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Kane County Chronicle
December 12, 2001
By TOM SCHLUETER
Kane County Chronicle
editorial@kcchronicle.com
YORKVILLE — Several hundred people packed into the Beecher Community Center Tuesday to get their first
look at the proposed outer beltway.
Residents of Kane and Kendall counties, many of them wearing buttons proclaiming “No outer beltway
freeway,” came to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s public hearing to give opinions of the
freeway plan.
Maps at the hearing showed the 400-foot-wide corridor extending from I-88 to I-80 on which IDOT is taking
comments. This southern leg of the highway would skirt the eastern edge of the village of Kaneville, intersect
Route 30 near Dauberman Road and continue south out of the county.
The northern section of the highway would connect I-88 to I-90, but IDOT has not identified a corridor for the
section.
Al Miller lives on Lasher Road in Kaneville Township, a stone’s throw from the planned road. Miller thinks a
divided freeway at that location would not help relieve traffic on local roads.
“It’s not to relieve traffic on Route 47 or Randall Road, it’s to relieve I-355 and I-294,” Miller said.
Miller called the proposed Prairie Parkway “Hastert’s Disaster,” in reference to U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert’s strong support of the highway.
“You’re going to promote traffic” by building the highway,” Miller said.
State law allows IDOT to identify a corridor, or “centerline,” with the intention of protecting it for future
road construction. The corridor is recorded on each property owner’s deed, even though the owner receives
no compensation.
The agency will take public comment for the next 30 days, after which time it can record the centerline.
“I think they ought to be spending time on Route 47,” said Kaneville resident Leon Shaw. “For the local
people, it’s not going to do anything.”
The corridor cuts through Shaw’s son’s farm on Lasher, and could isolate about 35 acres of cropland.
“No road like this is for the local people.”
Not everyone at Tuesday’s hearing was opposed to the idea of a freeway in western Kane.
Arthur Oldebeken, of Montgomery, lives on Orchard Road and would like to see traffic relieved on that main
road.
“It would certainly help Orchard Road,” he said.
Oldebeken said he travels a lot and sees the need for a major artery to relieve traffic.
David Cardiff, who owns property in Kaneville, said he supported the highway
“I’m a national company and it would benefit my business and the value of my property,” Cardiff said.
The majority of those attending hearing, though, oppose the idea of a highway.
Jerome Johnson, director of Garfield Farm Museum, said the highway is a 20th Century solution for a 21st
Century problem.
“This is the tired old, same old thing,” Johnson said.
Bert Scott’s family has been farming in Kaneville Township on Scott Road since 1854.
“It won’t enhance anything,” Scott said. “It’ll screw it up.”