DYER | Dyer police said they are concerned about a proposal to build a roundabout at Sheffield Avenue and 213th Street.

Planning and Development Director Rick Eberly told the Redevelopment Commission about those concerns at its June meeting.

Police said they will crunch data and look at statistics first.

Concerns were first raised in May, when Redevelopment Commission President Scott Cearing said he was "100 percent against" the roundabout. Cearing noted that a rail line runs along Sheffield and that a school and fire station are in the area.

Roundabaouts, used in place of stop signs and traffic signals, are a type of circular intersection that is believed to significantly improve traffic flow.

Tarik El-Naggar, the architect who designed the new standards for the Sheffield corridor, which include the roundabout, has said the concept is safer than a conventional intersection. Intersections with roundabouts actually have fewer traffic problems, he said.

The new set of standards proposed for Sheffield includes replacing the signal light at 213th with a roundabout at some point, although as redevelopment officials pointed out, that plan will depend whether future funding becomes available.

The Sheffield plan also envisions new commercial development, a wetland park and a new train station on the Amtrak site.

The Plan Commission has spent several months refining the Sheffield standards, and a public hearing on the final version has been set for July 20.