The village of Norridge has hired a traffic engineering firm to study Oketo Avenue, which officials say has become a hotspot for motorists looking to avoid clogged arterial streets during rush hour periods.
Traffic engineers from Rosemont-based KLOA Inc. were contracted for $15,500 to conduct a two-part traffic study, which will focus on the stretch of Oketo Avenue between Irving Park Road and Montrose Avenue. The four-block area’s mostly residential nature is unfit for the influx of vehicles that use the street to avoid Harlem and Cumberland avenues to the north and south, according to Norridge Mayor James Chmura.
The contract was approved at the Dec. 14 board meeting.
“Oketo has a traffic problem, and it will get more traffic when the show property opens,” Chmura said, referring to the Norridge theater area. “It seems like anyone coming from Mariano’s uses it as a thoroughfare, and the problem is the street is narrow and it becomes a dangerous situation for people backing out of their driveways.”
KLOA engineers are expected to use computer simulations and other tools to analyze traffic flow and peak traffic times and to study the number of vehicles that travel down the street on an average day.
Oketo is a popular alternative to the main thoroughfares for motorists traveling between West Foster Avenue south to Irving Park Road and Harlem Avenue, according to Norridge Police Chief Dave Disselhorst, who said the majority of drivers who use Oketo as a shortcut are nonresidents.
“Speeding does not appear to be the most significant problem we see on Oketo, but the biggest issue is just the volume of vehicles,” Disselhorst said in an email. “We are looking to decrease the amount of traffic along Oketo, while not negatively impacting either the residents or access to the Harlem Irving Plaza.”
The village implemented parking bans and turn restrictions in recent years to protect residents who live on the side streets behind Harlem Irving Plaza from traffic noise, which many residents said worsened since the 24-hour XSport gym opened two years ago.
Traffic congestion on Harlem Avenue is likely to worsen in the area when construction on what the village is anticipating to be another large-scale retail center on the shuttered Norridge Theater property begins this year, Chmura said.
The development will be bordered by Agatite Avenue to the south, West Wilson Avenue to the North, North Oketo Avenue to the west and Harlem Avenue to the east, making Oketo Avenue an alternative to motorists looking to avoid traffic backups on Harlem.
A Miller’s Ale House and an AMC Theater are planned for the site at 4510-4520 and 4474 N. Harlem Ave., and property owners Harlem Irving Companies and Hamilton Partners are planning to add more retailers to the mix, according to Greg Winner, a partner at Hamilton Partners.
The site has been vacant for years except for kids’ indoor entertainment center Go Bananas and JoAnn Fabrics, which are adjacent to where the restaurant and theater are being built.
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As the former home of the stark white Norridge Theater building, the property is known casually among Norridge locals as the “show property,” but the development has been renamed Norridge Marketplace.
Construction to redevelop the empty building as a theater and mixed-use retail space is scheduled to begin early this year, Winner has said.
“When [Norridge Marketplace] opens, cars will use a back driveway to avoid Harlem Avenue and cut down Oketo Avenue,” Chmura said. “We want the new businesses in town because they provide us with revenue, but you have to control traffic somehow and the best thing is to keep [motorists] off Oketo.”
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.