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Aurora Beacon-News
April 30, 2002
By Dave Parro
STAFF WRITER
Year-long process: Recommendations to be made in June 2003
DEKALB ó The first phase of a $200,000 study on the Prairie Parkway will begin in May with a series of public
meetings aimed at outlining the project's scope.
Announced by Northern Illinois University in January, the year-long study will result in a set of recommendations
for the state on land use, economic development and the environment along the highway corridor, which would link
Interstate 88 in Kane County with Interstate 80 in Grundy County. The Illinois Department of Transportation agreed
to fund the study.
John Lewis, economist and associate director for NIU's Center for Governmental Studies, said the public meetings
will inform key community leaders on how the study will proceed. The three public meetings will be held in different
sections of IDOT's proposed 33-mile corridor through Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties.
"The goal is to make them aware of what the project is, and what the project isn't," Lewis said.
The meetings will be at 7 p.m. May 7 at the Grundy County Administrative Building in Morris; 9 a.m. May 11 at
Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove; and 7 p.m. May 14 at the Beecher Community Center in Yorkville.
NIU has invited each government's top elected official and chief administrator to the meeting in their area
so each municipality or county will have two representatives in attendance. The public can also attend, but Lewis
said it's unlikely residents will have a chance to comment at the meetings.
Invited officials will have the opportunity to ask questions and comment on the study's process.
A committee of 10 experts meets for the first time today to sort out planning for the next year. The committee's
members will come up with a list of relevant issues that need to be addressed when building such a major transportation
corridor.
Within the next 60 days, Lewis said an advisory committee made up of representatives from each of the affected
groups ó cities, counties, farmers and others ó will be formed to discuss the issues raised by the neutral expert
committee.
The topics will go back and forth between the two committees for six to eight months until a list of consensus
recommendations can be presented to the state by June 2003, Lewis said. Two separate committees are necessary in
order to evaluate the issues from both an objective and involved point of view, he said.
"Otherwise, you can get into some discussion that doesn't get very far," Lewis said.
The recommendations will deal with specifics such as the placement of interchanges, how surrounding land should
be used and what type of structure would best fit with regional transportation plans. Ultimately, the final report
will be a skeletal structure for study of any similar transportation corridors nationwide, Lewis said.
NIU's study will not address whether the proposed outer belt should be built, nor will it address the alignment
of the road.