Northfield’s roundabout plan strikes roadblock, but is it too late?

Three Northfield trustees have heard enough about a proposed roundabout and on Tuesday publicly stated their opposition to continuing with plans to build one on Happ Road.

Trustees Barnaby Dinges, Tom Whittaker and Charles Orth all made their comments during the Village Board’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 15, following an update on the project from Village Manager Patrick Brennan.

Village officials have discussed a proposed roundabout at Happ Road and Orchard Lane for nearly a decade, but the conversation picked up steam since late 2022 Happ Road improvements have progressed. Reportedly, the second phase designs are about 95 percent complete.

Opposition to the roundabout has surged too, culminating with a special Committee of the Whole meeting on Sept. 11 where representatives from the Cook County Department of Transportation and Patrick Engineering held a question-and-answer session with trustees and the public about the project.

Among the reasons for the public’s opposition include the loss of 20 parking spaces should the project go forward. Business owners have said the loss of those spaces would cause hardships for them, including potential closure.

Taking note of the public’s opposition, Brennan said at that meeting that he was going to meet with Cook County and Patrick Engineering to see what alternatives may exist.

No changes proposed in update

Brennan’s update on Tuesday revealed that no changes to the plans have been made since the Sept. 11 meeting; however, the update did include a new design for the roundabout that Brennan said he had not yet discussed with Cook County.

The proposed change keeps the roundabout but reduces the size of it, cutting off southbound access to the roundabout from Walnut Street, located in between Village Hall and Metamorphosis Spa, one of the businesses that would be impacted by the loss of parking spaces. This would force vehicles that want to access Happ Road onto Willow Road.

According to Brennan, doing this would save about five parking spaces.

He also added, though, that since the project is so far along, he was not sure if Cook County would be agreeable to any changes.

“It’s going to be a bit of a process because you’ve already been through Phase 1 and most of Phase 2,” he told trustees, adding that they also run the risk of losing their federal funding with any delay.

Several of the approximately 35 audience members shouted their opposition, including one saying, “We want to get rid of the roundabout.”

Three trustees advocate starting over

Dinges — who up until Tuesday had been the only trustee to say the Village should slow down on the Happ Road project and had cast recent negative votes against the roundabout – was the first to speak up during discussion.

He said the way Phase 1 was conducted was not sufficient, and that residents did not have a real chance to learn about the project back then.

“I don’t question anyone’s intentions or anyone’s vision, but right now, in Northfield, in 2024, with everything we know, (a roundabout) is a bad idea. It’s an unsafe idea, and if we have to spend some money to avoid a trainwreck, let’s do it,” Dinges said, his comments met with applause from the audience. “We have residents who have worked hard. They’ve lost sleep. I have heard and felt the stress of our people. Why are we continuing to put them through this?”

He went so far as to say that a vote on pulling the roundabout be held at the meeting, but Brennan noted that was not possible since trustees don’t vote at Committee of the Whole meetings and the roundabout was not on the agenda for the regular meeting.

Whittaker and Orth agreed with Dinges, with Orth calling the roundabout “unnecessary” and Whittaker citing the strain on businesses as his main reason for being opposed to the roundabout.

“I support our businesses, and they have been through the rollercoaster with COVID and with Willow Road (renovations),” Whittaker said. “And I think that we really need to take a hard look at this as a board, and I right now currently will say that I am a completely hard ‘no’ on this entire project.”

Slim majority supports waiting

While three trustees stated their opposition, the remaining four Village Board members – including Village President Greg Lungmus – declined to share their opinions, instead supporting a future special board meeting dedicated to the roundabout.

Trustee Tracey Mendrek specifically mentioned waiting until after Election Day before making a decision. Northfield ballots will include a nonbinding vote to gauge the public’s opinions on the roundabout.

“And if that turns out to be as you all would suggest, that it’s going to be a landslide in the negative, then I think this board has the legitimate facts to make a decision with,” she said.

Mendrek added that she would like to know more about what it would cost the Village to cancel the project.

“I do believe that it is our fiscal responsibility to understand what the dollar amount will be if we break this agreement,” she said. “(Because) at the end of the day, some board, either this one or the next one, is going to be responsible for that $1.5 million, potentially, that has been spent, and I am not prepared tonight to pull the plug on this.”

Brennan said that if the project is pulled, it’s unclear what the consequences for the Village might be, but it may include being required to pay back the approximately $1.5 million that has already been spent on the Happ Road project.

“I can’t say it for sure that we’ll have to pay it back, because in the 22 years I’ve been doing this, I have never seen this happen,” he said about potentially pulling the project. “Cook County said they’ve never had anybody pull out. The other towns I’ve talked to that are also in for (Surface Transportation Program) funding said they’ve never experienced this. But I do know that the federal government is highly restrictive about following the rules in their agreements.”

Lungmus, along with Trustees Todd Fowler and Matt Galin, supported Mendrek’s idea. Lungmus noted that most of the main roads in Northfield are owned by Cook County, and wondered “whether or not breaking an agreement with the county is going to have a long-term ramification for our relationship, which currently is a very positive one.”

He also said that the board will not hold a vote on the roundabout until after the election, which is Nov. 5.

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