March 24, 2004
By Christina Neumiller
Staff Writer

Ripley Street might one day contain foot traffic only. St. Ambrose is petitioning the city to buy Ripley Street from Lombard to just north of Locust.

Three residential houses still reside in the area not marked for closure.  Because the three houses are not owned by Ambrose they cannot close that part of the street. Eliminating the car traffic through that area will allow for safer foot traffic.

Jim Hannon, the director of the physical plant said it’d be nice to see it turned into a green space.

Just a green space is out of the question since it still needs to be something functional. There are certain requirements that have to be met.  They have to allow for a utility easement and there still has to be a path wide enough for emergency vehicles to get through.

“Nothing is set in stone yet, we’re just kind of in the dream stage…what we can do there,” Hannon said.

Anything they do will be determined and dictated by cost.  They are limited by what they can do and what they are required to do.

“Money’s always a restriction for what we’re allowed to do and if it was an unlimited budget we’d have plantings and a nice big plaza through there,” Hannon said.

Hannon said he’d like to see more brick incorporated into the landscape once they get a chance to start planning what to do with Ripley Street.

In order to acquire Ripley Street three petitions have to be passed by the city council.  Right now they are at the last petition, which is the right to purchase. A survey of the land has to be taken, and then the petition to purchase can be filed.  When an agreement is reached on the price, the land is St. Ambrose’s. Hopefully after that the wheels of progress will keep on turning, Hannon said.

If Ripley Street is purchased some students may be concerned about more parking spaces being eliminated. Before St. Ambrose can even buy the street, they have to cite where some 30 cars will be placed. The city will not allow them to close the street unless the displaced cars have a home.

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