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DeKalb Daily Chronicle
November 25, 2001
November 24, 2001
By Chris Rickert - City Editor
State transportation planners have mapped out a route for a proposed western bypass that would snake its way through
Kane and Kendall counties connecting interstates 88 and 80.
A pet project of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, the road is designed to ease traffic as Chicago's western
suburbs continue their push even further to-ward DeKalb County. If approved, construction wouldn't begin for at
least another 12 years or so, according to Illinois Department of Trans-portation Studies and Plans Engineer Tom
Sancken,
The Prairie Parkway Cor-ridor, as IDOT refers to it, would extend 33 miles from just east of Kaneville to west
of Minooka in northeastern Grundy county. The four-lane bypass could ultimately stretch north to Interstate 90,
but at this point IDOT has not publicly disclosed a route for the section.
The southern portion of the bypass would be 400 feet wide, Sancken said, and encompass a total of about 1,600 acres.
Some 180 individually owned properties - primarily farmland - would be impacted, and between three and seven structures
would have to be moved or taken down, he said.
Should the corridor be approved, affected property owners who wanted to build on their land would have to consult
with IDOT first, Sancken said, but "if a property owner needs to sell their property, they can, and they don't
need to notify the department."
A public hearing on the route is set for Dec. 11 from 4-7 p.m. at the Beecher Com-munity Center, 980 Game Farm
Road, Yorkville.
Although if built, the road is at least 20 years from completion, farmland preservationists and slow-growth types
worry that it would be a catalyst for more houses, shopping malls and industry.
"My main response ... is if you build it they will come," Donna Gorski, president of the DeKalb County
Farmland Foundation, said. "That's automatically an engine for development."
She said that when interstates 294 and 355 were built, the areas surrounding them saw tremendous growth, and she
emphasized that the proposed bypass should be part of a wider discussion about the future of the region.
"Somebody needs to be asking the citizens what the heck they want their town and this region to look like
in the future," she said.
Gorski pointed to the "visioning" process being undertaken in Genoa as one example of this, but said
Genoa was the exception.
Once the public hearing is held, there will be a 30-day period in which further comments on the corridor can be
presented to IDOT, Sancken said. The department will then review all the feedback it's received, possibly make
changes to the proposed route, and, if the route map is still viable, record it in Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties,
he said.
None of the design or engineering work for the route has been started, Sancken said, and there is no funding source
for the project.
Brandon Grometer, a spo-kesman for Hastert, said that a bill now being considered on Capitol Hill includes $14
million for the project. The earliest the bill could be approved, he said, is next year.