Geneva cool to county transit plans

Kane County planners want Geneva's opinion about public transportation, both on a Randall Road bus route that exists today and for the county in the next 30 years.

And Geneva aldermen had a couple of strong ones Monday night.

The draft Kane County 2040 transit plan suggests changing some of the land uses along Randall Road to put more people near it to make bus rapid transit viable. It also suggested some circulator bus routes between the downtowns of Geneva and St. Charles, and Geneva and Batavia. And it notes a longtime problem - the lack of east-west connections between major north-south roads.

But several aldermen questioned some of the assumptions and recommendations, particularly whether they would benefit Geneva residents.

The county's suggestion that multistory, mixed-use development be encouraged along Randall drew perhaps the coolest response. Most of Geneva's stretch of that road is already developed with single-story shopping centers, Delnor Hospital and some single-family residences. The likely way landowners would change those areas would be if it made financial sense - such as if they can't get tenants for those shopping centers, community development Director Dick Untch said. Alderman Charles Brown was critical of the focus on Randall, saying that he doubted it would ever have a dense-enough population to support mass transit without heavy subsidies.

"In 50 years, the highest-density populations will still be the ones we have today," he said - Aurora and Elgin, and the downtowns of St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia. The county should concentrate on serving those, via Route 31, he said.

The other study is of Pace bus route 529 on Randall from Sullivan Road in Aurora to the Kane County Judicial Center campus on Route 38 near St. Charles. The great majority of the riders are traveling to and from the judicial center. County planners have suggested creating some new stops to increase ridership and putting up shelters. There are none now; riders wait on the shoulder.

One proposed stop is at Randall and Fabyan Parkway, which has no crosswalks or sidewalks. Randall is six lanes wide there, and Fabyan five. There are shopping centers on all corners.

"It makes no sense to put a bus stop at Randall and Fabyan (Parkway) because our police and fire departments would have to scoop the poor people off the pavement," he said.

Both plans can be viewed at co.kane.il.us/dot.