Will County leaders have stepped into the fray over whether 10-year-old plans to extend 95th Street southeastward should move forward, arguing it should and authorizing their lawyers to begin talks about buying land to build the new roadway.
The move comes despite serious reservations by some Naperville city leaders, who say alternative road plans should be investigated because the extension project is costly and potentially risky for the environment.
Bill Brestal, attorney for the landowners, said he has received a letter from the Will County state’s attorney’s office about buying the roughly 8 acres of open land southeast of 95th Street and Plainfield-Naperville Road. If a purchase price can’t be reached, the Will County Board could condemn the property, acquiring it by using its eminent domain authority.
Two separate groups own the land. One portion of the land is owned through a trust run by developers, including Joe Keim, and the other is owned by Ray and Frank Keller, owner of Keller’s Farm, Brestal said.
The move by the state’s attorney’s office was made at the behest of the Will County Board, which has long supported the extension plans of 95th Street and expected developments to be built around the proposed roadway.
The plans call for extending 95th Street–which now stops at Knoch Knoll Road in Naperville–about 1 mile southeast to Boughton Road, where drivers could then get on Interstate Highway 55. The expansion, which would also include building a bridge over the DuPage River, is expected to clear traffic congestion of motorists trying to get from the area’s burgeoning subdivisions to the rest of the county and downtown Chicago.
“We feel this is the proper way to proceed,” said Will County Board member Susan Riley (R-Naperville).
But Naperville city leaders, especially City Manager Peter Burchard, have prevented the estimated $27 million plans from moving forward because it might be too pricey.
Burchard said Will County’s move will need to be backed up with money.
“Our hope is that if Will County is taking this kind of aggressive action to acquire property that they also show similar aggressiveness in funding the project,” he said.
Leaders have long said the project would be funded by the Cities of Naperville and Bolingbrook, as well as Will County and Illinois.
Burchard said the four-lane highway extension would not only be too expensive but also have an adverse environmental impact and cut through land where arrowheads and other American Indian artifacts have been found.
Instead, he has proposed investigating whether alternate plans could work, including one that calls for widening Plainfield-Naperville Road south to either 111th or 119th Streets, then widening those streets east to Weber Road, which then flows south directly to I-55.
Burchard said the Naperville City Council is expected to look at the project and alternative plans in the coming months.
“We’re still waiting for someone to quantify the benefit of extending 95th Street,” Burchard said.
But Riley said numerous regional transportation studies have done just that.
“This is not a Will County versus Naperville issue,” she said. “It’s a regional planning issue.”
