Welcome to Tri-Cities Central, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting local happenings in Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and surrounding communities.
Get yours: subscribe here. Refer a friend: share this link.
St. Charles officials are rethinking the short stretch of Riverside Avenue that runs past the Arcada Theatre.
The city presented five design options at an Oct. 20 public meeting. They range from a revamp of the current street to a one-way layout with dedicated bike lanes. Residents still have a couple of weeks to weigh in on the project.
Here’s what to know:
Analyzing the downtown block: The project covers Riverside Avenue between Illinois Avenue and Main Street, home to Flagship on the Fox, The House Pub, the Arcada, and Pollyanna Brewing. The city’s review found that the area lacks crosswalks, offers poor visibility for parking and pedestrians, and features trees that have outgrown their space and are damaging nearby pavement.
What every option includes: All five designs add crosswalks across Riverside at Walnut and raise the Walnut intersection to sidewalk level, which city documents say will calm traffic. Each option widens the west sidewalk, adds brick pavers, benches, bike racks, and new trees, and keeps the colorful star painted in the Walnut intersection.
The five choices: The options cover a range of visions, from keeping the current layout with the upgrades above to narrowing the north block for more shade trees. Two options turn Riverside into a one-way street with buffered bike lanes in both directions.
Parking stays about the same: The block has 25 spaces today. The three two-way options would decrease that to 23, while the two one-way designs bring it to 26.
Two of the designs also put the street and sidewalks at the same level, which the city says would make the block easier to use for festivals and events.
To weigh in, you can email Chris Gottlieb, the city’s public works engineering division manager, at [email protected] by Nov. 18. You can view the design options here.
The city plans to present a preferred design to the City Council in December. Cost estimates and a construction timeline weren’t included in the project materials.
📖 Thanks for reading
Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with questions or comments.
Not signed up yet? Subscribe here.
