After two public open house style meetings and multiple surveys, the city settled on a general concept for the Mason Park expansion and improvement on the nearby intersection of Church Street and Dodge Avenue.
Evanston is looking to expand Mason Park along the city-owned portion of the former Mayfair rail line right-of-way between Church and Lake streets. It would include a walking-biking trail and a public plaza at Davis Street. The former railroad cuts across Davis Street, but there is an unofficial trail that connects the two halves. The city is also interested in reducing congestion at the Church/Dodge intersection by adding left turn lanes at both streets.
On Tuesday evening, the consultants held the third and final open house at Evanston Township High School to share the concepts and get feedback. The plans presented there call for reducing the currently two-way Church Street bike lane to a single eastbound bike lane, while redirecting westbound cyclists onto Davis Street. The Divvy station currently at the southeast corner of the intersection would need to be relocated elsewhere, but the new location hasn’t been determined.
The designs unveiled at Tuesday’s meeting represent a broad concept. The city will still need grants for engineering studies, as well as to actually make the improvements.
Mason Park extension
The Mayfair branch line, also known as the Weber subdivision, was originally built by Chicago & North Western Railway company, forming a connection between what are now the Union Pacific Northwest Metra line and the Union Pacific North Metra line. The line bisected the city between the North Shore Canal and Green Bay Road. Regular service on that portion of the line ended in the 1980s and various private owners bought some of the property.
The right-of-way is at street level at Lake, but it gradually rises onto an embankment as it approaches Church Street, where a rail bridge used to be. While the segment is officially fenced off at Davis Street, somebody long ago cut holes in the fence, and a well-used unofficial trail cuts right through.
Mason Park is located east of the right-of-way, between Davis and Church streets. The plan calls for removing the section of the embankment at Davis Street, which would create embankment walls on both sides. The north wall would have space for murals, while the south wall would have terrace-style seating. According to Jodi Mariano, vice president of design at Teska Associates, one of the project consultants, the idea was to create a space that could be a casual hangout and naturally lend itself to outdoor performances.
Plans call for a multi-use “nature trail” between Davis and Lake streets, with a trail spur connecting it to the section of Grove Street east of the embankment. Based on feedback from previous meetings, planners decided to “adventure course” with more winding, bumpier paths on the east portion the embankment. Also in response to public feedback, a plan includes “foraging gardens” where Evanstonians could simply pick nuts off of trees.
The Lake Street entrance would have a smaller plaza, with gate-like structures over the trail. The sidewalk on the east side of Dodge Avenue would be significantly widened.
The city won’t build anything on top of the section of the embankment north of Davis Street – but Mariano said that they will “formalize” a walking path that’s already along the east side of the embankment, creating a paved trail to Church Street and the current park.
To reduce flooding in surrounding residential areas, the extension would get bioswales (features built to handle storm runoff) and rain gardens. The Parks and Recreation Department plans to keep lighting at levels similar to the current Mason Park lighting to reduce disruption to nearby homes.
Church/Dodge improvements
With ETHS campus located to the southwest of the intersection, traffic has always been an issue. Both Church and Dodge have bike lanes. CTA bus Route 93 California/Dodge and Pace bus Route 208 provide regular service, while CTA bus Route 206/Evanston Circulator operates during rush hours and Pace Route 213 has special trips that deviate from the usual route along Green Bay Road to drop off students in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon.
Greg Osborne, traffic consultant for the project, told the RoundTable that putting in left-turn lanes is necessary because the current setup with two travel lanes in each direction creates too many blind spots.
“The left-turners block the through traffic,” he said. “People get frustrated, and they try to go around. “
Putting in left-turn lanes, Osborne said, would reduce those conflicts and make the traffic “more predictable.”
One concerns that cyclists who attended the meeting raised was that redirecting the westbound cyclists onto Davis Street was lack of a bike lane. Osborne said that, given that this section of Davis was residential, the consultants didn’t see it as necessary.
One issue for riders trying to catch the bus at the intersection is that the stops do not have bus shelters. Osbourne said the city hasn’t ruled out installing them.
“Once we get into [a more detailed] design, we’ll be coordinating with [CTA and Pace] on whether to put them in,” he said.
The next steps
During Tuesday’s meeting, residents could leave comments about the plan via posted notes and talk to the consultants directly. Mariano said that, while the feedback will be taken into account, this will be the last project meeting.
From there, the city will apply for state and federal grants such as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant. The project timeline won’t be clear until Evanston knows what grants it will get – something that is also contingent on when applications open and when grant decisions are made.
Mariano said the city will most likely start applying for grants within the next few months, but it will probably be “a couple of years” before improvements are actually completed.
City finalizing plan for Church-Dodge improvements, Mason Park expansion is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.