URBANA – City council members strongly defended a $100,000 Cunningham Avenue beautification study Monday night, saying city officials should "push back" against state transportation officials who criticized aspects of the plan as dangerous.

Aldermen voted unanimously, in a voice vote, to accept the plan, which was prepared by Indianapolis consultant Claire Bennett Associates over the past year.

Alderman Brandon Bowersox, D-Ward 4, was perhaps the plan's most vocal defender, saying he saw nothing wrong with its call for adding for $1.2 million worth of public art and its proposal to add a two-lane roundabout at the intersection of Cunningham and Perkins and Country Club roads, which would replace traditional traffic lights.

"Part of the idea was to make sure this corridor does not look like every other corridor in the state," Bowersox said. "I'm completely on board with this plan. I would ask staff to push back with IDOT (the Illinois Department of Transportation)."

Bowersox said that, given the proposed level of improvements, costing between $6.5 million and $8 million, he didn't believe that the proposed spending on public art was inappropriate.

As to charges that spending so much money is unwise in a bad economy, Bowersox responded, "To me, when the going gets bad, you don't start cutting back."

The Illinois Department of Transportation has taken a dim view of certain aspects of the beautification plan.

A transportation department official, Joseph Crowe, wrote city officials on Nov. 6 that the department "does not view Cunningham Avenue as a suitable route for a roundabout" given the road's average daily traffic of 22,000 vehicles.

Crowe also objected to a proposed sculpture of prairie grass on Cunningham that would rise up and over an I-74 overpass, saying it would "distract high-speed travelers."

The plan also calls for adding ornamental trees at certain intersections; constructing 6-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides of Cunningham south of Kenyon Road; constructing a 10-foot-wide multi-use trail from Kenyon Road north to Airport Road; adding native prairie plantings near I-74; and adding decorative seat walls in strategic areas to screen parking.

City officials are hoping they can land federal grant funds to help pay for implementing the plan. Cunningham Avenue is located in the city Tax Increment Financing District 4, and tax district funds are being used to pay for the study. But the tax increment financing fund is projected to have a balance of just under $500 by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, and will not be able to pay for implementing the plan in the near foreseeable future.

Alderman Dennis Roberts, D-Ward 5, said he thought there were "many good aspects of the plan that can be implemented at a reasonable cost."

Mayor Laurel Prussing said she has personally driven on roundabouts in Indiana and Iowa and that she believes they are more fuel efficient than standard intersections. She also said it's appropriate to upgrade "a major corridor into the city," noting that drivers heading into Urbana on Cunningham Avenue can now see a new clock tower being added to the Champaign County Courthouse.

"I think it would be very fitting if Cunningham Avenue became more beautiful," she said.