As Round Lake and the Lake County Division of Transportation inch along with plans to realign a stretch of Cedar Lake Road near Nippersink Avenue downtown, some business owners are voicing concerns that the project might hurt their establishments.
A completed phase I engineering study by Crawford, Murphy & Tilly has led LCDOT and the village to settle on a plan to shift Cedar Lake Road westward as a solution for easing congestion that has occupied the minds of local officials since the 1970s, according to county transportation project manager Chuck Gleason.
The plan would eliminate a pesky four-way stop at the train crossing at Railroad Avenue, and install a new traffic signal at Hart Road and Cedar Lake Road, while also including a rebuild of the Metra station and the addition of new bike and pedestrian connections to the area.
Doing so, however, would mean that the cars which pass by more than a dozen businesses along the current Cedar Lake Road stretch would no longer be right up against the slew of businesses.
Yolanda Lomelí, who founded Lomelí’s International Supermarket in 1999 with her five siblings, is leading a group of business owners staunchly opposed to the plan.
Lomelí recalled the downtown area as a place “nobody would give a rat about” before she and another businessman, La Luz owner Esteban Montes de Oca, decided to found their businesses there in the late 1990s, eventually growing their operations.
“Before my business opened and the bakery opened, you would drive around this place and by 3 o’clock it was like a ghost town,” she said. “Nothing, nada, depressing.”
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A variety of local entities now blanket the strip, from food options such as Twisted Burger, Birreria Jalisco 2, La Michoacana and Lomelí’s Rancho Nuevo, to Bukanan’s Sports Bar, El Dorado Jewelry and Western Wear. There are even some tax and insurance businesses.
Round Lake Village Trustee Sergio Rodriguez, who owns El Dorado Joyeria and Western Wear, strongly agrees with Lomelí’s frustrations with the plan, noting that some community members running in the upcoming Village Board election agree with their view.
“We’re going to get hurt, and we’ve been here 20-something years,” Rodriguez said. “Two days ago, I told my wife, ‘If this thing’s going to hurt us, we might as well take a look at some other place and move.’ But that is not going to be easy. We’ve raised our children here, we have a home here and we have a business here.”
Following a May 2022 meeting with LCDOT and others involved or impacted by the proposal, Lomelí and Rodriguez both believed the project’s supporters to be set in their vision, no matter the cost to the existing businesses.
Rodriguez said that he took issue with an insistence from LCDOT in meetings that the plan would progress whether or not the businesses were onboard, something he said Gleason has pointed out in face-to-face meetings. He said he and his wife, Joanna, felt disrespected about the way they were spoken to and that they, “didn’t take it so nicely.”
Gleason recalled some disagreement in meetings between LCDOT, village officials, business owners and community members, as well.
Round Lake Village President Russell Kraly said business owners “had a chance” to voice their concerns or opposition to the proposal at meetings in recent years, but said most did not make clear their displeasure until public hearings last year.
“This is the final go-round here,” he said. “The county has already got the drawings done. Things are going to move forward. I mean, there’s nothing else to do. Like everything else, nobody likes change. But I think this change is going to be good for us, good for the downtown area and the people who are coming through there.”
In his experience, Gleason said business owners or homeowners along roadways often oppose changes to the status quo, but the onus is on the village to win over public and business support. He said there was similar opposition to plans to construct an overpass at Rollins Road and Route 83 in Round Lake Beach, and that formerly opposed people changed their opinions after seeing the results.
” (Businesses) always like people coming by their windows, right?” Gleason said. “The problem is a lot of people today are not even going that way because it’s a bad way to go, it’s congested.”
Round Lake Village Manager Steve Shields said the village hopes to work together with all parties as it plans a downtown streetscape project in conjunction with the realignment. It will conduct a poll about the future of the downtown setup, and the Village Board approved a facade improvement grant program to help businesses improve their visual appeal, he said.
“All of this is part of the alignment, and what we want to do for a vision for downtown,” Shields said.
Gleason estimated that Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning numbers show that between 12,000 to 15,000 cars passing through the stretch of Cedar Lake Road, with a forecast increase to 20,000 by 2050.
Currently, he noted, Metra passengers exit the station in multiple directions, and the railway gates stop traffic until the train stops and everyone exits the area. He believes the realignment and rebuilt station would encourage commuters or visitors to make their way toward the businesses.
“That’s an issue because it kind of bogs down some traffic and it takes some time to get back to normal, but the big thing is when the train lets people off there, the people just scatter,” Gleason said.
It would also stop the need to halt traffic while passengers exit, and instead cars would only have to be stopped as the train makes it through the crossing. Building an overpass or underpass, he said, would have been much costlier alternatives.
Lomelí feels insulted after her businesses weathered a lengthy recession in the 2000s and the COVID-19 pandemic, and said she has “in no shape, way or form felt any support from the village whatsoever,” a sharp contrast from her experience as a business owner in nearby Round Lake Beach.
Kraly said that in his 55 years as a Round Lake resident, the downtown district has always had visitors, and he doesn’t expect that to disappear when the road moves.
“People, I would think, aren’t going to abandon them at all just because the road has shifted over a few hundred feet,” Kraly said. “We’re going to end up being able to open up more downtown, get more businesses in and make (additions) to our tax dollars. It’s going to be good for us, so we’ve got high hopes for this.”
Rodriguez hopes publicly voicing his discontent and uniting the businesses in the area can convince officials to consider something else.
“Whatever you need — you need a haircut? We’ve got it,” Rodriguez said. “Pastries? Restaurant? You got it. Groceries? We have it. Insurance, sure, we have it. What do you want? Jewelry repair? We have it. You want diamond (jewelry)? We can also have it. We have a very good environment here.”