Hawthorn Woods residents to hear possible impacts of Rt. 53 extension plan
The potential impacts of the proposed Route 53 extension on the landscape, financing and environment in Hawthorn Woods are among the issues to be presented to residents Monday at a town-hall meeting.
Village officials will host an information session at 7 p.m. at the St. Matthew Lutheran School & Church, 24500 N. Old McHenry Road, to provide a brief history and otherwise bring residents up to speed on the $2.35 billion to $2.65 billion proposal.
For example, parts of the proposed road would be elevated and could have adverse affect on the sensitive Indian Creek Wetland Complex, village officials have said. Noise, light, pollution and visual impact are other issues to be considered, Mayor Joe Mancino said.
"We are presenting a comprehensive look at what our task force has experienced the past 18 months and specifically, the issues the village will be facing that residents should know about," Mancino said.
Road alignment, financing, land use and environmental issues all are factors that could affect the village, he said. A task force of staff, consultants and board members created to digest the ongoing feasibility process is expected to present its observations.
Dual but separate groups have been considering potential ways to pay for the road and the impact on land uses in the Route 53 corridor.
The former group already has made recommendations to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority that include a 4-cent-per-gallon county gasoline tax and a special taxing district. The land use group is nearing the end of a similar process.
Mancino said he wanted to hold a town-hall meeting before that wrapped up.
"Many residents have been clamoring to me personally to give them information," he said. "We want to create a public record before it leaves these local commissions" and is considered by the tollway board.
The village has not taken a position on the road, but residents should know how the feasibility process has developed and what impacts should be expected, he said.
"It's simply an informational meeting to get the residents engaged in the process," said Pam Newton, the village's chief operating officer. "There are a lot of people, I think, who believe the Route 53 project is dead because of the lack of funding and the financial state of Illinois."
Hawthorn Woods and four other towns in the Route 53 corridor sent letters to the tollway board objecting to a potential loss of local control over development and the land use planning process.
This past week, county board Chairman Aaron Lawlor, co-chairman of the land use committee, wrote tollway officials to say the group has been "working diligently" to address the concerns.
He said the land use plan will not require communities to give up any authority and added that details of a corridor plan should be available for review before a committee vote.
"The Route 53/120 project, like any project of this size, is complex, challenging and comes with a number of questions that we must work together to answer," Lawlor wrote to the heads of the toll authority and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which is overseeing the land use process.