Prairie Parkway

Openlands opposes the construction of the proposed Prairie Parkway, a new four-lane highway in western Kane and Kendall counties.

With a price tag of $1 billion, this north-south connector between I-80 and I-88 offers a poor transportation solution for a growing region and creates numerous problems for agriculture, the environment, and land use planning, including:

• Conversion of Prime Farmland. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) proposes to take over 2,500 acres of prime farmland—with some of the best soils in the nation—to build Prairie Parkway. Almost ninety-seven percent of the targeted property received Land Evaluation Site Assessment scores of 266 to 281 out of 300. (Scores above 226 indicate farmland should be retained for agricultural use, and other alternatives should be considered.)
• Damage to the Environment. The Prairie Parkway will cross waterways at least eighty-one times, potentially harming threatened and endangered species such as osprey, slippershell mussels, rock elm trees, and a nursery of greater redhorse fish. The highway will destroy fifty-four acres of forests where twenty-seven kinds of neo-tropical migrant birds nest. The four-lane highway will also degrade water quality and habitat of pristine streams, such as Big Rock Creek and Aux Sable Creek. IDOT plans to sink three pylons into the Fox River, to build a 1,450-foot bridge connection. (In addition to downplaying the negative effects of runoff, salt, and siltation on sensitive aquatic and riparian habitats, IDOT only proposes to mitigate impacts to approximately 2.31 acres of the fifty-seven jurisdictional wetlands in the direct path of the thirty-seven-mile highway.)
• Disruption of Community Plans. The proposed Prairie Parkway route directly conflicts with Kane County’s land use plan, which is designed to protect both agriculture and a rural way of life in the western half of the county, and would cut through areas set aside for agriculture in other comprehensive land use plans—spurring the conversion of an additional 5,400 acres of farmland for development.

For these reasons, local communities want a better solution. In April 2007, voters in Big Rock and Kaneville townships opposed the highway by eighty-eight percent and eighty-one percent, respectively. Lisbon, Fox, and Seward townships followed suit in February 2008, passing referenda against the Prairie Parkway. State legislators from the area have voiced strong support for a better alternative, and Congressman Bill Foster has pledged to deny any further federal funding to the highway.

Smarter Options
Instead of spending $1 billion dollars on a highway that IDOT admits would only offer “quite small benefits,” the state’s limited funding should be used to improve a local network of roads where communities have planned for development.

Openlands and other environmental and agricultural protection organizations have partnered to form the 47+ Coalition to voice strong support for a smarter alternative to the Prairie Parkway. We’re requesting improvements to local roads that better serve the transportation needs of the region such as:

• The expansion and improvement of the entire stretch of Route 47, between I-80 and I-88, as well as to IL-126, US-34, and IL-71;
• The Eldamain Road expansion and bridge, which creates a Yorkville western route by connecting to Galena Road;
• The WiKaDuKe Trail, which connects I-80 and I-88 by upgrading and connecting existing roads at the eastern edge of Kendall County; and
• Extension of Metra train service from Aurora to Oswego, Montgomery, Plano, and Sandwich.

The 47+ Coalition is advocating for the Illinois General Assembly and U.S. Congressmen to dedicate state and federal funding to widen, connect, and repair these local roads instead of building the Prairie Parkway. Investing in local infrastructure not only resolves traffic problems but gives farmers a choice over the future of their land and minimizes damage to irreplaceable natural areas.  It also can help to more quickly mobilize the local workforce to make these improvements happen.

Additionally, Openlands helped draft a detailed comment letter from the 47+ Coalition highlighting deficiencies in IDOT’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and another comment letter on the final EIS for the Prairie Parkway. The coalition also mapped the first comprehensive view of IDOT’s preferred route through the region, defined its impact on natural areas and wildlife, and provided a sensible transportation alternative for the region.

In April 2009, Citizens Against the Sprawlway and Friends of the Fox River filed a lawsuit challenging the decision by the Federal Highway Administration to approve the Prairie Parkway under the National Environmental Policy Act. The case is pending in federal court.  

For more information about smart alternatives to the Prairie Parkway, please contact Openlands Policy Coordinator Stacy Meyers-Glen via e-mail or by phone at 312-863-6265.