Village weighs tradeoffs, estimates for ADA parking on Main Street; staff to return with options

Village engineer briefed trustees on Main Street’s design constraints and ADA requirements. The engineer noted that parallel parking stalls on Main Street are roughly 9.5 feet wide while an ADA‑compliant parallel stall requires about 13 feet, which would force tradeoffs such as narrowing existing 12‑foot travel lanes or removing decorative pavement installed during earlier improvements. “If you put a parallel parking ADA compliant stall, it has to be 13 foot wide. So on Main Street, currently, they're 9 and a half foot wide,” the engineer said.

As an alternative to full road reconstruction, staff suggested placing accessible stalls on adjacent side streets (1st or 2nd Street) or creating a mid‑block crosswalk to shorten pedestrian routes. A preliminary estimate — described by the engineer as a top‑of‑head figure — for two accessible stalls on 2nd Street (south side) was approximately $100,000, with much of the cost tied to matching decorative stamped pavement, curb work and potential relocation of lights or trees. “Top of my head would be a $100,000,” the engineer said when asked for an order‑of‑magnitude estimate.

Trustees expressed caution: several businesses downtown would likely request similar accommodations and the village would need to consider multiple requests if it constructs accessible stalls for one business. Board members asked staff to prepare a short list of feasible options with rough costs and to return to the public works meeting with simple, low‑cost alternatives rather than an extensive design study.

Staff committed to deliver a small menu of options by January to inform further deliberations; no construction or expenditure was authorized at this meeting.