Elmhurst May Hike Speed Limit In Neighborhood

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst City Council committee on Monday may vote on increasing the speed limit in a neighborhood, among other changes based on a traffic study.

The speed limit hike is part of a traffic consultant's recommendations for a section of town. The area in question is bound by St. Charles Road to the north, Spring Road to the west, Madison Street to the south and York Street to the east.

Perhaps the most controversial proposal is increasing the speed limit to 25 mph, from 20 mph, for five streets running south from St. Charles Road – Washington Street and Argyle, Mitchell, Prospect and Cottage Hill avenues.

A 25 mph limit, officials say, would make the neighborhood consistent with the residential limit throughout town.

After residents criticized the idea at a council meeting in May, the committee decided to reconsider it.

"There's no intense pressure to push this through," Alderman Mike Brennan, the committee's chairman, said at the meeting.

The city is conducting neighborhood-by-neighborhood traffic studies. Its consultant has done three so far.