Mayor asks Riverdale Park advisory group to craft prioritized safety and access plan for Purple Line station

Riverdale Park Mayor Yang asked a volunteer advisory group on Wednesday to draft a short, prioritized plan of safety and access improvements for the Purple Line station at Kenilworth Avenue and East West Highway, saying the intersection is an urgent safety concern and the town should present a clear set of demands to the State Highway Administration and Purple Line partners.

"This is non negotiable," Mayor Yang said, asking the committee to recommend "what great looks like" and a minimum viable product the town can use to press state and transit partners for concrete changes. Yang said the intersection has a history of crashes, pedestrian‑unfriendly signals and poor lighting, and that the Purple Line construction window creates a narrow opportunity to influence final designs.

The request followed discussion of what form the committee’s deliverable should take. Committee member Mike said members could produce a range of outputs — from annotated slides or visual renderings to a short, consumable report — but argued the group will likely need consultant help to synthesize decades of prior studies. "I really do think engaging with the consultant early helps us," Mike said, urging the town to provide technical support for background research and visuals.

Staff told the group the town can draw on its three on‑call engineering firms and that staff would coordinate invitations. A staff member said the committee should outline the tasks it would want a consultant to perform so staff can select an appropriate firm quickly.

A resident who said they have avoided the intersection for decades described the area as poorly lit and dangerous, urging bold approaches such as elevated boarding or other grade‑separated crossings to keep pedestrians off the roadway. "There is no way in the world that we should ever let a human walk under that overpass," the resident said, adding that an upper‑level boarding concept could keep pedestrians out of the intersection.

Committee members debated geographic scope. Mayor Yang recommended starting with a highly focused area — a two‑block radius around the station — to produce a discrete set of recommendations the town can realistically present to state agencies. Other members said the committee should consider a half‑mile radius for bike access and multimodal connections and asked staff to produce maps showing two‑block, quarter‑mile and half‑mile circles so the group can decide a final boundary.

On logistics, staff recommended an in‑person work session in the town hall with at least 48 hours' public notice. The committee agreed to convene a work session soon; Mike volunteered to draft a short synthesis request describing the research and deliverables the group expects staff to ask a consultant to perform.

The advisory group did not take any formal action on design specifics at the meeting. Instead, members asked staff to circulate existing Purple Line and town studies, invite an on‑call consultant to the next meeting if appropriate, and provide mapping options. Mayor Yang said the council is prepared to invest resources for renderings and that the committee's recommendations will guide what the town advocates to the State Highway Administration and Purple Line partners.

Next steps: staff will circulate plan documents and maps showing candidate study radii; the committee will schedule an in‑person work session to synthesize ideas and clarify consultant tasks; Mike will draft the synthesis brief for staff to circulate.