DePaul, Residents Will Discuss Kenmore Closure to Make Way for Green Space

Lincoln Park resident Allan Mellis doesn't want to see another street closed to enhance the DePaul University campus.

But that's exactly what would be necessary to create Kenmore Green, a park-like area outlined in the school's 10-year master plan which would require taking over North Kenmore between Fullerton and Belden avenues. The master plan encompasses the years from 2009 to 2019, according to DePaul's website.

The fate of the plot—it currently includes 47 free street parking spaces—in the 2300 block of Kenmore Avenue remains "an open question," officials have said, and community members are invited to a Thursday night meeting to offer their feedback.

"For the university … enough is enough," said Mellis, citing the 1992 construction of the school's quadrangle, made possible by closing a portion of North Seminary Avenue. "There's no positives for the community; this is only for DePaul students. In fact, the negatives are pretty strong."

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Among his laundry list of concerns is the accessibility for emergency vehicles, he said.

"If someone had an emergency south of Belden on Kenmore, it makes it that much harder for the fire department to get there," Mellis said, who sits on the Wrightwood Neighbors Association board. "Any emergency vehicle would have to go all the way around to racine and come through."

University officials contest that the Kenmore Green would increase pedestrian and student safety on and around campus, reducing the necessity to cross Kenmore to get from class to class.

"Introducing pedestrian walkways away from the busy avenues of Belden and Fullerton internalizes foot traffic flow and unites the campus," said a memo about community improvements, including the Kenmore Green. "Students and neighbors alike will have safe passage through university grounds and enjoy benches and other landscape elements to gather, study, or relax."

DePaul has worked over the past several years to increase classroom space west of Sheffield to reduce foot traffic across the avenue, but currently has a significant number of classrooms on either side of Kenmore, Representatives from Ald. Scott Waguespack's office said.

Waguespack has received sporadic calls about the issue for about a year, said his Chief of Staff, Paul Sajevick, noting that the alderman has yet to take a firm "yes" or "no" stance on the project.

"He hasn't made a decision one way or the other," Sajevick said Tuesday afternoon. "A trial closure (in May) was actually something that we came up with and (the Chicago Department of Transportation) said 'That's great idea, let's do that.' The whole point was to get more data and more analysis to find out what the real implications are."

The issue comes down to two key questions, according to Sajevick—The first, "Is this going to be safer?" and the second, "Does closing off the street make sense from an overall efficiency standpoint?"

"We don't have any recent reports of pedestrian injuries in that area," he said. "But what we do hear on a consistent basis is close calls; drivers call us from their cell phones yelling about students not looking, crossing whenever and wherever they want to."

A March meet-up on the issue drew about 40 people, according to a statement by DePaul’s Community & Government Relations. Officials then closed North Kenmore Avenue to vehicles for the month of May to conduct that traffic impact study, the results of which will be discussed at Thursday's meeting.

The area falls within Waguespack's current 32nd ward but will be in Alderman Michele Smith's 43rd ward when the new ward maps go into effect—a time line which has yet to be set in stone by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office.

"We're at the point when a decision has to be made," Sajevick said. "There's no time table. It's really up to the two aldermen to kind of figure out and the lack of clarity on when those new ward boundaries will be applied makes things a little more complicated."

If you would like to learn more or voice your opinion, attend the upcoming Kenmore Green meeting scheduled for this Thursday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. in room 112 of the DePaul Arts and Letters Building at 2315 N. Kenmore Ave. in Lincoln Park.

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