A decadesold battle over widening Willow Road has flared anew in recent months, prompting a state official to try to clear the air.
Willow shrinks to two lanes from four as it runs through Northfield. Glenview and Northbrook, which have new developments along the road, have complained about traffic tie-ups to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
“We believe it’s a regional road and that it should accommodate the increase in capacity to carry traffic to the Edens Expressway,” said Glenview Village President Kerry Cummings. “Traffic is the No. 1 issue in the region. … It’s just something that needs to be addressed.”
Northfield, which has two elementary schools along Willow, staunchly opposes widening the road.
“Frankly, it’s somewhat offensive that for the sake of retail sales … they’re interjecting themselves into what’s basically a Northfield and IDOT issue,” Village President John Birkinbine Jr. said. “I think it boils down to retail sales and taxes for those villages versus the safety of our students.”
State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) called officials from Glenview, Northbrook, Northfield and Winnetka to a meeting last week in Wilmette.
“What is clearly lacking is a regional consensus on what should happen with this state road,” said Schoenberg. “I think all the communities involved ought to have a say.”
Each town had 15 minutes to give a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session with other villages. The four towns elected new village presidents this year, making it an opportune time for an exchange of ideas, Schoenberg said.
Northfield reached a deal with IDOT in 1999 to widen the road to include a center turn lane and to restrict access from side streets. The project is expected to cost several million dollars, officials say.
The agency is prepared to bid out work on that project next summer, spokesman Mike Claffey said.
“We’re hoping that between now and then, the communities can discuss and explore any alternatives and see whether any alternative is feasible,” Claffey said. “We would hope that some kind of consensus can emerge.”
The center lane should be enough to ease congestion, Birkinbine said.
“Yes, traffic is slow going through Northfield during rush hour,” he said. “But in rush hour in Chicagoland, it’s hard to find a street that isn’t slow. What’s the advantage of speeding people through Northfield so they can sit on the Edens and crawl an hour and a half to the [Kennedy Expressway] junction?”
Northbrook and Glenview have written to state officials, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Glenview has hired a lobbyist to push for a four-lane road.
“Our position is, it’s a main artery for traffic flow, [and] we don’t have too many going east and west,” said Northbrook Village President Eugene Marks. “We sympathize with Northfield. We understand what they’re going through, but we share their concern for safety.”
Traffic-signal improvements can make a wider Willow Road safe, Cummings said, and tie-ups create safety hazards too.
“It bottlenecks, and we believe it causes cut-through traffic in our community,” she said.
Winnetka, meanwhile, has decided on neutrality, said Village President Ed Woodbury.
“Individual citizens of Winnetka probably would want Willow to be improved,” he said. “[But] Winnetka as a village doesn’t want to be so bold as to tell our neighbor what to do with their land.”
Schoenberg said he was not expecting a breakthrough but believes a dialogue is a needed first step.
Schoenberg has invited Illinois Transportation Secretary Timothy Martin to meet with officials to help “referee” the dispute in the coming weeks.
“I was not surprised that a couple of the communities more or less restated their existing positions,” he said. “I’m strongly encouraging all the communities to keep talking and see if they can continue the momentum created by last week’s meeting and arrive at a consensus before Secretary Martin gets involved.”
———-
dgibbard@tribune.com
