Union Grove seeks improvements near elementary school
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
A pair of technical documents linked to public improvement projects went under the microscope recently in Union Grove and have advanced.
Members of the village Plan Commission on Feb. 3 gave favorable recommendations to the resolutions, which pertain to new sidewalks and other safety enhancements near Union Grove Elementary School and acquiring rights-of-way near the Granary development for an alley project.
The first of the two resolutions pertains to property at 709 15th Avenue and encompasses a relocation order because it involves the acquisition of privately owned land.
As stated in the document, the relocation order relates to the village’s “interest in land for public highway improvements, including the widening of Milldrum Street and installation of a sidewalk adjacent to the Union Grove Elementary School property.”
Another whereas clause in the resolution outlines why the village is undertaking the plans at this point — to “improve traffic flow and help to address an unsafe condition caused by elementary school children walking to/from school in the narrow street to access a sidewalk.”
The second of the resolutions touches on public improvements linked to the Granary project and is included in tax-incremental district, or TID, No. 5.
Elaine Sutton Ekes, a representative of the village’s legal representation office of Pruitt, Ekes & Geary S.C., was on hand at Monday’s Plan Commission meeting to discuss the many nuts and bolts of the resolution.
The resolution touches on the acquisition of private property and rights-of-way for public alley access. It also touches on the temporary acquisition of limited easements in some instances.
In all, 10 property owners are named in the Granary-related resolution — a provision, Ekes said, pointing to the complex nature of seeing this particular project through to completion.
“If you think of this property as a bundle of sticks, each of these property owners owns one of those sticks,” Ekes said during deliberations Monday.
TID No. 5 was established in 2015, and the village sought technical engineering expertise in 2018 for existing road conditions in the targeted area, which includes South 10th Avenue, or Granary Way, and rear portions of properties that front Main Street, between 10th and 11th avenues.
A clause in the resolution states why the village is undertaking the alley improvements at this time.
“The engineering analysis determined that those residents and businesses are best served with a public right-of-way, consisting of public alley access … and that improvements are necessary to ensure that this access point remains safe and viable for use by the property owners,” the clause states.
The Plan Commission’s recommendations will now move forward to the Village Board for further review and a final motion.
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