Aurora Beacon-News
November 21, 2001
Dec. 11 hearing: Kane, Kendall residents will get chance to hear
proposal
By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
State highway officials are set to propose a centerline for an
"outerbelt freeway" that would cut through western Kane and Kendall
counties.
The Illinois Department of Transportation has scheduled a public
hearing on a proposed 33-mile highway corridor between Interstate 88
on the north and Interstate 80 on the south. The hearing will be from
4 to 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Beecher Community Center, 980 Game Farm
Road, Yorkville.
The hearing will be an open house, which means IDOT will have maps
and displays, but will give no formal presentation. People will be
able to study the maps and submit written comments. IDOT personnel
from the District 3 office will be there to answer questions.
This latest freeway proposal came from Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert, R-Yorkville, who said the road is necessary to promote
economic independence for western Kane and Kendall counties.
Eventually, he would have IDOT site a centerline for the highway
north from I-88 to Interstate 90, too, so interstates 90, 88 and 80
would be connected.
The centerline IDOT will bring to the Dec. 11 hearing would cross
I-88 about three-quarters of a mile east of where Dauberman Road
meets I-88. It would run south directly through Kaneville, then curve
slightly to meet Dauberman Road at Scott Road. It would proceed
straight south down Dauberman, across Granart and Jericho roads to
the Kendall County line.
In Kendall County, it would proceed south along the same straight
line, across Route 34, the Fox River and Route 71, then proceed south
until cutting east before reaching Lisbon. It would cross routes 47
and 52 on its easterly route, then proceed straight south again
before jutting east to meet I-80 near Minooka.
Carl Schadel, of the Kane County Department of Transportation, said
that, by preserving a centerline, the state would record its
intention on the properties affected. Any transaction or title search
of those properties "will show the state's intention to buy that
right-of-way," Schadel said.
"But they're not buying right-of-way right now," he said.
Mike McCoy, Kane County Board chairman, has walked a tightrope on the
highway proposal. He has said it could threaten the county's 2020
plan that seeks to preserve much of the county's western land as
farmland. High-capacity roads historically lead to urban sprawl-type
of development.
He said, too, that such a highway could relieve traffic on interior
roads throughout Kane County. He said he hopes the outerbelt road
would be built in such a way to respect the county's agricultural
concerns, keeping it a transportation corridor.
Hastert has secured federal funds to study the project's feasibility.
That and December's hearing are considered initial steps in a long
approval process that will include many environmental hurdles.