The owner of a Lincolnwood home design business that has been engaged in a decades-long dispute over a parking expansion plan along a side street it shares with the Lincolnwood Public Library has cleared a new hurdle toward his goal to expand and redesign his customer parking area.
The Village Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a request from Mike Klein, owner of Airoom, a home remodeling company on the 6800 block of Lincoln Avenue, for two Property Enhancement Program (PEP) grants for a total of $50,000.
If Airoom’s plans are eventually approved by the village, the two identical grants would fund a two-part parking improvement plan. Klein was given two grants instead of one because PEP funding is issued on a per-project basis, according to the village.
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Klein has struggled since 1995 to get the village to allow changes in the outdated parking configuration in front of his business. The Village Board has been supportive of one part of his plan, which includes a redesign of the parking area in front of the Airoom building and neighboring FedEx store to alter the parking spaces from 90-degree “head-in” spaces to angled parking with a one-way driveway.
Citing safety concerns about cars backing out from the slanted parking spaces directly into the path of northbound traffic along Lincoln Avenue, the village has been encouraging the redevelopment of the outdated parking configuration in front of the Airoom building for years.
But the second part of Klein’s plan hasn’t sat well with the Lincolnwood Public Library, which shares Keystone Avenue with the business property.
Claiming that turning the street into a business-only parking area would cause traffic-related problems for patrons visiting the library, library representatives been long been opposed to Klein’s initiative to vacate the right-of-way on the north side of Keystone Avenue for customer-only parking.
According to the most recent plans that were presented to the village, Klein wants to make up for eight spaces he’ll lose when he redesigns his Lincoln Avenue parking area by designating ten new spots along the side street for his customers.
Georgia Talaganis, president of the library’s fundraising arm, Friends of Library, said she was aware that Airoom had been approved for the grants. She and other members of the nonprofit group would attend future public hearings regarding the matter, she said.
Lincolnwood’s community development director Steve McNellis explained the PEP funding, which comes from a combination of general fund money and funds from the Northeast Industrial Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) is set aside to help local businesses with property enhancement goals. The grant program funds up to half of the cost, up to $25,000, of projects that meet certain requirements.
“It funds comprehensive exterior improvements to business properties, whether that’s landscaping or lighting improvements, facade upgrades—or in this case parking lot improvements,” McNellis said. “In this case a better traffic flow (would be created) and a safer access for this site.”
The Board’s approval of the grant funding marks only the first step in a series of measures Klein still has to take to get his plans approved. The Plan Commission, Village Board, and the Illinois Department of Transportation will still need to give approval before construction can begin.
Klein, who last discussed his plans publicly in March 2015, is expected to reappear at a Plan Commission hearing within the next several months, according to the village.
Last year he said he was willing to work with the library to come up with an amicable solution, but nothing has come to fruition. When asked after the Tuesday Village Board meeting whether a compromise with the library had been reached, Klein denied there was any conflict and declined to comment further.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.