The People Have Spoken-Let’s Keep Talking.
Northfield —
You voted NO. Now let’s demand a better solution.
2,161 “no” votes (69.36% of ballots cast) sent a clear message to our village leadership. Now the village is opening up to “discussions” about what’s next for the Happ Rd Improvement Project.
Committee of the Whole Meeting December 3
The livestream for this meeting was not connected. But the audio is available here. It is worth the time listening. We heard from several residents who have not voiced their opinions before. And the board did, upon being pressed to do so, conduct a straw poll on each trustee’s position on the roundabout. The vote was 6 members against the roundabout. Trustee Fowler was not in attendance and therefore did not vote.
Patrick Brennan laid out his ideas for options for moving forward, procedurally. The Record summarized it well (Northfield officials curb roundabout plans following referendum results).
Here are some other highlights:
Trustee Dinges proposed we look into taking control of the Winnetka Rd to Willow Rd segment of Happ Rd away from the county and into Northfield’s jurisdiction. This would remove a lot of the roadblocks and delays and allow the village to have its own vision of what we want this road to be. Of course we need to look at any long term cost implications.
At least one resident suggested we do nothing at all, seeing nothing wrong with the road as it is.
Mr. Brennan informed us that the county is “standing by” waiting to hear the outcome of tonight’s meeting. It is our presumption that he will now tell the county to pause on any further work on this project until we have a new direction to pursue. It is on us, the residents, to make sure this happens. Let’s ask for updates on a regular basis via email to vgroup@northfieldil.org.
Northfield resident and architect Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido, who presented a vision for the Happ/Orchard intersection at our Oct 16 meeting (see below) suggested that we need to set clear objectives for this intersection and road as a critical first step. He also offered his services pro bono.
The message is clear to the board that the residents need to be involved in this process and their input is vital. Board President Lungmus mentioned focus groups and other means of gathering input, so let’s watch to make sure that happens openly and inclusively.
IN THE MEANTIME…….
Keep your yard signs up. Until we see new plans that exclude the roundabout AND center turn lane our message still needs to be out there.
Sign our petition (if you haven’t already done so). We currently have over 200 signatures but would like to get to 500. This is important because the November 5 Public Question was advisory only. If we need to further demonstrate the will of the people, the petition will help us do that.
Northfield residents and business owners gathered on October 16, 2024 in the New Trier (Northfield) cafeteria. Here are the presentation slides.
A Northfield resident who is an architect with global experience generously developed and shared his ideas for an alternative approach that strives to create an aesthetically pleasing sense of place and improve walkability in Northfield. It is far more appealing than a roundabout and it underscores the fact that other ideas can and should be considered.
Public Forum Featured Another Solution
LET’S CONSIDER OTHER OPTIONS: Such as, “HAPP RD PLACE” It is possible to:
Favor cyclists and pedestrians by introducing dedicated bike lanes and reducing the number of pedestrian crossings, and their length.
Improve the urban character and walkability of the business district, attract locals and visitors, and increase business revenue.
Be safer because it will focus on decreasing the speed of vehicles and discouraging fast through-traffic.
Roundabout
Center Turn Lane
Here’s a question we get asked a lot:
“How much has already been spent on this project?”
To the left is the answer received from the village when this question was asked in a FOIA request.
Quote Source
Did you know that the Happ Rd Project calls for the removal of approximately 20 mature trees and their extensive root systems? The water table along the Happ Rd corridor will be altered.
Footnotes
* Data obtained via FOIA request from the Village of Northfield was culled to focus on north of Winnetka Rd, South of Willow Rd, on Happ Rd and not in private parking lots.
**See Steering Committee roster and attendance here.
*** “Objections to this proposal by myself and other members of the former Steering Committee were possibly the reason we were not further called upon to participate past 2017. I think it is unconscionable to eliminate the Orchard parking and run the risk of putting establishments out of business.”
- Steve Cummings Former Steering Committee participant
What are the issues?
The Village of Northfield in partnership with the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highway began around 2015 exploring the idea of constructing a roundabout in our town's business center, and adding a center turn lane in the residential portion of the road. Their justification for making these drastic changes was to improve safety for cars and pedestrians and create a sense of place to support local businesses.
Overwhelmingly, as more residents and business owners have learned of this project, opposition is growing. The concerns fall into these areas:
1. Safety
Data* shows that there is not a serious traffic flow issue or rate of accidents to warrant such severe and permanent measures.
A roundabout is not appropriate in a town center. It will cause confusion, traffic back-ups and most likely an increase in accidents.
Roundabouts keep cars moving. Drivers in roundabouts focus on navigating the circle, which detracts their attention away from pedestrians. Pedestrian safety will be compromised.
The center turn lane will create new points of potential conflict with the density of driveways on a residential street. It is intended to move left-turning cars out of the way to keep traffic moving. But traffic is never stopped for long on Happ. This type of change to the road opens the door for an increased speed limit and heavier truck traffic.
2. Walkability and Sense of Place
The roundabout is enormous, roughly the same footprint as the Metamorphosis building—a giant disruption in visual and walking flow. It separates, not unifies, further dividing our town.
The roundabout will eliminate 21 parking spaces, worsening the parking problem we already have. The village cannot guarantee they can replace those spaces.
A roundabout is not a place to gather or gaze at. Pedestrians want to avoid cars, not gather near them.
3. Transparency and Mishandling
The village and the county pushed this plan through without input from residents and business owners.
The roundabout was proposed in 2015 before a steering committee was even formed.
No homeowners who would later be impacted by the project were invited to be on the steering committee** or even informed of the impacts. Instead, the committee was made up of mostly engineers, village staff, county representatives and developers.
Opposing voices on the steering committee were closed out of meetings.***
The “public engagement process” was anemic: inappropriately placed ads, minimal effort to build awareness.
Bottom line, a roundabout will serve as a detriment and a deterrent to the people who want to enjoy our town, shops and restaurants.
Resident Don Graf said it well on 2/20/24 in a board meeting.
Let’s keep this issue in the public consciousness. Lawn signs, t-shirts, buttons, stickers and car magnets are all available. Contact us and we’ll deliver to you.
Help us keep pressure on the current leadership of Northfield. We need a new plan.
Stay engaged. We have been so impressed by the number of people who have shared their ideas and shown their support.
Let the Village Board of Trustees know how you feel or ask your questions by emailing vgroup@northfieldil.org. Even if you have done this before, keep asking questions and voicing opposition.
Email noroundaboutinfo@gmail.com if you wish to ask a question, share an idea or get involved.
Make a donation to help fund the opposition campaign. Email us at noroundaboutinfo@gmail.com for payment options.
Information Center
Supporting documents dating back to the 2016 start of this project are available here: https://happroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2021.03.25-envrpt.pdf
On August 20, residents and business owners attended the Village Committee of the Whole Meeting and Village Board Meeting to ask questions and express concerns. Listen to the audio recordings and read the minutes here: https://il-northfield.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter
Thank you to everyone who showed up for the standing-room-only special board meeting on September 11. For those of you who couldn’t be there, or had to leave early, please watch the video recording here.
For reference, here are the presentation slides from the Sept. 11 meeting. This summarizes the plans as they stand today.
See North Shore Record story posted afterward. Outspoken residents may have effected change for Northfield’s Happ Road
More about roundabouts
The roundabout
Will create a constant flow of traffic (no stop signs) resulting in 10 individual lane crossings. That’s a lot of trust in cars yielding to pedestrians.
Will create a larger footprint than the existing intersection, consuming valuable parking spaces, which will harm our local businesses and destroy our small-town feel.
Is too close to Willow Rd intersection. What will happen when Willow Rd traffic backs up into the roundabout? Gridlock!
Is uncommon and unpopular in our area and will cause people to avoid downtown Northfield rather than attract them, again hurting local businesses.
Roundabouts in general are:
Intended to reduce speeds where traffic needs to transition from a high speed limit. That is not our situation.
Effective at keeping heavy traffic flowing. Northfield does not have heavy traffic.
Keep traffic continually moving. But we want to encourage pedestrian crossings, and we have business establishments on every leg of the roundabout. Business traffic and a walkable shopping district will be hurt.
Intended to reduce vehicle crash incidences, but data shows that there are few crashes at the Happ Rd./Orchard Ln. intersection.
There are few roundabouts in Northern Illinois (IDOT)
IL 58 at Wolf Rd/State St/Broadway St (Des Plaines, Cook)
IL 47 at Plato Rd (Plato Twp, Kane)
IL 47 at Burlington Rd (Campton Hills, Kane)
US 20 at Harmony Rd (Coral Rwp, McHenry)
US 20 at Marengo-Beck Rd/South Union Rd (Union, McHenry)
IL 23 at WB I-90 Ramps (Marengo, McHenry)
IL 2 at Auburn St (Rockford, Winnebago)
U.S. 6 at IL 178 (Utica, LaSalle)
Elgin is removing roundabouts. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/08/27/elgin-crews-tear-up-controversial-turning-circle-to-restore-four-way-intersection-in-historic-district/
Here are some of the ways roundabouts can be dangerous.
More on the center turn lane
The center turn lane
Will make turning left into residential driveways hazardous (center turn lanes are for commercial streets, not residential)
Will result in higher speeds of travel due to extra road width
Turn Happ Rd into an artery, hurting residents’ property values
Takes away land from residents on Happ Rd.
Additional arguments against the center turn lane include:
Happ Rd already has a center turn lane in the shopping district.
South of there is all residential. There are 16 driveways on the east side of the road, 6 driveways on the west side, one full intersection (Harding Rd) and one half intersection (Holder Ln).
There are no long wait times while residents turn into their driveways.
There is not a high rate of vehicle crashes.
The turn lane forces a pedestrian crossing “island”, which in turns blocks access to some east-side driveways for southbound travel.
New crash potential is created at multiple points if residents are turning left from opposite directions into their respective driveways. Below are the residential driveways that would risk collision when turning left (northbound) with their neighbors across the street who might be simultaneously turning left (southbound) into their own driveways.
111 and 119 Happ across from The Landmark entrance
131 and 139 Happ across from 144 Happ
165 across from 166 Happ
173 Happ across from the south entrance to Colonial Ln
175 and 179 Happ across from the main entrance to Colonial Ln
217 Happ across from Holder Ln
Note that 207, 209 and 211 driveways will have their southbound left turns into their driveways blocked by a center lane pedestrian crosswalk island!