After summoning the same committee to vote about the same issue for a second time, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning got the same result: a 15-5 approval of its Land Use Committee’s report about extending Illinois Route 53.
The group turned in its first 15-5 vote on Nov. 5, at the conclusion of a meeting held at the College of Lake County. During that meeting, though, committee member Joe Mancino — the mayor of Hawthorn Woods — pointed out that the gathering might have been a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act, because no one seemed to have posted an agenda at the door.
CMAP re-convened the group Thursday, this time at a Lake County facility in Libertyville.
CMAP is a state agency that, along with the Illinois Tollway and several other groups, has renewed the long-studied concept of extending Route 53 from its northern terminus at Lake Cook Road in Buffalo Grove up to Route 120 in Grayslake. As part of the 25-mile project, Route 120 would be widened as well. The tollway’s studies currently put the price tag between $2.3 billion and $2.6 billion.
The second meeting attracted approximately the same-size crowd, nearly all of whom railed against the idea of extending Route 53, just as they had the first time.
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