IDOT Interstate Connector News

Kane County Chronicle
August 1, 2002

Beltway route takes shape

By TOM SCHLUETER
Kane County Chronicle

YORKVILLE ó Marvel Davis came expecting nothing new, and that's exactly what she got.

Davis, of Big Rock Township, attended a news conference Wednesday at which Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown announced the path of a corridor for the proposed Prairie Parkway.

Davis' farm would be one of those affected by the road.

"I came here fully expecting there wouldn't have been any changes," Davis said. "They could have held this meeting in May."

The state's choice of a corridor for the highway differs little from the one unveiled in December, except that the 400-foot-wide now more closely follows property lines, Brown said.

"It reduces the impacts to family farms and doesn't leave remnant pieces of farmland," Brown said.
The Illinois Department of Transportation wants to protect the corridor from development now so the road can be built in the future.

"It's a way for the Illinois Department of Transportation to make sure we don't waste tax dollars if we need to acquire property," Brown said.

The 35.8-mile Prairie Parkway would connect I-88, via an interchange east of Kaneville, to I-80 near Minooka in Grundy County.

The new alignment crosses 193 parcels ó two more than the one shown in December.

The most notable changes are in Kendall County. In Kane, the northern terminus at I-88 was shifted to the east to avoid splitting the Dunteman Turf Farm.

In Davis' case, the corridor cuts through agricultural land she owns across from her 1860s farm home on Jericho Road.

Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy, a vocal opponent of the highway as well as IDOT's corridor protection process, said the Prairie Parkway may be doomed from the beginning.
"What you have is a $1 billion road project being cited by a lame-duck administration," McCoy said.

By identifying a pathway for the road before conducting environmental studies, the state is violating the National Environmental Protection Act, which calls for roads to be sited in "an unbiased" manner, McCoy said.

"That only gives the opponents an easy way to fight it," he said.
He said the process is biased because the state is identifying the alignment before conducting environmental studies. He added that if it can be proven the state violated the NEPA act, it would receive no federal funds.

Opponents to the highway have promised to sue the state in federal court on behalf of the property owners for allegedly violating their property rights.

"At a time when the state is bankrupt, at a time when our roads are crumbling, this is political pork at its finest," McCoy said.

McCoy compared the state's process to the county's bridge siting efforts.

"We've been going through 10 years of trying to site a bridge the right way," he said.

U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was able to secure $15 million for initial engineering and environmental studies. The state would lose the federal funds if it did not apply for them before Sept. 1, Brown said.

IDOT would kick in another $3.75 million for its match of the $18.75 million study.

Kaneville and Big Rock townships, the only two townships in Kane that dropped in population during the 1990s, are not in imminent danger of development, McCoy said.

"This is the last hurrah of the most corrupt administration in the history of Illinois," McCoy said.
In March McCoy presented what he called a compromise to the IDOT plan that would have pushed the highway to the east. The northern terminus would have met Route 56 in Sugar Grove Township.
IDOT dismissed the compromise because the alignment would have created a "U"-shaped bow that Brown said would have been inefficient.

"It has way too many impacts compared to the central corridor," Brown said. "It makes little sense to plan a corridor with a bow in it."

Brown said the 193 property owners will be informed the state's decision by registered letter.
The residents will be told a map of their land showing the corridor will be recorded with their property deeds, Brown said.

The property owners will have to inform IDOT before making any changes to their land that would impede construction of a highway.

The restrictions are not meant to prohibit changes such as the addition of a shed or a swimming pool.

However, if the property owner has plans to change the property, the state has the right to buy the land.

Jan Strasma, president of Citizens Against the Sprawlway, the group that plans the lawsuit, said the group is as resolute in its opposition as ever.

He was disappointed the route through Kane had change little from the December public hearing.
"Kane County got absolutely nothing," Strasma said. "We will stop this road."