Local residents oppose Connector
Marge
Wilson
Of the Suburban Journals
November 10
Monroe County Clarion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
This even though the connector—whether multi-lane highway, light rail or other
transportation method—will not be built for many years, maybe up to 20, due to
lack of funding.
Some of the worries include residents not being able to sell their property if
it is known to be in the protected corridor; lack of access to currently used
roads; lack of freedom to renovate or expand without consultation with IDOT;
and possible damage to groundwater in karst areas.
IDOT representatives at one of the final public hearings on the location of the
corridor, a three-hour open house Nov. 4 at The Falls convention center in
Columbia, attempted to answer these concerns.
Candace Sauermann, head of the Gateway Connector studies, said IDOT has a plan
to handle the sale difficulty problem.
"If you want to sell your property and you can't sell it because it is in
the corridor, write IDOT and tell them you've listed with Realtors and can't
sell it for fair market value. Then we would consider it a hardship and we'll
buy it for fair market value," she said.
However, against this profession is the comment by a "Stop 158"
member giving out opposition literature at the entrance to The Falls Nov. 4.
Richard Ellerbrake of Lebanon, who moved to Illinois from St. Louis because of
Illinois' country-like charm when he was still chief executive officer of
Deaconess Hospitals in St. Louis, said he heard of a person going through this
process of selling to IDOT.
He said IDOT's choice of an "independent appraiser" came up with a
price of from $100,000-$200,000, but when the situation went to court, the
price that came out was about $800,000.
Answering the difficulty of being cut off by the corridor from usual access to
desired destinations, Bridgett Jacquot of IDOT sought to quell fears.
"In the next phase (after the final public hearing on the corridor route
yesterday at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville) we'll do a detailed
engineering study," Jacquot said. "It's not our intention to cut off
access. It is to provide people with access."
She said this Phase I will also include an environmental impact study that will
look into problems like contamination of ground water by materials like rock
salt seeping through sinkholes and other karst land.
Possible environmental harm is one of the main concerns of area resident Dean
Pruitt of Stop 158 and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club's Jack Norman of Columbia quoted a recent chapter statement
that points out the "proposed facility is a dangerous generator of air,
land and water pollution that is likely to promote conversion to land uses
unfriendly to human communities, is a threat to the endangered cave anthropod
in the karst terrain of St. Clair and Monroe counties and is a misuse of public
funds."
The "misuse of public funds" statement by the organization also
echoes the contention of individual residents and the Stop 158 group (the
connector would follow Illinois 158 to a large extent).
Rural Millstadt resident William Cunningham, whose home narrowly escapes being
on the route, said recently, "There's been no perceptible increase in
traffic for 18 or 20 years," the amount of time he and his wife, Nancy, have
lived in their home formerly owned by the father of renowned musician Miles
Davis Jr.
"In rush hour, you're lucky to have to wait for two cars to go by at
Douglas-Freeburg Road and Illinois 158," Cunningham said. "And do
they really need a highway from south St. Louis County to Mid-America Airport?
There's all kind of gate space at Lambert St. Louis Airport now."
Nancy Cunningham said before the hearing she and her husband would be
"eternally grateful" if the corridor avoids their house, which now
appears to be the case. However, she feels for people still on the corridor.
"I do have real concern for the 300-plus families that will be displaced
(along the whole route) and for the land which may be used differently,"
she said.