An upgraded appearance, complete with greenery, is a worthy goal for Mokena’s downtown business area on Front Street, but parking is more important, merchants told village officials this week.
About 30 people attended a meeting Wednesday about proposals for renovating the village’s downtown, and most favored a Front Street improvement plan that maintained or increased parking and traffic flow.
“Parking is the biggest issue,” said Dr. Garnet Patterson, a dentist with offices at the corner of Front Street and Wolf Road.
Parking is important not just for existing businesses but also as a way to attract the kind of high-quality enterprises village officials want to bring downtown, said Stan Lukas of the Bank of Homewood’s Mokena branch.
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Mayor Robert Chiszar agreed that parking is key to improving the area.
Ideas for adding parking include arranging to use part of the Metra lot on the south side of Front Street, using part of a nearby farm recently purchased by the Mokena Park District and directing shoppers to the Village Hall parking lot.
Proposed Front Street improvements include new water and sewer lines, street repairs, curbside trees and ornamental lighting.
Upgrading the street will cost about $2.2 million, according to the Downtown Redevelopment Committee chaired by Trustee Mike Everett.
Relocating overhead utility lines would add to the cost but would have a major aesthetic benefit, Everett said.
“There’s huge utility lines and they are pretty ugly,” he said.
“It gives the appearance of wires everywhere,” agreed Public Works Director Lou Tiberi, who outlined a plan to relocate the lines underground in the Metra right-of-way.
If negotiations with Metra, which is now reluctant to have the lines in its right-of-way, are successful, the work would cost $650,000.
Tiberi said $200,000 would come from village funds, and the rest would be paid by residents and businesses through a charge added to Commonwealth Edison bills during the four-month construction period.
Tiberi estimated the project would cost the average residential user $15 a month and the average commercial user $100 a month.