Church, State Reach Compromise on Road Project

Highland Park’s became the winner of a tug of war between the City Council and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) when a dispute between the city and the agency was finally resolved April 28.

The city was about to approve a contract with IDOT to widen Half Day Road between the Deerfield village limits and Highway 41 to four lanes as a routine matter at its .

Councilwoman Nancy Rotering, who , had the item pulled for further discussion, as the church was going to lose its direct access to the expanded roadway under the construction plans. 

“I am the liaison to the Transportation Commission. I was aware of the potential impact on the residents and the church,” Rotering said.

As the council began to debate the matter, more and more questions arose. That was when Councilman Jim Kirsch asked about the project's benefit. 

“I can think of no benefit,” Public Works Director Mary Anderson said at the April 11 meeting. “It’s not a good use of our resources to take on IDOT,” she added with a warning.

However, Kirsch had no compunction about challenging the state government. 

“As a community we had a number of concerns,” Kirsch said. “IDOT did not deem us significant enough to meet our concerns. That’s why I moved to table the matter.”

The council tabled the contract’s approval and required IDOT to come to its April 25 meeting. 

IDOT official Catherine Kibble attended the Rev. Alan Chan of the 200-member church and its secretary, Jed Lam, were also there explaining the hardship their organization would face if the project was approved in its current form.

The city was ready to delay the work until the church was satisfied. 

Since no council meeting was scheduled before May 9, Kibble explained the state faced potentially higher costs if the contract was not approved by May 1. That is when the council gave City Manager Dave Limardi provisional authority to sign the agreement if the church made satisfactory arrangements with IDOT. 

However, IDOT informed the council that it was only willing to modify the project if the church paid for the changes. A church official said his treasury did not have nearly enough money to meet the expenses. 

“They [IDOT] wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars and there was no benefit to Highland Park,” Kirsch said. “We wanted to see a discussion between IDOT and the church.” 

In talks that followed, the church and IDOT agreed to modifications for a left-turn exit from the church’s parking lot at the state’s expense. 

“Our regional engineer reviewed it [the project] and determined the left turn in was a private benefit but the left turn out was not,” Kibble said. 

Lam was pleased with the outcome and thankful both city and state officials. 

“We did a lot of praying,” Lam said. “We wanted full access and we agreed to access out. The City Council was very helpful getting us together with IDOT.” 

Once the project was tabled, Rotering began a behind the scenes effort to arrange a compromise. She worked with IDOT officials and state Rep. Karen May (D-Highland Park) to reach a favorable deal for all sides. 

Rotering became concerned the council would postpone the signing of the contract until its May 9, when the newly elected council members are scheduled to be sworn in. She knew that would make compromise harder for IDOT and pushed for the provisional approval. 

“Rep. May had been working on getting the funding [for the project] for a number of years,” Rotering said. “It is important we all worked together [to] expedite an agreement and everybody could be accommodated.”