Indian Head Park officials decided what is best for their community is more sidewalks, despite a roomful of angry residents telling them they did not want them.
The Village Board voted 3-1, with two board members absent, to include a sidewalk as part of the reconstruction of Acacia Drive.
“I feel sucker punched,” said Patrick Ferguson, who lives in the Acacia subdivision on the east side of Wolf Road, north of Joliet Road.
The exact location and size of the sidewalk will be determined later, but it will be built entirely on public property, said Tony Spinelli from the village’s engineering firm, Strand Associates Inc.
At packed board meetings Thursday and in May, residents in the Acacia subdivision and the Wilshire Green condominiums said they do not want to lose trees and landscaping to make room for the sidewalk and, in some cases, the sidewalk as proposed would be too close to their homes.
The village has been approved for a federal grant that would pay for 70 percent of the reconstruction of Acacia Drive and a new sidewalk. The total project is estimated to cost $1.3 million. Acacia is the only Indian Head Park street that is eligible for the federal funds, village administrator John DuRocher said.
Village officials included the sidewalk as part of its grant application to the West Central Municipal Conference, because they thought projects with pedestrian-friendly components, such as sidewalks that connect to existing sidewalks, would more likely be funded.
But DuRocher said, all indications are the village still would receive the grant if the sidewalk were withdrawn from the plan.
That is what the residents who attended the meetings on the issue wanted. Some have said they feel safe walking on the street and do not need sidewalks.
“We don’t want a sidewalk cutting through our tree line and cutting through our property values,” Acacia resident Ward Shaw said.
The $1.3 million grant should not be used as an excuse to infringe on residents’ privacy, Shaw said.
Village President Tom Hinshaw said 275 people signed a petition opposing a sidewalk of any kind along the east side of Acacia. About 450 people also submitted forms expressing their opinions about the sidewalk. Although there was some overlap between the two, Hinshaw said, the overwhelming majority, about 89 percent, did not want the sidewalk.
Ferguson suggested instead of a concrete sidewalk, the village mark the pavement for a dedicated pathway.
Village Board members Christian Metz, Shawn Kennedy and Sean Conboy voted to include the sidewalk in the plan because they want more sidewalks in general, such as along Wolf Road, to provide safe routes for pedestrians to go to Blackhawk Park, schools and the stores and businesses on Joliet Road.
DuRocher said he found out that 71 children attending public elementary or middle schools live in Acacia and 17 live in the Wilshire Green condominiums.
“I lived in Wilshire Green with two small children,” Kennedy said. “I purposely did not allow them to walk (to the park) because there were no sidewalks.”
“I have also talked to some of the businesses that would like to see more sidewalks,” Kennedy said.
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Conboy said the residents had good arguments against the sidewalk, but he has personal experience of how dangerous it is for pedestrians.
Conboy said he was walking along Acacia Drive, when a car that was exiting the north end of the subdivision almost struck him.
Conboy lived in Acacia for 10 years, and said it was not until he moved to a house on the west side of Wolf Road that he realized how cut off the neighborhoods are from each other.
Sidewalks are something that could bring the village together, Conboy said. He acknowledged that the sidewalk on Acacia Drive would not have villagewide impact, but said it is a step.
“It’s a progression and we have to start someplace.” he said.
When an opportunity for grants to help fund infrastructure occurs, the village has to take advantage of it, Conboy said.
Board member Amy Jo Wittenberg said she voted against the sidewalk because residents were so strongly opposed to it.