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Daily Herald
July 30, 2002
Outerbelt announcement coming
By David R. Kazak
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Though state transportation leaders already have chosen a specific corridor of land on which they hope to build
an outerbelt expressway someday, that pick won't be announced until Wednesday.
The announcement, which has been expected for more than two months but has been delayed, will come at 10:30 a.m.
at the Beecher Community Center in Yorkville.
Kirk Brown, the state transportation secretary, will make the announcement, said Richard Adorjan, a Brown spokesman.
The appearance by the state's top transportation official marks a rare occasion in which Brown himself has addressed
the controversial project directly.
In December, IDOT kicked up a hornet's nest when the agency announced it was on the verge of protecting a 400-foot-wide,
33-mile-long strip of land between I-88 near the tiny town of Kaneville and I-80 near Minooka.
Corridor protection means that the state marks the proposed expressway on the deeds of landowners in its path.
From that point on, development inside the corridor that could hinder the proposed highway's construction would
be forbidden without state approval.
Opponents of corridor protection, which include hundreds of homeowners in Kaneville and dozens of farmers in Kane
and Kendall counties, say that corridor protection is nothing more than a land grab without payment or due process.
"It's an infringement on property rights," said Jan Strasma, spokesman for an outerbelt expressway opposition
group.
That infringement is why Strasma's group is prepared to file a lawsuit blocking the corridor protection process
almost as soon as the specific corridor site is announced.
"We remain convinced that this is a bad idea, one with a need that hasn't been demonstrated," Strasma
said. "The state is poised to tie up people's property for a project with an uncertain future."
Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy, an outspoken critic of IDOT's plan to build an expressway through the county's
western agriculture belt, was unavailable for comment Monday.
He previously has said he would be surprised if the state moved forward with a decision on the proposed corridor,
especially with election season so near. Strasma echoed that sentiment.
"It's clear there will be a change in state administration next year," he said. "So wouldn't it
seem prudent to defer a final decision that may affect the lives of so many in Kane and Kendall counties to whatever
new administration is going to be in power?"
For Jan Carlson, the county board member from Elburn whose district includes the southwestern portion of Kane through
which the proposed corridor runs, state officials are going to do what they want regardless of what those who oppose
corridor protection may think.
As an example, he pointed to the separate outerbelt plan offered up by Kane County officials that would re-route
the proposed highway nearer to Aurora.
"I don't think anything we've said or done has changed their minds," he said, noting that he expects
on Wednesday to see IDOT finalize the corridor it first pitched in December. "I'm hopeful I'm wrong, but that's
what I think."