Missing sound wall upsets Naperville family

Just a little more than a week ago, Naperville officials cut the ribbon on the overhauled intersection at 75th and Washington streets. But one Naperville family says the city didn't quite finish the job.

Pam Bunyea, of 25 Bunting Lane, said she expected a 2-foot-thick brick sound wall would be separating her home from both streets long before the ribbon was cut. And she blames the city and a nearby church for backing out of those plans.

The north side of the Bunyeas' corner lot backs directly onto 75th Street, where a 15-foot-tall wall serves as a sound buffer. The east side of the lot, however, faces the parking lot of Naperville Congregational Church and, beyond that, Washington Street.

On that side, Bunyea said, her family relies on a small wooden fence and several mature evergreens and landscaping to block the road noise as it rolls from Washington across the church parking lot.

“It doesn't matter the time of day, because so many cars are at that intersection now, but I can close all my windows and turn my TV on and still hear the traffic rumbling, she said of the estimated 65,000 vehicles to roll through daily.

The $27.8 million project, which took two years, included an additional through lane, new left turn lane, and a dedicated right turn lane in each direction was added. The DuPage River Trail from Hobson Road to Bunting Lane also was completed, and two new underpasses were built to allow pedestrians and bicyclists to pass beneath 75th and Washington streets. The sound walls alone cost $3.5 million.

Bunyea said she thought the intersection would grow busier when she and her husband Ed moved in 16 years ago. And when plans for that growth were discussed in late 2004, Bunyea said the city proposed a sound wall in the right of way near the intersection, similar to those along the rest of the 75th and Washington corridor, that would have surrounded the church, which stands at the corner.

City engineer Bill Novack, however, said such a wall was never considered for around the church.

“The church contacted us when the plans were being discussed and told us they did not want the sound wall to wrap around the corner and close them in, Novack said. “And that's their right as the property owners, not to have their frontage obstructed.

So a plan was devised in which the church would work with residents to put a segment of the wall in an easement on church property.

“We included the wall in the bid package that was awarded so we were ready to go, Novack said.

Utilities were moved and the wall was constructed from Bailey Road north to Bunting Lane, abutting the church property. But in March of this year, Novack said, church leaders decided to deny the easement necessary for the wall to be built on their property.

Church officials declined to comment Wednesday. But Novack said they indicated they were concerned about insurance liability and the loss of the 2- to 5-foot-wide strip of property.

The church's decision, Bunyea said, “really left us in the lurch, but things got worse in August as the work was wrapping up and we got a letter from the city. That was when the city told us they no longer intended to build the wall because there was no easement. I believe the city really botched this all up by not having a Plan B in case the church backed out.

Novack said the city did have a “Plan B building the wall on the Bunyeas' property.

But that would involve removal of dozens of full-grown trees and costly landscaping on the Bunyeas' property.

Instead, she wants the city to continue negotiating with the church to wrap the 75th Street wall around the corner to connect with the Washington Street wall or to work out an agreement with the church for its easement.

But Novack said the city respects the church's property rights, leaving the decision to the Bunyeas.

“It's entirely in their hands. It's all up to them, he said. “But moving forward now could be costly, a week after the project's ribbon-cutting.