Public Comments of Oct. 9, 2007
La Grange Plan Commission
Hearing on Proposal for La Grange Place

Paul Kerpan, 7 N Spring Ave

Below is a transcript of verbal remarks delivered by Mr. Kerpan. They have been edited for purposes of clarity.

First, I was under a misimpression. I thought the buildings with the courtyards were going to be condominiums. If it's going to be all rental, then this is going to be even more meaningful regarding the comments I want to make, and that is specifically about the traffic situation.

The blueprint that I think I saw [showed] 400 parking spaces for the two [large residential] buildings. You've [also] got the retail component [which], depending on [whether that space is occupied by] restaurants versus boutiques or whatever, could be a significant traffic issue.

Where is all this traffic going to go? All of us in this room know how unbearable Ogden Ave at La Grange Rd is right now.

The interesting comment that I got from Mr. Russell [the traffic expert hired by the Village, who discussed various scenarios for routing cars in and out the development, including extending Shawmut Ave east to Tilden Ave, on the eastern edge of Gordon Park] ... was that we didn't want to dump that traffic onto Brookfield and La Grange Park.

But that is precisely the issue. All of that traffic, we're going to dump it on La Grange Rd and Ogden Ave? That traffic has to got to go somewhere and it cannot go on La Grange Rd and Ogden Ave.

Another [scenario] that was mentioned was maybe we will put a traffic light at Shawmut on La Grange Rd. Well, a traffic light at Shawmut is going to invite—it is going to demand that—people get off La Grange Rd and go through our neighborhoods.

People are not going to [tolerate] a traffic light at Village Market, at Shawmut, at Ogden, and Burlington and Hillgrove, the railroad tracks, at Harris Ave. They are not going to go through that.

With a train coming through, it will take you twenty minutes to get through downtown La Grange. All that traffic is going to seek its own escape. It's going to go into the neighborhoods and go north and south on Ashland Ave. Those side streets are going to have a lot more traffic because of what is developing on La Grange Rd.

I think, in my personal opinion, if this project goes through there has got to be some type of relief, some type of an ingress and egress, east towards Tilden Ave. I think a road has to go that way. The cars, if they are exiting that way east, they can go down Shawmut, north through La Grange Park to Harding. There is just a lot more relief for the area if you've got an exit [from the project in that direction]. But to dump all that traffic on La Grange Rd and Ogden is only going to cause more accidents. We heard [from Mr. Russell] the statistics on traffic accidents.

I know people who drive during rush hour on La Grange Rd when trains come by. People are not going to take twenty minutes to get through downtown. They are going to seek all these other escapes. That is what you are going to develop in these neighborhoods: more traffic and more traffic accidents, and with kids on the streets you could have more problems.