Milwaukee Avenue's potential nearly realized in Gurnee

Amy Alderman,Triblocal.com reporter

According to local leaders, the area surrounding Milwaukee Avenue, at its northernmost stretch, has nearly maximized its potential for development.

Plans for development are mostly zeroed-out by the fact that the land on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue in Gurnee is permanently protected as part of the Lake County Forest Preserve’s Des Plaines River Trail. The land on the west side is about as built-out as can be.

“It’s a matter of fine tuning to get greater public access to the forest preserves in the area,” said Mike Fenelon, director of planning, conservation and development for the Lake County Forest Preserves. “There’s not a whole lot of opportunity to make any more trails in that area.”

The Des Plaines River Trail is a 3,000-acre wetland and floodplain forest preserve, which borders Milwaukee Avenue for most of its 31-miles of trails from the Illinois-Wisconsin border to Deerfield.

One of the most recent additions to the river trails is Lake Carina, a former gravel pit turned recreational pond, which could be essential in connecting the neighboring community to the River Trail.

“Lake Carina is on the west side of the Des Plaines River, and our trails are on the East side of the river,” Fenelon said, adding an endeavor he would like to see started is building a connecting trail from Lake Carina to the present trail system across the river.

“I believe it’s almost a $1 million project,” Fenelon said. “I believe it’s an important project to do so people in that area could have access. Our nearest parking to access the trails to the north is at Route 41, which is a couple miles north, and our other nearest trails access with parking is a couple miles south at Independence Grove. This would make a nice access point along side the river to make it more convenient for the population there.”

The population on the west side of Milwaukee Avenue is zoned residential, commercial and office, with only a couple of vacant pockets of land available for development.

“There’s a tiny bit of area between Grand Avenue and Washington Street that is zoned commercial and there is a little bit between Gages Lake and Belvidere that is zoned office,” said Kovarik. “There aren’t any plans for development in the immediate horizon. No one has applied to us. With the commercial and retail economy in shambles I don’t think we are going to see anything anytime soon.”

However, the mayor has been an advocate on widening Milwaukee Avenue to four lanes, south of Belvidere Road in order to open up traffic flow on the two-lane stretch.


According to Paula Trigg, director of planning and programming at the Lake County Division of Transportation, the improvements on Route 21 from routes 120 and 137 will cost $31 million. The project will be ready to go out for bids in June, 2011, said Trigg.

“As it is today, it makes it difficult for the ambulances to get into Advocate Hospital, and when it’s all stacked up, the ambulances can’t even go around the cars,” Kovarik said. “It’s really not a good situation.”

Gurnee ambulances have been bottle necked in the two-line highway, said Kovarik, when traveling to the Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, the only level one trauma center in Lake County.

B. Dwight Houchins, president of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce in Gurnee, said he believes the widening of Milwaukee Avenue will increase traffic to local businesses and will benefit the environment.

“Anything that keeps traffic moving through the area is very helpful to businesses,” Houchins said. “It helps everybody. It also helps the environment, because people won’t be sitting at a stop light at a two lane light. Otherwise, people are staying there, idling and burning gasoline.

“As the area continues to grow and prosper we’re going to have an increased need to move and improve traffic throughout the county,” Houchins said.

No matter what twists and turns development along Milwaukee Avenue takes in the future, the scenic beauty remains a top priority for all local leaders.

“It’s a really pretty drive when you come into Gurnee,” Kovarik said. “You have more forest preserve on our stretch of Milwaukee Avenue, and it’s a nice alternative to the I-94 tollway. We’ve always considered it a scenic corridor, even though there is a lot of development along the area, we have a lot of wide setbacks to preserve the natural beauty.”

By Amy Alderman, Triblocal.com reporter



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