No roundabout so now what? Northfield makes plan to find out

With a proposed roundabout no longer part of Northfield’s plans for Happ Road, what should a new design of the road look like?

To find out that answer, the Northfield Board of Trustees will form a steering committee made up of local stakeholders to study Happ Road and report back to the Village on what they want to see.

The Happ Road steering committee was discussed at length during the Village Board’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

Phase 2 of the Happ Road reconstruction project, which covers Winnetka Avenue to Willow Road, has been in the works for years. Officials had long been planning for a roundabout to be built at the intersection of Happ and Orchard Lane. But over the past year, public opposition to the roundabout began to grow, driven primarily by local business owners who said it would negatively impact them.

The opposition culminated in a nonbinding referendum on the November 2024 ballot, which saw around 70% of voters say they did not want a roundabout built in Northfield.

A month after the election, the Village Board unanimously agreed to take the roundabout off the table.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Village Manager Patrick Brennan said he wanted to receive direction from trustees as to the next steps for the Happ Road project. His suggestion of a steering committee was met with no objection from the trustees.

“That group’s going to have goals. We’re going to engage the public very strong in this process,” Brennan said. “There’s going to be a timeline for the whole project, and in that timeline there’s going to be key steps.”

When seeking ideas for what the goals of the group should be, Trustee Matt Galin said he believes the only goal should be to evaluate Happ Road.

“I don’t think the (steering committee) should be having any more goals other than that,” he said. “And I think the group should be formed with just that one goal, and they can take it in whatever direction they see fit.”

Galin compared the proposed Happ Road committee’s work to the Village’s Sidewalk Committee, upon which he served. The purpose of that committee was to study where sidewalks should be added or improved within the community, and he said “the group worked out really well” with just that one goal.

The other trustees supported Galin’s idea.

“(Let’s give them) no direction and let them start from scratch and come up with the ideas,” Trustee Charles Orth said.

Trustees also spent time discussing how large the committee should be and who should be on it.

Brennan suggested that trustees may want to consider a bigger group if they’re interested in a variety of opinions.

“And sometimes that bigger steering committee group gets broken into sub-committees, and you can’t do that if you’ve got a really small group,” he said. “So you want it big enough to get a lot of opinions in, but you don’t want it so big that you can’t get anything done in a meeting.”

The consensus of the trustees was to create a group that comprises between 13 and 15 people.

It was also suggested that the composition of the committee include at least two trustees, two Happ Road residents, two Northfield residents who don’t live on Happ Road, two business owners and potentially members of other Village boards and commissions.

Brennan also suggested a Village staff member be a part of the committee as a non-voting member to help guide discussions.

In regards to how they should select members of the committee, Trustee Tracey Mendrek suggested that members of those groups take part in “self-selection” and pick who they want as representatives.

Speaking of the group that advocated against the roundabout, “that group should say, ‘Well, these are the people that we want of the number of the people that have been involved,'” she said. “Likewise, with the business community, we have ways to communicate with our local businesses” and suggested that the businesses nominate two members to serve.

Brennan said once the outline of the committee is formed, the Village will reach out to business owners and Happ Road residents on the email list to see who would be interested in serving.

Additionally, Brennan also addressed a few questions that came up from residents during public comment.

Regarding concerns that Cook County, which owns Happ Road, would still move ahead despite the Village saying it doesn’t want a roundabout, Brennan said that won’t happen, as he noted that the engineering drawings belong to the Village.

“The county can’t move forward with a design because the drawings are ours, and they’re not done,” he said.

Brennan also said the project has been removed from the planned bidding list, and the Village no longer has funding ready for the Happ Road project; although he said the money still exists and the Village can apply to be reconsidered if it decides to go forward again.

“Everything related to this project is paused,” he said.

Brennan also addressed a suggestion that Northfield take ownership of Happ Road, which had been brought up at past meetings. He reiterated that he believes the right time to ask for an ownership change is after the work has been done.

If Northfield takes ownership of Happ Road prior to the improvements being done, Brennan said the Village will be responsible for all the repair costs to the road, which he said would be “millions of dollars.”

“We’re basically buying a used car without an engine, but paying for a brand new car,” he said. “I don’t know that we should do that.”