Northfield officials curb roundabout plans following referendum results

The roundabout planned for downtown Northfield has hit a dead end.

Nearly a month after 70 percent of Northfield voters said they do not want a roundabout at Happ Road and Orchard Lane, Northfield trustees also stated their unanimous opposition to it during the Village Board’s final Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

A proposed roundabout had been in the works since 2016 as part of the ongoing Happ Road Improvement Project. But in recent months, opposition to the roundabout gained traction, with the removal of 20 nearby parking spaces and its negative impact on local businesses being a major sticking point for residents and business owners.

One of those business owners, Pam Papadatos, of Metamorphosis Spa, successfully secured enough signatures to place a non-binding referendum on Northfield’s ballot, where 2,161 out of 3,291 voters opposed the plans.

A straw poll of the five trustees present — Todd Fowler was absent — on Dec. 3 showed that the Village Board was also against the roadway feature, with Trustees Matt Galin and Tracey Mendrek publicly stating their opposition for the first time.

Next steps

With the roundabout no longer supported by the trustees, Village Manager Patrick Brennan said he would inform Cook County, which owns and maintains Happ Road, of the board’s decision.

“Whatever happens, whatever decision (on Happ Road) is ultimately made, the message to Cook County is that any project improvement, if it’s done, shall not include a roundabout component,” he said.

In addition to firmly stating that they no longer supported the roundabout, trustees also discussed potential next steps regarding the future of the Happ Road project, on which Brennan was seeking guidance.

He presented five options to trustees, ranging from simply restarting the engagement process but keeping the rest of the project — except the roundabout — intact, to the most extreme which would be telling the county that they were no longer interested in any improvements to Happ Road.

Trustees largely showed support for Option C, which is to reexamine the entire section of Happ Road from Winnetka Road to Willow Road and restart both the engagement and design process, utilizing the existing data that was used for the current plans.

Trustee Tracey Mendrek said her support for that option is “so that we can try to keep as much of the homework, if you will, that we’ve already done in place and utilize that information to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new solution that everybody in the community can get on board with.”

Trustee Barnaby Dinges, however, said he would prefer an option not listed, which he referred to as Option F: asking Cook County to transfer ownership of Happ Road from Winnetka Road to Willow Road to the Village.

“Wouldn’t we, in a perfect world, want Happ Road to be our road?” he asked. “We have other roads in this town, many, many roads. The county has roads, too. They have a different vision for Happ Road.”

According to Dinges, the town of Quincy, in western Illinois along the Mississippi River, successfully obtained ownership of a previously county-owned road after Adams County officials wanted to install a roundabout, similarly to Northfield.

“It’s not going to be cheap, but you know what? We’re worth it,” Dinges said. “This Village is worth it.”

He also suggested that the current community group that formed in opposition of the roundabout and Happ Road expansion could make up a steering committee that would help reimagine the road.

Trustee Charles Orth said he would like to see a plan that combines elements of both Option C and Dinges’ proposed Option F. He said ownership of Happ would give Northfield more freedom to alter the speed limit and install safety features, such as crosswalk lighting.

“I’d like us to salvage whatever we can (from the current plans), but also combine the vision that Barnaby is sharing with the group on the future of the road,” he said.

Brennan, who said he worked with the county on a jurisdictional transfer when he was Kenilworth’s village manager, said that may be an option, but likely only under specific circumstances.

“Often you do that when you get the owning entity to bring the roadway up to standards, because you’re taking ownership of the road surface, the sub-base, the storm sewers, the sanitary,” he said. “Everything under it is yours when you take that jurisdictional transfer.”

He added that, when negotiating with the county on how to proceed, he believes it’s best to not immediately bring up changing ownership of the road.

Instead, he suggested working with the county on what they agree needs to be fixed first, and then once everything except the disagreement is resolved, suggesting a jurisdictional transfer.

Brennan said he would work on speaking with the county regarding Option C and report back to the Village at a later meeting.

Public comment

Those who spoke up during public comment had similar thoughts as trustees, such as figuring out what the purpose of the Happ Road project is.

Francisco Gonzalez Pulido, a world-renowned architect who lives in Northfield and has proposed his own ideas on how to improve Happ Road, said he doesn’t believe improving safety is the right objective, and instead suggested building the character of the community be the focus of any project.

“I don’t want to change anything,” he said. “I just want to make this place beautiful.”

Pulido also offered to help the Village with any designs on a pro-bono basis.

Resident Chris Brandel said while he liked the idea of the Village taking ownership of Happ, he had questions about what it would cost.

“If we were to approach the county, what does that do to our operational costs?” he asked. “What is the back of the napkin costs to the Village?”

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