Madison Improvements Should Boost Economic Development: Officials

Before a decision is made about how to improve Madison Street in Oak Park, village officials want to know more about incentives they could offer potential developers and how they could break up the project into phases to complete a long-term vision. 

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The village in 2010 hired a consultant prepare streetscape design scenarios for Madison Street in Oak Park, and a steering committee has recommended a $17.4 million project that would include moving parking curbs, adding a bike lane from Home Avenue to Oak Park Avenue, a protected bike track from Oak Park Avenue to Lombard Avenue and removing center landscape medians.

The recommendation also includes new amenities, including lighting, street furniture, planters, trees, enhanced crosswalks and refuge islands.

The committee on Monday presented the following alternatives to the board:

• Pedestrian-level enhancements: Use available TIF funds to improve the corridor by installing only selected amenities, such as new lighting, street furniture, planters, crosswalks and refuge islands from Harlem Avenue to Austin Boulevard for $6.9 million
• Full row enhancement—bike lane: Use available TIF funds and bonding options to improve the corridor by moving parking curbs, add a bike lane and remove medians. This alternative would also include amenities, and would cost $15.2 million.
• Do nothing: The corridor would remain as is with no improvements. 

The addition of a bike lane on Madison would be funded by a $570,000 grant from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). The village's share of the bike lane project would be 20 percent, or $114,000.

But despite testimonies from residents and members of a coalition to improve Madison about the need for safety improvements and the benefits of adding a bike lane on Madison, village officials aren't convinced the options presented would be the best use of the TIF monies. 

Trustee Adam Salzman said he doesn’t think the alternatives the committee presented give a full range of potential alternatives. 

“This is money that is set aside for economic development, and there’s not a lot of it,” he said. He said he would have liked to see an option that recommends using TIF funds to incentivize specific development opportunities. 

"I don’t see any materials that would suggest a return on investment that’s tangible enough for me to feel comfortable spending money on this... It seems evident to me that the best way to improve economic development on Madison is to develop," he said. 

Trustee Peter Barber agreed funds should not be used for streetscaping only. 

"While I agree we need improvements in streetscaping, I don’t think the whole amount of funding should be used just for streetscaping," he said. "I think there needs to be a fourth alternative that takes into a position where some of that will be set aside for incentives."

“There are more accidents on Madison than there are on any other street in Oak Park. I really do see it as a public safety issue… I don’t think this street works as it currently exists.”

Village President Anan Abu-Taleb said he thinks the village owes it to the Madison corridor to do something to create some certainty in the business community. 

"If someone wants to open a business and they don't know what's going to happen, they would hold back," he said. "...I think we need to push in such a way that we approach both economic development and developing the streetscape as part of one project together."

Village Manager Cara Pavlicek said staff will work on a package, or outline, of incentives that the village could offer developers, follow up on the bike grant and its limitations, provide phasing options for the project and proceed with recommendations for an RFP for village-owned properties on Madison. 

Read more about the proposed projects on the village website here.