Aurora Beacon-News
October 5, 2005
By David Garbe
STAFF WRITER
YORKVILLE &emdash; Hundreds of people gathered for the first public viewing of the latest Prairie Parkway plans Tuesday, although their reactions showed that public opinion has changed little over the past several years.
That might have been predictable, given that the Illinois Department of Transportation's newly-focused plans more-or-less match the route that planners first proposed in 2001.
After a wide-ranging study of population trends, traffic patterns and land suitability, IDOT officials presented their findings to the public Tuesday night at Yorkville Middle School.
The study's conclusion: The region needs a freeway to connect Interstate 88 with Interstate 80, and the route for that freeway should run roughly due south, passing between Yorkville and Plano.
Still to be decided is whether the route should continue the course all the way into Grundy County or whether it should swing east to connect to I-80 at the southern border of Kendall County.
As concerned citizens pored over maps and charts detailing how IDOT engineers ruled out a dozen other routes, three types of opinions seemed to emerge from the chatter.
Some were thrilled to see progress on a project that they see as desperately needed; some remained strongly opposed to the notion of building a new freeway anywhere; and others were not opposed to the idea of a new freeway as long as it wouldn't run too near &emdash; or directly over &emdash; their homes.
The last group could take some comfort from the fact that IDOT's current plans involve nothing more than the further study of land within a wide &emdash; in many cases, miles wide &emdash; corridor.
Where exactly within that span the road will be built remains up for decision over the next year or two.
Private homes, conservation easements, and delicate natural environments will all be acceptable reasons to shift the exact path of the highway, officials said.
"We can't really define the corridor until the environmental studies have been done," said IDOT project manager Rick Powell.
Property owners who worried that their homes might end up in the path of the highway were assured by IDOT officials that fair appraisals and payments would be provided.
Silent majority status might fall to those who favor the construction of a freeway, IDOT officials said. Most municipal agencies in the region have supported the Prairie Parkway in general and this route in particular.
Focus groups and public comment collection efforts by IDOT have yielded similar consensus, said project spokeswoman Remi Gonzalez.
"I think we can safely say that the majority of people are comfortable with the placement of these alternatives," Gonzalez said.
Most troubled by the presentation were those who oppose the construction a freeway entirely, a coalition of whom have formed into the vocal group Citizens Against the Sprawlway. The group has asserted that a major new road would simply bring more development and more traffic congestion.
They urged IDOT simply to widen more of the area's existing roads. IDOT, in turn, said that most of the major local roads in the region will be widened, but that won't be enough to accommodate the expected population growth.
Tuesday's presentation, which showed that whatever the Prairie Parkway project builds will indeed be a freeway, was a disappointment, said the group's de facto spokeswoman Marvel Davis.
"We can't keep paving and building over the best farmland in the world," she said.
Besides disrupting individual properties, she said, a new freeway will open the western portions of Kane and Kendall counties to even more growth and further erode the area's rural character and food-producing power.
"We guard this very carefully because we're afraid to lose it," Davis said, adding that she and her neighbors will continue to oppose IDOT's plans.