Aurora Beacon-News
January 16, 2002
By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
Meeting of minds: State officials say Kane and Kendall can pick a
corridor
GENEVA - The state of Illinois will site a corridor for an outer-belt
highway, but it will give Kane and Kendall counties a chance to
decide where the corridor should go.
That was the message State Rep. Patricia Reid Lindner, R-Sugar Grove,
had for Kane County Board members Tuesday. The message came to her
from state Secretary of Transportation Kirk Brown.
"He said his intention is to site this, but, if Kane and Kendall come
together, he will put it wherever they want it," Lindner said.
Lindner was speaking near the end of a two-hour meeting between
Illinois Department of Transportation officials and the Kane County
Board here. The meeting was held so board members could ask questions
of IDOT officials.
Ask questions they did. At times, board members peppered the four
IDOT officials - three from District 3 in Ottawa, which is handling
this project, and one from District 1 in Schaumburg, which handles
most every other project in Kane and has done the corridor study for
the northern outer-belt extension between Interstate 90 and
Interstate 88. At other times, they joked with them.
However, it was a bit more-flexible IDOT, it seemed, than the one
that first greeted officials last December at a public hearing in
Yorkville. In agreeing with what Brown said, IDOT officials said they
are willing to look at all possibilities of where to site the
corridor.
"Nothing is off the table," said Jim Jereb, District 3 director. "If
you have a better place, if something out there is more appealing to
Kane County, we'd like to know. We're trying to minimize the impact
as best as we can."
County Board Chairman Mike McCoy, R-Aurora, said if Kane County has a
better place, they probably can let IDOT know that even after the
deadline for comments of Feb. 11.
That means county officials can suggest what it seems most of them
want: an alternative corridor farther east.
"The people I represent are concerned about the traffic that's
already here, like on Randall Road and such," said board member
Robert McConnaughay, R-Geneva. "I'd like to get it closer to the
people in the county who would actually use it."
"The population you want to serve is farther east," said board member
Rudy Neuberger, D-Aurora.
A Catch-22?
Board members had plenty of comments to make about the process of
siting the corridor. It is that part of the current situation they
have criticized the most, and they continued to do so Tuesday,
calling it everything from backward to un-American.
When IDOT sites the corridor, it will tie up the land involved with
an encumbrance noted on the land's title. If someone wants to sell
that land, a potential buyer will know IDOT has sited it for a
highway. IDOT has said it will buy land from landowners in the
corridor, if they can prove a hardship because they are in the
corridor.
If landowners want to change the land, they must notify IDOT. The
state has 45 days to decide to buy the land at that time or allow the
change to the property.
Kane officials have said it unfairly puts land in limbo and brings
down the value. The land could be tied up for at least 10 years
before the state needs it.
"You're trying to buy land in 10 years at today's prices," said board
member Gerry Jones, D-Aurora.
IDOT officials said they need to get a corridor set today, before the
land is developed. To know for sure where the highway should go and
what kind of highway it should be, IDOT needs to finish Phase I
engineering, which includes an environmental-impact study.
That could take five to six years, said Greg Mounts of IDOT; and by
then, it might be too late to secure a corridor where there isn't a
lot of development. Still, IDOT officials admitted that, once the
Phase I study is finished, they might pick an entirely different
location than where the corridor is.
Board member Paul Greviskes, D-Aurora, called this a
"chicken-and-egg" situation.
"The decision is to just somehow put a corridor in," Greviskes said.
"You haven't identified any segment of the community that going to be
affected by this. Does this not seem odd to you?"
"That's a fair question," Mounts said. "Is it worth the risk that, in
five or six years, there won't be any place to put it?"
IDOT officials said once Phase I starts, it's like starting over.
Board members, however, said they think IDOT cannot help but be
prejudiced toward an area where they already have sited a
corridor.
"You'll particularly have a problem if you've bought property already
under the hardship situation," said board member John Hoscheit, R-St.
Charles.