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Chicago Tribune
July 30, 2002
Efforts to delay formal decision unsuccessful
By William Presecky
Tribune staff reporter
Despite efforts by some county leaders to delay the decision, state Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown is set
to announce Wednesday his preference for the north-south corridor that the state proposes to protect for possible
use as a far western expressway linking Interstate Highways 88 and 80.
Brown has called a news conference for 10:30 a.m. in Yorkville to announce his preference and to provide his rationale
for formally recording it as a future transportation corridor through parts of Kane, Kendall and Grundy Counties,
according to Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Dick Adorjan.
Brown also will sign IDOT's record of decision identifying the estimated 33-mile-long by 400-foot-wide Prairie
Parkway corridor protection map, according to Adorjan.
Although the news conference at the Beecher Community Centerwill be open to the public, Adorjan said Brown does
not plan to take questions from the public regarding his much-anticipated decision.
James Jereb, district engineer in IDOT's Ottawa's office, is expected to attend. Jereb's office developed the corridor
protection proposal and reviewed public comments and suggested alternatives to what state engineers identified
in December as the least intrusive corridor map.
The plan to preserve a highway corridor for a possible far western outer-belt expressway has received strong support
from U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) who lives in Yorkville and in whose district the corridor will
be located. Hastert secured the federal funding used by the state to do a corridor protection study.
After Brown announces the state's decision, IDOT plans quickly to record the corridor protection map in Kane, Kendall
and Grundy Counties, said Adorjan. Affected property owners will be notified by registered mail, he said.
Under the corridor protection process, the estimated 190 property owners in the would-be corridor would be required
to notify IDOT before making any additions or non-emergency alterations to their property. The state would then
have the option of buying the property based on a fair-market appraisal.
Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy (R-Aurora) is on vacation and won't be attending Wednesday's announcement,
according to an administrative aide. McCoy led the battle to steer the proposed corridor away from prized farmland
in the southwestern corner of the county, and he submitted what he called a compromise proposal to IDOT last March.
McCoy had sought to have a final decision on the corridor deferred until a new governor is in office. Brown announced
earlier this year that he intends to leave state office in conjunction with the expiration of Gov. George Ryan's
term in January.
Adorjan said the corridor alternatives offered by McCoy and others were reviewed by Brown and evaluated and compared
with the state engineers' proposal. In the reviews, the state focused on the impacts each proposal would have on
existing homes and the environment, he said.
Adorjan declined to offer any details on the final corridor alignment preferred by Brown.
As proposed in December by IDOT, the Prairie Parkway corridor would begin at Interstate Highway 88 near Kaneville
and run south for about 9 miles into Kendall County. At that point, it would cut between Yorkville and Plano, cross
the Fox River, and meander south and east toward Minooka, in Grundy County, where it would intersect with Interstate
Highway 80.
The Metropolitan Planning Council and the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation have questioned the wisdom of
protecting a corridor without a showing of need for the expressway.
Support for the plan has come largely from officials and business interests in Aurora, Plano, Yorkville and Sugar
Grove.