Palos Heights officials have announced that Metra will fund the construction of a station and parking lot in the city, jump-starting a project that has been mired in legal battles and infighting for nearly 10 years.
“It will do nothing but enhance the town, it will stop air pollution and even make home values go up,” Mayor Dean Koldenhoven said about the venture.
The station will be built on 40 acres north of the Cal-Sag Channel and east of Southwest Highway. The property is owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
Koldenhoven said Metra, which is expected to lease the land from the district, will fully fund the project using a $2 million congestion mitigation air quality federal grant, earmarked for cities wishing to improve air quality and traffic congestion by providing an alternative to driving. Metra officials also have asked the Illinois Department of Transportation for $800,000 to make structural improvements along Southwest Highway near the site.
The announcement comes after almost a decade of contentious debate between the city and residents about whether public transportation to Palos Heights was needed and worth the cost of building a station and parking lot for about 500 cars.
Aldermanic and community support for the project was strong when the idea was introduced by the late Mayor Eugene Simpson in 1989. Three years later, the city filed a condemnation suit against the Driscoll family, seeking their 10-acre farm for the train stop.
But the Driscolls wanted to keep the land because it was the last tract remaining from more than 1,000 acres that their ancestors had owned in the area in the 1800s.
During the three years of the lawsuit, the issue became a political fireball as aldermen and residents clashed over whether a train stop should take precedence over private land rights.
Though the city won the condemnation suit in 1993, an appellate court overturned the decision later that year. The Driscolls exercised their right under condemnation law in 1995, seeking to recoup legal and related costs in defending their property from the city.
They estimated they spent $106,000 on legal fees and $26,000 in related costs since the case began in 1991. In 1995 the council negotiated a settlement with the family, agreeing to pay them $113,678.
The City Council decided to turn the issue over to voters in 1996.
Train station supporters argued that the station would lead to higher property values, new revenue and convenience for residents, especially workers who travel to Chicago. Opposing residents and council members argued that the station and lot would prove too expensive, having already eaten up more than $1 million in planning and legal fees. Residents voted no on the measure.
But according to Koldenhoven, their vote would have been different if they had been given accurate information about the train stop and lot.
The train line will run southwest, possibly to Manhattan in Will County, in addition to going north to Chicago.
After Metra receives federal funding, engineering on the project will begin. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 1999.
