WC_021518

Bahan to consider alternatives,
such as using
money from the General
Fund or selling the post
office site.
Trustee Scott Myers
noted that they had developed
the plan assuming
that a TIF would secure
them roughly $10 to $12
million.
“We are not talking,
‘How do we finance this?’
yet. We’re just saying,
‘In general, how much
do we think this Village
could afford to create
these places?’” Myers
said.
Trustee Andrew Cripe
agreed that the Green Bay
Road crossing needed to
be fixed.
“That’s a horrible in-
winnetkacurrent.com news
the winnetka current | February 15, 2018 | 3
Winnetka Village Council
Downtown Master Plan Task Force presents preliminary Master Plan
Nathan Worcester
Freelance Reporter
The Downtown Master
Plan Task Force presented
preliminary streetscape
and signage designs to
trustees and members of
the public at the Village
of Winnetka’s meeting on
Tuesday, Feb. 6, where the
designs presented were
created in consultation
with the architecture firm
Teska Associates.
DMP Task Force chair
Jon Talty stated the project
should facilitate necessary
infrastructure improvements
and enhance
Winnetka’s commercial
competitiveness as retail
becomes more experiential.
He stressed that village
residents should provide
input going forward.
Talty also emphasized
that this project by Winnetkans
should primarily
be intended for Winnetkans.
“Let’s take care of ourselves
first before we start
worrying about the couple
that lives in Downers
Grove that’s never been to
Winnetka before,” Talty
said.
Jodi Mariano, of Teska
Associates, also helped
present the plan. Mariano
argued that streetscape
and signage improvements,
including the expansion
of corner bumpouts
and the installation
of festoon lighting, should
be targeted to hotspots
where people already
congregate, such as the
corner of Chestnut Street
and Elm Street in front of
Peet’s Coffee.
After describing proposed
changes to downtown
Winnetka’s shopping
and dining streets,
Mariano stated that the
designs would result in the
loss of parking spaces, including
six parking spots
from Chestnut Street between
Spruce Street and
Elm Street.
The plan would narrow
Green Bay Road
(State Route 131) and alter
the Elm Street Bridge
to make both streets more
pedestrian-friendly. Mariano
noted that changes to
the state-controlled Green
Bay Road might necessitate
a traffic study by the
Illinois Department of
Transportation.
Trustee Penny Lanphier
was generally supportive
of the designs. She
expressed an interest in
installing a community
events kiosk somewhere
downtown.
Village President Christopher
Rintz later seconded
this, suggesting the
kiosk could have a carefully
monitored electronic
component.
Trustee Bob Dearborn
expressed his support for
the designs’ “very holistic”
nature. He asked
Mariano if there was
hard data showing that
such changes would drive
traffic to a small downtown
like Winnetka’s.
Mariano said that she did
not know of any relevant
data, but that similar
public-private investment
by Evanston had probably
drawn a new Target
store to that roughly
74,000-person city’s
downtown.
After praising the plan’s
aesthetic elements, Trustee
Kristin Ziv asked, “Is
the purpose of tonight’s
meeting to simply render
an aesthetic analysis? To
determine whether this
is good policy, we really
need an economic analysis,
and we can’t do that
in the absence of cost estimates.”
Ziv noted that the only
funding that had been proposed
so far was through
tax increment financing
(TIF), which “may not
work out,” and asked
Village Manager Robert
Please see village, 6