Northbrook’s new Dunkin Donuts drive-through store opened late last month with some of the restrictions intended to keep it safe, developed over months of public hearings, not in place.
Northbrook officials, however, began enforcing some of the neglected restrictions at the store at Dundee and Pfingsten roads after Pioneer Press questioned their absence.
Northbrook officials and neighborhood residents had expressed concerns about the safety of the drive-through throughout its 10-month approval process ending in February 2015, because of heavy traffic and a dozen other commercial driveways on the corner. More than 30,000 cars already traveled that stretch of Dundee daily, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The resulting safety restrictions included restricting turns to right-in and right-out only on the Dundee Road side.
IDOT added another restriction about a year after approval, according to Northbrook officials and the agency, banning left turns from southbound Pfingsten Road into the store property from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. daily.
Signs advising drivers of the restriction, however, were still not present until Aug. 1, eight days after the store’s July 25 opening. IDOT spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said erecting the signs was the responsibility of the developer, and ensuring it was done was up to Northbrook.
Drivers were seen by Pioneer Press commonly turning left illegally from westbound Dundee Road into the right-turn-only entrance on that side of the busy store at 2775 Dundee. Manager James Rogers said that starting on the first day the store was open, some drivers made that illegal left turn and drove through his new lot and out the Pfingsten Road side, to avoid the traffic light on the corner. There was no sign warning westbound drivers not to make the turn.
Jim Doerr, who said he handles new development for some Dunkin Donuts stores in the region, said Aug. 1 that he had signs on order for Pfingsten Road, but Northbrook mounted temporary signs on barricades the following day.
Village Engineer Matt Farmer said Aug. 3 that a no-left-turn sign on the Dundee Road side of the store had faced the wrong way for over a week. Though it correctly told drivers leaving the lot not to turn left onto Dundee, a right-turn-only sign was enough to communicate that, he said.
The no-left-turn sign is supposed to be turned 90 degrees, facing westbound Dundee traffic, therefore warning against left turns into the store. David Gutierrez, who identified himself as the head of the Dunkin Donuts store building crew, changed the direction of the sign Aug. 2.
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Some drivers continued to make illegal left turns into the Dundee Road side after the change was made, and the store manager said Friday that he thinks he knows why: The entrance drivers use has a curb less than 2 inches high, while the adjacent exit has one about 5 inches high.
“It makes it too easy,” Rogers said.
Northbrook Development Director David Schoon said the developers of the doughnut shop knew the sign informing of banned rush-hour left turns on the Pfingsten Road side was supposed to be installed when the store opened.
“I know they were aware of it because they battled IDOT about that restriction, because they’d rather not have it,” he said July 29.
Doerr said he knew nothing about such a conflict, and store manager Rogers said he didn’t know about the morning left-turn ban on Pfingsten until the signs went up.
But when they did, he didn’t like them.
“There’s no way anyone coming from the east can get in here during that time unless they make a U-turn,” he said, which might be more dangerous. IDOT didn’t answer questions about that problem.
Northbrook police said Aug. 3 that there had been no tickets written near the store since its opening, but extra patrols had been added. No accidents had occurred there, according to police.
Northbrook Trustee James Karagianis said he likes the business, but he voted against allowing its construction last year over concerns about its safety. He said he felt worse about that Aug. 2.
“A person exits Greek Feast, goes across all four lanes and enters Dunkin Donuts. I just saw it with my own eyes,” he said.
Karagianis said he called a village department head and asked if there was anything that could be done to get a raised median put in on Dundee Road, blocking left turns into the store.
“And if it’s a question of money, Northbrook should pay for it. It’s egregious,” he said.
Farmer said Aug. 3 that adding the non-drivable median would stop illegal entry into the Dundee Road side of the doughnut store, but it also might block left turns from eastbound Dundee into multiple stores on the north side of the street, too.
Twitter @IrvLeavitt