Barrington stakes reserves on CN battle, spending reaches $2M

Barrington has already spent $2 million researching and resisting Canadian National's now-approved purchase of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad.

But having now filed legal challenges against the process used by the federal Surface Transportation Board before it OK'd the deal on Christmas Eve, Barrington leaders are facing the question of how much more they're willing to spend - and for what.

Village President Karen Darch said the primary issue has always been one of safety in Barrington, where almost every avenue an ambulance or firetruck might use to reach an emergency could be blocked simultaneously by the same freight train.

Darch also worries about the risk a big increase in freight traffic through town - the expected result of the CN deal - could bring of accidents or spillage, given the tracks' proximity to homes and aquifers for the village's water supply.

"How can you not fight it?" she said.

But the question of how long a fight the village can sustain seems particularly relevant after budget constraints forced the layoffs of 13 employees in the final months of 2008.

Spending amid cuts

Some have charged that the village is simply picking one quality-of-life issue over another by letting workers go as it fights the CN purchase.

Darch said the litigation money is coming from funds specifically reserved for these kinds of matters. The layoffs, on the other hand, were based on the operating fund affected by current downturns in the village's revenues.

Village Manager Denise Pieroni likened the CN fight to one Barrington fought more than 20 years ago to protect a residential neighborhood from the incursion of the proposed Kaplan retail development.

That lawsuit cost well over $500,000, which in today's dollars would be more than a million, Pieroni said.

"In these important issues that really relate to the quality of life and quality of the community, we and other neighboring communities have found it necessary to expend significant dollars," she said.

Added Darch: "For Barrington, CN is not only one of those issues but the granddaddy."

The $2 million the village has spent opposing the CN plan since September 2007 includes legal fees and environmental and engineering studies, Darch said.

The early 2000s saw neighboring South Barrington embroiled in a number of expensive lawsuits triggered by fighting unwanted developments like a Meijer store on its Hoffman Estates border and the subdivision that's now The Woods of South Barrington.

The biggest of these was Mesirow Stein Real Estate's breach-of-contract suit against the village, after a newly elected village board overturned the previous approval of The Woods.

A neighbor's lesson

After more than two years of spending twice the usual amount on legal fees, Village President Frank Munao and the board opted to settle amid growing concern about the cost of the suit.

Still, Munao said the suit did provide leverage to get the developer to modify its plans.

"There were some residents who were willing to go down to the wire on that, but to what end?" Munao said.

When it comes to the CN sale, though, Munao agrees with Darch that Barrington faces a much more perilous situation.

"The railroad has a much greater impact on the community than The Woods ever was," he said. "You can say philosophically we care about our neighboring communities and their quality of life."

At the same time, Munao doesn't blame Hoffman Estates for reaching a financial deal with CN to address its own environmental impacts. No one has as complicated a rail crossing issue as Barrington, he said, and Hoffman Estates has a municipal water supply that doesn't depend on private wells near the tracks.

"I don't feel that Hoffman Estates was selling out," Munao said. "I feel its issues were resolved."