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Editorials
Small parking lot will be missed : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSmall parking lot will be missed
| 3/4/2010
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Last summer developers unveiled an ambitious plan to construct a large condominium and retail development on the site of the former Alexander Lumber yard in downtown Oswego. In October, the village board approved the project plans in concept form and as of last week, a village official said village staff and the developers are still in the process of negotiating a development agreement for the project.
Meanwhile, while the condominium plans remain a work in progress, life is going on in the downtown area as evidenced by two news articles in last week's (Feb. 25) Ledger-Sentinel. The Oswego Fire Protection District is moving forward with the sale of its now vacant former Station No. 1 on Main Street and the Oswegoland Park District began using the old village hall as a temporary greenhouse effective Jan. 1.
The decision by Oswego officials to allow the park district to use the old center of municipal government as a greenhouse is not only a good example of intergovernmental cooperation, but it more importantly serves to assist the park district's ongoing efforts to restore and further beautify the hundreds of acres of natural areas under the agency's jurisdiction.
While we are hopeful that the fire district will soon be able to find a new owner for its vacant Main Street station, we're not looking forward to the loss of the small municipal parking lot behind the station. The lot, with 22 parking spaces, sits on property owned by the fire district and will be sold by the agency along with the building, according to Fire Chief Brad Smith. Though the lot is small, the loss of any parking spaces in the downtown area is not good news for downtown merchants or their customers. On a weekday evening last week, the only available public parking spaces in the downtown area east of the railroad tracks were in the municipal parking lot. It's reasonable to expect that at least some of the motorists that now use the lot will park on the other side of the railroad tracks in the new parking spaces the village had installed last year along Adams Street. The spaces are less convenient to stores and offices along Main Street, but they are certainly better than no spaces.
Ultimately, the village may gain hundreds more public parking spaces as part of the condominium project-if and when it is approved by the village board and actually built. In the meantime, while the planning and negotiations continue, it will likely become even more difficult to find a place to park in the downtown area.
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