Carpool lot planned for Lake in the Hills

McHenry County commuters may soon get the chance to take congestion matters into their own hands.

Lake in the Hills has been marked for the county's first Park and Ride lot, slated for the southwest corner of Virginia Road and Route 31. The lot would be a place for commuters to meet and park their cars in order to carpool.

Funded with a $350,000 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality federal grant, $30,000 of the money will be used for engineering. The remaining $320,000 is for construction of the 110-spot parking lot.

"We hope to have the lot completed by 2010," said Jason Osborn, transportation, planning and program coordinator for McHenry County.

"The plan now goes to federal agents, who will review the plan over the next month and a half," he said.

The lot plan involves realigning the Virginia Road intersection with Route 31.

"We want to bring (Virginia Road) to the north to make it more of a perpendicular intersection with 31," he said.

This would vacate land in the current intersection's southwest corner, opening it up for the proposed lot.

With any luck, Osborn says, the federal government will approve the plan without a hitch.

"We feel confident with this one, but it's not 'official official,' " he said.

The county already has approached Lake in the Hills officials to make sure the area will be policed appropriately.

"We can't have a place where we don't have anything that takes care of safety and monitoring issues," Osborn said.