Looking north at Rehm Park expanded over
the Eisenhower Expressway.
An urban arboretum and gardens near the
Conservatory, a new westside park near Home Avenue, a Prairie
Path connector, an expanded Barrie Park and a youth sports
center at a larger Rehm Park are among the features of the
proposed cap over the Eisenhower Expressway unveiled for public
comment last month.
Such a project also would establish Oak
Park as a model for how to make a community friendlier to
public transportation, including reconstructing all of Oak
Park's CTA Blue Line stations, while creatively
reclaiming open space lost to highways and railroads. As an
added benefit, the concept would establish Oak Park as an
environmental leader by becoming the first known community in
the United States to actually pilot a project to filter and
clean automobile exhaust in a tunnel.
The concept was developed from citizen
input during an intensive yearlong study of the feasibility of
covering the Ike's route through the Village as a way to
reconnect the community, improve mobility and access to public
transit and enhance overall quality of life. Efforts began by
collecting data at public meetings, from a community survey,
stakeholder interviews and visioning workshops where
expectations and concerns about the cap and area land uses were
expressed.
This information was used to create six
preliminary concept drawings, which were then refined through
public input into three concepts. Public input on the three
alternatives, and a comprehensive assessment of community
issues and technical constraints, led to the concept that now
is on display for citizen review and comment.
By including three variations based on
cost, the concept under review can accommodate various levels
of potential funding that may be available by the time the
Eisenhower Expressway is reconstructed. All three variations
incorporate features found most appealing by the community as expressed
throughout the study process.
No homes or businesses would need to be
purchased to make the concept a reality, and the concept does
not assume an expansion of the expressway. Its goal is to
mitigate long-standing impacts created when the Ike was built
by making the cap part of the expressway's eventual
reconstruction, now estimated by the Illinois Department of
Transportation to be in seven to 10 years.
The proposed concept can be viewed at www.captheikestudy.comand Village
Hall, 123 Madison St. Public comment will be taken through
February 15 via email through the project web site or on forms
available by the Village Hall display.
For more information, including on the
complete Cap the Ike Study process, visit www.captheikestudy.com or call
358.5778.
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The Oak Park Farmers' Market is
hoping enthusiasts who may have kept memorabilia from the
market's first 29 years will share it with the community
as part of the market's 30th anniversary this year. Items
such as t-shirts, flyers, cookbooks and photographs will help
the Farmers' Market Commission and its volunteers create
displays and other tools for celebrating this important
community tradition. Photographs also may be used in a
documentary video produced by VOP-TV6, the Village's
cable television station. All items will be treated with care
and returned at the end of the season. For more information,
call 358.5780 or email farmersmarket@oak-park.us.
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