platform for event use and for dining. I encourage you to write to the board to ask them to vote no on these concepts as this flat treatment on such a critical filter-lane is completely unconventional, unexpected and will inevitably cause confusion, back-ups and massive safety issues. The fact that CBEL is even presenting the same type of treatment used on the Lombard side street for our much busier thoroughfare is questionable. CBEL never signed off on removal of the slip lane in the one week May 12-18 pilot closure test. So, why would its' closure and now a flat treatment with no sidewalk curbs be proposed as safe or viable for Clarendon Hill's one-block business district so close to our only train crossing?

Per IDOT, the 1 North Park Avenue block in Lombard services only 150 vehicles each day because it dead-ends at their raised train platform. Our own Prospect Avenue services 3,550 vehicles each day. Our slip-lane services 47% of our southbound traffic. And we have constant through-traffic after hundreds of ground level train-gate-release traffic back-ups every day. Why, then, is our board and CBEL, proposing to model our much busier Prospect Avenue slip-lane in Clarendon Hills, after this essentially dead-end side-street in Lombard? 

Flattening this expanse to zero-grade with permanent parking bollards in lieu of regular sidewalk curbs, and forcing it to be shared by our more constant stream of pedestrians, cars, SUV's, buses, bikes, shoppers, families, strollers, diners and delivery vehicles, is unproven and untested. 

There is no measurable support for this project based on the most recent resident survey results. We have seen no evidence of a positive ROI on this $1,160,000 project, and no proof of safety on this flat zero-grade treatment or on closing this crucial lane via any comprehensive traffic study. 

Could you please write a short email to the board today and ask them not approve any such concept or plaza plan unless they prove its' safety, its' economic viability and resident support first.

VillageBoard@ClarendonHills.us