URBANA – Business officials and property owners may see the future of Olympian Drive differently, but one issue seems to be key for everyone: developing North Lincoln Avenue in conjunction with the east-west extension of the road north of Champaign-Urbana.

Paula Hughes – partner for Vector Communications, a St. Louis consulting firm working with Hanson Architects, the Springfield engineering firm to work on the design phase of extending Olympian Drive east from Apollo Drive to U.S. 45 in Urbana – presented questions and posted comments during separate roundtable events for invited business stakeholders and for property owners.

"There was not one stakeholder that we talked to that did not bring up Lincoln Avenue," Hughes told the two groups Tuesday. She said Vector did 23 preliminary stakeholder interviews to get comments about their expectations of the design process, what concerns they had and how they would define success for the project.

Comments in the interviews included minimizing impact on property owners, proceeding in a timely manner, making sure Lincoln Avenue is connected to Olympian Drive, respecting farmland and completing the process to foster economic development, she said.

Top concerns expressed by property owners Tuesday were safety and costs, including getting a fair price for any land needed for the road project and increased taxes.

Shaennon Clark who lives on Olympian Drive said she is concerned about traffic and thinks residents have very limited choices at this point in the development of the road project.

Marian Stone, who commutes by bike from her home on Olympian Drive to her job at the University of Illinois, said she is glad to see that planners are looking at bicycle options for the road project, but thinks there also needs to be better north-south bike routes to connect to Olympian Drive.

Clark also expressed concern about the speed of motor vehicles.

"I would hate to see (the speed limit) above 45, but if they post it at 45, nobody is going to go 45. They will go 50 or 55," Clark said.

Matt Heyen, project engineer for the design project, said Tuesday that a location study determined the best route for extending Olympian Drive. The route approved by federal and state transportation agencies is about 1 mile north of Interstate 74. It is intended to provide the east-west connection between Interstate 57 and U.S. 45, he said.

The proposed extensions, estimated to cost about $27.5 million total, would be built in phases: from Apollo Drive over the Canadian National Railroad to Lincoln Avenue; from Lincoln to U.S. 45; and then from the existing Olympian Drive west to Duncan Avenue in Champaign.

In the two roundtable sessions Tuesday, Heyen talked about another phase, which he dubbed "Project X." He said engineers will look at developing North Lincoln Avenue along with the plans already approved in a long-range plan. Stakeholder business representatives and property owners and residents were asked Tuesday where Lincoln Avenue should fall in line in the future phased development.

Heyen said engineers will take comments from the stakeholders into consideration of whether and how to include improvement of North Lincoln Avenue in conjunction with the Olympian Drive extension.

Bill Goldstein, general manager of Multipak Development, which has a 12-acre site in northwest Urbana, said his concern is to keep moving on the project and "how to make this project fit in with the dollars available."

Goldstein said development of North Lincoln Avenue will help create the jobs and businesses to pay for future development.

"From my standpoint, there were some very good ideas," Goldstein said after the first session Tuesday.

Heyen said the Olympian Drive project has been done in phases so far and could continue to be done in phases as funding becomes available. However, it would take longer and thus cost more, he said.