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Aurora Beacon-News
Decmeber 6, 2001
By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
GENEVA — The Kane County Board is poised to take a stand against a proposed north-south highway through the western
half of the county.
The freeway-type road, which would link interstates 90, 88 and 80 on the far western reaches of the Chicago metropolitan
area, is supported by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville.
Kane board members who sit on the Executive Committee, led by board Chairman Mike McCoy, unanimously voted Wednesday
for a resolution opposing the highway.
The entire County Board will vote on the resolution at its Dec. 11 meeting. If it passes, McCoy intends to enter
the resolution later that day into comments about the highway at an Illinois Department of Transportation hearing.
The hearing will be from 4 to 7 p.m. that day at the Beecher Community Center in Yorkville.
"I want to enter it into the record," McCoy said Wednesday. "I don't know what good it will do.
I'm not one who always calls for resolutions on things, but in this case I think it's a good document."
The resolution document says the proposed Outer Belt Freeway, also known as Prairie Parkway, "is contrary
to the spirit and intent" of a number of Kane County plans. Those, according to the resolution, include: the
2020 Land Resource Management Plan, the Farmland Protection Program, the Historic Preservation Ordinance, the 2020
Transportation Plan and the Stormwater Management Ordinance.
The resolution says the highway plan would "consume homes" in Kaneville, and would "devour"
land currently sought for acquisition by the Kane County Forest Preserve District. Specifically, the highway would
run through property adjacent to the county's Big Rock Forest Preserve, highly coveted by the county.
McCoy said in November that the highway would promote development in an area where the county is trying to preserve
farmland. He said the road also would affect such issues as: the future of the LaFox Metra commuter rail station,
a piece of the county's 2020 plan that would make less sense if a highway is there; the $70 million referendum
to buy open space in undeveloped areas of the county; and the likelihood the controversial railport concept would
be reintroduced to Kane County.
State's role
McCoy has other plans for the resolution that will be voted on next week. He wants
to send a copy to every area state legislator.
He said that, while the Outer Belt issue "seems to be bouncing back and forth between Kane County and the
speaker's office," it should involve state legislators, too, because the state Department of Transportation
would plan and build the road.
"The legislators need to answer for this," he said.
McCoy said the way IDOT is handling the situation is unfair. The state will site a centerline, which means it will
file where it intends the road to go. That intention to buy the land, no matter how far in the future it might
be, will be recorded with the property. That makes it almost impossible for a landowner to sell the land, McCoy
said.
"It puts restrictions on a person's land without compensation," he said. "They kind of downplay
recording a centerline, but it's a powerful thing, in some ways more powerful than condemnation itself. In condemnation,
you have to make an offer, and go before a judge and there is a resolution at some point."
He likened the situation to the county's putting together a corridor for the Stearns and Bolz roads bridge. The
county cannot and will not record a centerline, but will go straight to condemnation.
That process could start in 30 to 60 days, once the federal government is finished with public comment time on
the environmental impact study.
"Once we go into the next phase, all the property owners are notified," Karen Steve-McConnaughay, an
Executive Committee member and chairman of the Transportation Committee, said. "When we do that, we tie up
the land. It's important we go into land acquisition immediately."
McCoy pointed out that legislators might listen to county residents, because they all are running in the 2002 elections,
due to redistricting.