Aurora Beacon-News
December 12, 2001
At least 10 years away: No funds even earmarked for Outer Belt freeway
By Dave Parro
STAFF WRITER
YORKVILLE &emdash; For some western Kane and Kendall County residents, it seems like if it's not one thing, it's another.
To many of them, the proposed 33-mile "Prairie Parkway" appears to just be another challenge to their way of life, the newest by-product of development that threatens their property.
They came out by the hundreds Tuesday afternoon in Yorkville to look at detailed maps and displays of the Outer Belt freeway being pushed by U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, and state transportation officials.
At least 800 people came through the doors of the Beecher Community Center in a three-hour period, judging by the number of fliers handed out before there were none left. At one point, a 40-minute waiting line stretched out the door.
Concerned residents, mostly in opposition to the parkway, viewed plans for the exact alignment and affected property of the corridor protection area, a 400-foot-wide ribbon cutting through Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties that the Illinois Department of Transportation wants to set aside for possible future transportation use.
House right in middle
Little Rock Township resident John Zylobicki knew his property was close to the proposed freeway, but he was surprised to find his house sitting directly in the middle of the future right-of-way. The state has identified 191 parcels of land in the highway's path.
"It's a beautiful valley in front of me," said Zylobicki, who has lived just north of Plano since 1985. "It's pristine land. I'm living in paradise, and this is going to cut right through it."
After surviving the threat of construction of a Plano racetrack in 1999, Zylobicki thought he was in the clear. He even started a $30,000 kitchen remodeling project because he thought he was keeping his land.
Now that could all change.
Series of battles
Like many other residents in the area, the battle against a four-lane freeway connecting Interstates 88 and 80 won't be their first fight against what they see as encroaching urbanization.
Yorkville resident Susan Fowler just finished opposing one proposed transportation corridor near her property on High Point Road when the state announced its plans for another. She attended the Eldamain Road hearing last month, where she and other residents protested the county's plans to extend the road through Kendall.
Fowler said she doesn't think freeway proponents are really listening to what residents are saying, because it seems like they plan to go ahead with the corridor regardless of the input they get.
"They need to learn that we're not going to take this lying down," she said.
Comments to be reviewed
State officials said comments submitted at the hearing, and those received during the 30-day public input period that will follow, will be reviewed and considered when revisions are made to the corridor.
Gregg Mounts, program development engineer for IDOT's Ottawa district, said there's always the possibility the plans could be dropped because of intense opposition, a decision that would be made by the Illinois secretary of transportation.
The fear in not identifying a future corridor now is that the area will soon become developed anyway and the possibility of a major north-south highway would be lost, Mounts said. The state does not want to buy property now, he said, only identify an area that would be legally protected for future use.
State officials estimate the highway will not become a reality any time in the next decade, even after the centerline is legally recorded. It will take at least 10 years for construction to be complete after the start of environmental impact studies, the first phase of the project.
There are currently no funds available for the highway beyond the public hearing.
I-90 connection envisioned
Hastert plans to eventually push for another segment of the freeway that would connect I-88 to I-90 in the north, completing the outer belt around the Chicago metropolitan area.
Elgin resident David Segel moved to Kane County from DuPage because he was unhappy the rapid development in DuPage and the destruction of open space that resulted. He fears the same thing will eventually happen in Kane and Kendall counties if the I-80 to I-90 freeway is built.
"I don't think this is very thoughtful at all," he said. "It's going to encourage what people call leapfrog (development)."