Aurora Beacon-News
December 21, 2001
By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
GENEVA &emdash; A citizens group has organized to fight the outer-belt highway proposed for western Kane and Kendall counties.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway formed after the Dec. 11 Illinois Department of Transportation hearing on the proposed Prairie Parkway highway corridor. IDOT intends to site a corridor centerline for the highway as soon as possible.
IDOT officials plan to establish the centerline as early as January or February, after the Jan. 11 deadline for public comment on the highway.
Officials in Kane and Kendall counties have asked IDOT to extend that public comment period. Kendall officials asked for a 60-day comment period; Kane officials for a 120-day period.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway have added their request for a 120-day comment period, too.
"I can't believe the state wants our comments in 30 days, including the holidays, on a highway that won't be built for years," Marvel Davis, a member of the citizens' group, said. "A big project like this requires careful study before we comment."
Davis' Big Rock farm would be right in the corridor. The Kane County Forest Preserve has long coveted that land to be added to its neighboring Big Rock Forest Preserve.
Citizen campaigns
The proposed outer belt would run from Interstate 88 south, skirting Kaneville and eventually turning to run along Dauberman Road at Scott Road. It would run due south, into Kendall County, where, after crossing the Fox River, would turn east to hook up with Interstate 80 in Minooka.
The highway is supported by some economic development interests and landowners. Officials in the city of Aurora support it as necessary to move traffic north and south to alleviate congestion as the area continues to grow.
The highway's biggest supporter is Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville. Hastert apparently wants the centerline sited within the next year so money for it will be included in the next federal highway bill.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway includes members who have been involved in past citizen campaigns in the two counties, including fights against a landfill in Kane County, a proposed railport near Maple Park and a proposed auto raceway in Plano. Members of the group are fighting a proposal, too, for an electric peaking power plant near Big Rock.
Reasons for opposition
In opposing the beltway, Citizens Against the Sprawlway said:
The state has not studied traffic needs in the two counties and has no factual basis for its conclusion that an expressway is the best solution.
Each interchange on the beltway would be a magnet for development, undermining efforts by the two counties to control growth and maintain agriculture and open space.
The beltway would gobble up farmland, cutting farms in two.
"Most of the 800 persons attending that hearing in Yorkville (Dec. 11) strongly opposed the highway," Jan Strasma of Maple Park said. Strasma is one of the new group's organizers.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway has set up an Internet Web site at sprawlway.org and an e-mail address at info@sprawlway.org.