Temporary Metra Access Decision

On Monday, April 4th at 7:00 pm the Elburn Village Board will again discuss the issue of whether or not to allow Metra to establish a temporary station access route through the southeast side of our village. The only reason we are considering this decision is because Metra has voluntarily offered to donate significant infrastructure improvements to our southeast neighborhood in exchange for our approval. Some of these improvements include a new street, new sidewalks, and the possibility of a stoplight configuration at one of our Route 47 intersections. These improvements alone represent almost $1 million dollars of capital investment into the neighborhood on our southeast side.

There are three potential access routes into the future Elburn Metra station. Each route has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

The first route, and the one that Metra will use if the village rejects Metra's offer of improvements, is to travel directly up to the coachyard on future Anderson Road, and then turn left into the station on Metra's own property. This route eliminates the traffic concerns on our southeast side, but also removes approximately $800,000 of sight and sound reducing berm included in the original Metra coachyard plans.

The second potential route goes east on Elburn's South Street, until it connects to a future Fourth Street block, and then turns north for one block, and then east into the station. This route helps connect the west side of Elburn the the east side at South Street. It also makes the most sense when considering the value of Metra's offered intersection improvements. Unfortunately, the required Fourth Street right of way needed to complete this route is controlled by land speculator Terry Grove and his Grove/Elburn investment partners. My impression is that Mr. Grove is attempting to leverage our village into an expedited approval process for the rest of his property that surrounds the future Metra station. It is also my opinion that Mr. Grove is a master at erecting roadblocks to development that have forced both Elburn and Metra to do things "his way." Honestly, I am not anxious to offer this gentleman further concessions that benefit his speculators in the short term, and only harm our community in the long term.

The third and final potential route into the future Metra station is to travel directly east on Kansas Street. This choice was always intended to be an emergency access route into the property. That is until such time as the future streets built around the Metra station were ready to make connections to our existing southeast side. Please understand that Metra as a property owner who legally connects to Kansas Street is entitled to access there, just as any homeowner living on Kansas Street has driveway access to the street in front of their own homes. The chief disadvantages of this route are that it affects the most Elburn residents, and that the route itself begins at a three-way corner configuration at Route 47.

I expect that many residents will want to attend tomorrow night's meeting. After a short presention reviewing the options that are available to us, rest assured that we will listen to every resident that would like to be heard on the issue. Also, understand there will be no final decision, and no vote taken at this meeting that affects our residents living in the neighborhood on Elburn's southeast side. If more people show up than our meeting room can handle, we will schedule additional meetings to accomodate as much public input as possible.

I expect that much more will be written in the newspapers and communicated to our residents before the final temporary Metra access decision is made. Calling a trustee, or writing them a respectful letter or e-mail expressing your opinion is just as effective as attending tomorrow night's meeting. So, if you want to stay home and watch the "Fighting Illini" shoot for the national basketall championship, don't feel guilty. I wish I could be there with you to cheer them on.

Finally, later this week I intend to blog about the "SCRIPTS" decision making acronym. Stay tuned!