Aurora Beacon News
December 9, 2001
Kane County Board members passed a resolution Wednesday in opposition to the proposed outerbelt freeway championed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
That's an unusual move, but a healthy one. It's unusual, of course, because Kane County supports most of Hastert's suggestions. On Wednesday, though, Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy, a Republican, stood his ground against one of the most powerful leaders of his party.
It's healthy because it brings open discussion about a point near to McCoy's heart: its effect on Kane County's plans for the future of the west side of the county.
As proposed, the outerbelt freeway would be a major north-south highway that would connect three existing east-west interstates: I-90 in Elgin, I-88 in Aurora and I-80 in Minooka.
The argument for building it is simple: There is no major north-south expressway west of I-355, and won't be one &emdash; ever &emdash; if officials don't act quickly.
About 15 years ago, a plan to build a "Fox Valley Expressway" along the DuPage/Kane county line failed to materialize &emdash; in large part because development made the project too difficult and too costly. The notion resurfaced as recently as five years ago, but the idea of bulldozing houses or cutting through Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory simply couldn't fly.
Perhaps the memory of the Fox Valley Expressway lingers, causing Hastert and others to follow Horatio Alger's advice to "go west."
For some residents of Kendall and Grundy counties, the outerbelt is good news. It will spur economic development in places where economic development is sought. Outerbelt proponents have argued that it also will provide easier access from Kendall County to the future Peotone Airport, although the corridor is pretty far west to be considered a primary path to Peotone.
But in Kane County, McCoy points out, the outerbelt would muck up years of planning.
Kane County's 2020 plan is McCoy's opus, a work-in-progress built on these key principles and strategies: halt the tide of suburban sprawl at Route 47, buy and preserve open space, protect the floodplain, encourage farmland protection.
McCoy contends that the inevitable results of freeway construction will be the demise of the Kaneville community, which apparently lies in the path of the freeway; higher land prices due to speculation of development, making it harder to purchase land for open space; and the stymying of plans for an expanded Big Rock Forest Preserve, through which the outerbelt centerline also runs.
And Kane County commuters won't need the outerbelt to get to a major airport. O'Hare still will be significantly closer.
Shrewdly, the Illinois Department of Transportation has divided its centerline siting into two parts.
The first 33 miles of the project, from Interstate 80 north to Interstate 88, will be the subject of a public hearing from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Beecher Community Center, 980 Game Farm Road, Yorkville. Thirty days after that hearing, IDOT will file its intention to purchase a 360-foot-wide swath of right-of-way along its proposed route.
The second part of the centerline siting &emdash; from I-88 north to I-90 &emdash; will be set at a time to be named later. Whether or not it is IDOT's intent, the affect will be to divide and conquer potential opposition.
We say: Hold a public hearing on the north part of the freeway proposal as soon as possible, and hold off a decision on southern portion siting until input has been received from people and politicians from north to south.
Let the outerbelt freeway proposal stand or fall in its entirety. If chopped into pieces, the pill may be easier to swallow, but it will leave a bitter taste.