Home | News Index | Southern Link | Northern Link | How to Oppose | Kane 2020 Plan | Kendall Plan
Joliet Herald-News
August 12, 2002
'Prairie Parkway': Lawmakers disagree; many residents opposed
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
CHICAGO — Political turmoil is intensifying in Chicago's far western suburbs, where a "Prairie Parkway"
would link interstates 80 and 88.
Leaders within Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties are getting heartburn over a beltway route that many agree is
needed in the fast-developing area.
Agreement on where the road goes is another matter. The Illinois Department of Transportation late last month
announced it was legally protecting a 30-mile corridor that generally runs on the west side of Illinois 47 from
Kaneville to Minooka.
While the plan pleases communities outside the highway's direct path, including Sugar Grove and St. Charles,
it angers residents along the corridor and, perhaps most notably, the Kane County Board. The board's growth plan
seeks to preserve the rich farmland on the county's west side, and members had offered alternative locations for
a beltway.
"This highway is going to mutilate the beauty of our community," said 75-year-old Marvel Davis of Big
Rock, whose 200-acre farm would be severed under IDOT's current plan. "Our population is growing, and we can't
put our heads in the sand. But we can have smart growth."
IDOT secretary Kirk Brown insists that protecting the corridor, or even building a highway upon it in the future,
cannot stop local governments from zoning surrounding land as they see fit. Nonetheless, legal challenges already
are in the works.
"We want to make sure that we can keep it just like it is while we do the necessary studies to determine
if we need to build it," Brown said in an interview last week. "If we get through that process and get
to the point where we say we want to build it, then I guess (opponents) have a pretty legitimate complaint to say,
'Wait a minute, we don't think you ought to build it.'"
Brown estimates that public support is 2-to-1 in favor of the road project as it's currently planned but says
state lawmakers from the region are "kind of split" on the issue.
The Prairie Parkway has become identified with a chief congressional sponsor, powerful U.S. House Speaker Dennis
Hastert, R-Yorkville, who secured $15 million in federal funding for studies. Not surprisingly, opponents of the
so-called "Hastert Highway" are calling him the 800-pound gorilla who's calling all the shots. Elected
officials who support the road "are just pandering to the speaker of the House. They're trying to make him
happy," charges Kane County Board Chairman Michael McCoy, a Republican who says he's suffered "political
grief" for his stance.
Davis, the farm owner in Big Rock, says she's "absolutely livid" with Hastert.
"His last brilliant statement was that this roadway would bring financial independence to western Kane and
Kendall counties," she said. "Now, what the hell does he mean by that?"
A spokesman for Hastert says the congressman has not gotten involved in the corridor selection, other than asking
IDOT in February to ensure the selected corridor creates as few "disruptions" as possible.
"As far as the specifics of where the road goes, that really is a state decision," Hastert spokesman
Brad Hahn said. "They have experts that deal with roads who look at different issues. It really is best to
leave it up to the experts, rather than having a public official getting involved in specifically where a route
should go."