McHenry County Blog

Look what just popped into my email inbox:

You will notice that no mention is made of McHenry County College in the FAQ’s below:

I am in receipt of your correspondence sent to the Metra Board recently in which you raise questions about Metra’s procurement of land in unincorporated McHenry County near Ridgefield. Because the questions you raised were asked by others, Metra staff has created a “Frequently Asked Question” information sheet that will likely answer them and provide you with additional information.

I hope this will answer the questions you raised.

Sincerely,

Metra Board

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING RIDGEFIELD

Q: Why is Metra buying property near Ridgefield?

A: Planning studies have shown that there will be a need to address additional commuter rail service options between Woodstock and Crystal Lake in McHenry County. Population in the area is projected to grow 73% by 2030. McHenry is one of the fastest growing counties in Illinois and Metra needs to stay ahead of this growth by being prepared to provide this population viable, commuter rail transportation opportunities.

Q: Why is Metra buying property from the McHenry County Chairman?

A: Metra has been interested in acquiring property on the north side of the tracks in this area for a number of years. McHenry County Chairman, Ken Koehler, through a trust, is a part owner of property located on the north side of the tracts that is about 3.2 miles North West of the current Crystal Lake station. Metra’s Board of Directors, comprised of 11 directors representing all six counties and the city of Chicago, are aware of this transaction and voted 9-0 in favor of this acquisition.

Q: Did Metra’s McHenry County Director vote for this project?

A: Director Jack Schaffer’s advertising company has a small billboard located on the Ridgefield property that will be removed if Metra actually closes on the real estate transaction. While Director Schaffer stated in the public session in August 2009 that he was very much in favor of the purchase and had a legal right to vote on the transaction, after consulting with Metra’s General Counsel, however, he decided to abstain from actually voting so that there would not be even an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Q: Why is Metra not building a station on the south side of the tracks near Ridgefield?

A: Metra recognizes that there are issues that need to be addressed with locating a station at this location, but Metra’s primary desire and experience has been to keep our morning commuters on the same side of the inbound tracks as much as possible, which happen to be the north tracks on this line.

If you look at the location of stations on all three Union Pacific lines operating Metra service, almost all of them are located on the north or east side. In addition, a south side location would necessitate purchasing some property on the north side to build a depot or significant waiting areas for in-bound morning commuters. Also, with a south side parking location in Ridgefield, a north side Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department access road from the existing public street to the depot site would be required.

Q: Will Metra build a station on the north side of the tracks after the purchase?

A: While it is our desire to build a station on the north side of the tracks, we are realistic. We acknowledge that there are many factors at play wherever a station is considered, including cost, traffic, safety, environmental, and many others.

Q: What will prevent Metra from purchasing the Ridgefield property?

A: There is some confusion here. Metra’s Board of Directors voted to give the Executive Director the authority to purchase the property; however, the contract has various pre-conditions before Metra actually goes forward and closes on the purchase and sale agreement. For instance, Metra requires that the City of Crystal Lake and Metra enter into an acceptable annexation agreement, an operation and maintenance agreement, and, if applicable, a recapture agreement for any direct improvements Metra installs that would benefit future developers.

Q: How can I express my concerns, opposition, or support for a Ridgefield station?

A: Contrary to what some citizens may say, Metra is not short circuiting the normal development process relating to the construction of a station. Local citizens can always express their opinion when Metra approaches the City of Crystal Lake during the annexation process.

If there are other units of government, such as McHenry County, that have jurisdiction over road access or environmental requirements, citizens can bring their concerns or comments to them as well.

This is a process that Metra has been through dozens of times over the past 25 years, and we encourage citizen participation.

Q: Why isn’t Metra building a station near my hometown instead of Ridgefield?

A: Just because Metra is purchasing land at Ridgefield it doesn’t mean that Metra is precluded from pursuing other station developments.

The selection of station sites is a dynamic process. Many different factors are considered as part of station selection, including: the proximity of the station to the communities that would be served, the proximity to residential developments (existing and future), as well as the proximity to employment and/or recreational destinations and major highways or access roads. Any environmental conditions including wetlands, floodplains, heavily wooded areas, or other sensitive locations, should be minimally or not impacted by the station development. Another significant factor that is considered when selecting station locations is the availability of property needed for station and parking facilities. From an operational perspective there are other factors too, including the amount of improvements needed to add to or upgrade the railroad tracks and any signaling.

In 2007, Metra completed an Alternatives Analysis (AA) for the Union Pacific Northwest (UP-NW) Line Upgrade project. The Locally Preferred Alternative that was selected during this process includes extending the UP-NW Line to Johnsburg, constructing new modernized coach yards in Johnsburg and Woodstock, building three new stations on the line at

• Johnsburg,
• Prairie Grove, and
• Ridgefield,

adding rolling stock and improving signaling, track infrastructure, and stations along the line.

All of these improvements will enable Metra to decrease travel times for existing customers, extend additional service to outlying areas in McHenry County, and add capacity to accommodate projected ridership growth throughout the line. Metra is currently undertaking an Environmental Assessment on the project, and is awaiting approval from the Federal Transit Administration to begin Preliminary Engineering. In addition to the UP-NW Line, Metra completed an AA on the Union Pacific West Line Upgrade in 2007, and AA’s for the STAR Line and SouthEast Service are on-going, with anticipated completion in fall 2009. These four projects comprise the Metra Connects program, and are Metra’s priority projects. Additional system expansion beyond these four projects will be contemplated once these projects have sufficiently advanced through the planning and environmental phases of project development.

Q: Was Metra pressured into buying the Ridgefield property?

A: No. While many sellers are often anxious to sell their properties, especially in the current real estate market, Metra’s determination of when and where to buy property is now, and has always been, determined by an evaluation of what is in the best interest of our regional commuter rail system. The same holds true for where a station is ultimately built. Metra is considered by many in the industry to be the premier commuter rail system in the country.

A large part of our success is our ability to work cooperatively with local communities, while always keeping in perspective the regional needs of the system.

Metra recognizes there will be some neighbors who have legitimate concerns about how improvements might affect their community, property values, and daily lives. As always, we look forward to working with constructive community leaders in maintaining a good working relationship that will benefit our commuters.

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The top map from Google shows approximately where on Country Club Road, the Ridgefield commuter parking lot will be.

Next is the 17.3 acre site with the “For Sale” sign. Alexander Lumber’s new site is in the background where 84 Lumber used to be.

Next is an aerial look at Downtown Ridgefield. It shows the narrow roads through which much of the traffic to the 757-vehicle parking lot would travel. (Can you see a Walgreen or CVS on the north side of the intersection where the antique shops now sit? A traffic critique is here.)

The site can be seen from the other side of the tracks in the photo with Seeger’s grain elevators in the foreground.

Below is the site (circled in yellow) offered on the Route 14 side of the tracks by Craig Steagall. It could have a pretty straight shot to McHenry County College. More of Steagall’s critique here and here.

Next is the 575-vehicle parking lot. Click to enlarge and you will see there is no station, but there are drainage ponds on this portion of the Crystal Lake watershed.

Below outlined in blue is the 57-acre McHenry County College Gilger property that was bought last year by McHenry County College for $67,000 per acre. (Metra is paying $81,789 an acre for 17.3 acres.) Note that MCC’s land is right across Ridgefield Road from the train tracks. If Metra were interested in best serving McHenry County College perhaps an arrangement could be worked out where MCC would provide a 737-space parking lot and Metra could use the money it would spend on the parking lot to build an elevated walkway over Ridgefield Road and the Union Pacific tracks with commuter stops and shelters on both sides of the tracks. Metra made no contact with MCC from January 5, 2009, when the site was preliminarily selected and August 14th, when the Metra board authorized its purchase. A meeting will occur now that the decision has been made.

Another view of Metra’s Ridgefield commuter site is seen next to the barb wire fence of soon-to-be Alexander Lumber.

An aerial view of the area from McHenry County College to McConnell Road on the edge of Bull Valley is show in the bottom picture from Google. The real estate on Country Club Road from Ridgefield to McConnell Road will be under extraordinary pressure for development once Crystal Lake annexes the Koehler-Gary Seigmeier Estate property next to it.

I emailed a Freedom of Information request to Metra yesterday, asking for

“the memo that led to the elimination of the site nearest to Lily Pond Road.”

Pretty specific, wouldn’t you say?

Here’s the reply:

“On August 18, 2009, we received a written request for access to Metra records. Metra hereby notifies you that it will need additional time to respond to your request. We anticipate providing you a response by September 8, 2009.

“The reason for this extension is as follows:

“The request for records cannot be complied with by the public body within the time limits prescribed by paragraph (c) of this Section without unduly burdening or interfereing with the operations of the public body.”

Must be a really, really busy time for Metra, if its employees can’t find such a memo.

And, if none exists, all Metra has to do is tell me it does not exist.

After having been public in a Northwest Herald story on August 5th–a mere nine days ago–Metra’s board is scheduled to purchase 17 acres in Ridgefield for $1.5 million from a trust half-owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler today.

The preliminary concept plan, however, was completed on January 5, 2009.

No public hearings about the suitability of this major traffic generator have been or will be held by Metra, according to an aide to Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano.

The purchase document states,

although former McHenry County College President Walt Packard told the MCC Board on the night it paid $67,000 per acre for 57 acres across the road from the railroad tracks that

“the property was perfectly sited to take advantage of a future Ridgefield Metra station maybe 20 years away.”

There will be 757 parking spots on the Crystal Lake watershed property.

The purchase is contingent on

• funding availability
• an annexation agreement with Crystal Lake
• approval of various permits and
• Crystal Lake’s agreement to operate and maintain the facilities.

Among other conditions are that

• Crystal Lake will not require Metra to “extend the City’s water and sewer systems to the Property”
• an “authorized and executed intergovernmental recapture agreement by and among the Purchaser, the City of Crystal Lake and McHenry County which may be expended by the Purchaser for improvements which benefit other properties, whether they develop in the City of Crystal Lake or within the jurisdiction of McHenry County, which is in form and substance acceptable to Purchaser in its sole discretion”

According to the documents being considered,

“Metra board member and former State Senator Jack Schaffer informed Metra personnel that Liberty Outdoor Advertising, a company Director Schaffer has an interest in, has a small sign structure on the property through a long standing Agreement. Subsequent to any closing, however, Meta will require the sign to be removed promptly, usually within 30 days depending upon weather conditions.”

Metra wants the deal closed in 120 days, but is willing to wait longer.

The seller and buyer “represents and warrants to Purchaser that the only real estate broker utilized by the Seller and Beneficiaries is Mike Deacon in connection with the purchase and sale of the Property to whom Seller and Beneficiaries have agreed to pay a commission.” The layout seen above is contained on an earlier page.

Among the attached exhibits is a blank page for “Preliminary Concept Plan.”

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If the train station is built, it would be visible across the tracks next to the barbed wire fence. Click to enlarge the image.

So I’m trying to track down what is going to happen about the proposed purchase of the Ridgefield commuter station site that the Northwest Herald says is half owned by McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler.

I’d like to know what’s at the end of the tunnel before my tax dollars get there.

I went to the search engine and typed in the location of the proposed site: “Ridgefield.” Below you see what I found.

“Your search for ridgefield did not match any documents,”

was the message on the screen.

The Metra agenda is not published online, as is the agenda of McHenry County College.

McHenry County College does not have a stellar record of publishing its agenda and board packet before its meeting, but it usually does so.

Media relations woman Meg Reile emailed me the agenda for tomorrow’s board meeting says,

Ordinance authorizing a Purchase and Sale Agreement between Metra and Amcore Bank as Trustee of Trust No. 3582.

That’s it.

I called the Metra Board Secretary Lisa Murphy and was told the board packet would be online starting in September. That would be good.

But I’m interested in tomorrow’s board packet, so, asking for whatever would be in the board packet concerning the Ridgefield station, I gave her my phone and fax numbers.

Comments may be sent to Metra Board members here metraboard@metrarr.com

More than one person has reacted to Metra’s proposal to build a train station about as far from McHenry County College as is possible. Below I share some thoughts that have come from readers:

I am becoming concerned about the Metra plans to build a station on Ken Koehler’s property (the Northwest Herald reported that the parcel is owned by a trust in which Koehler has an interest), rather than something closer to the college and more accessible to Route 14.

If you look at the map, there are three possible locations.

One is on Ridgefield Road along the tracks abutting the back route to the college, although it is a triangular sliver and may have problem with water and/or toxic waste from the company next door.

It would also require that the parking be across the street from the station so people would have to cross, which could be a problem.

The other site would be just West of the soccer complex. That site appears to be large, dry, has access to Route 14, and would allow some type of potential pedestrian access to the college.

With the Koehler site, traffic is going to have to go through the middle of Ridgefield at an already dangerous intersection and it would not serve very many people to the North. I presume that people would have to exit onto Country Club Road so as not to cross the tracks, although people might attempt to shortcut over the tracks if they are on foot on route to the college.

All in all, this appears to be a much inferior site to the one to South of the tracks. That parcel is already inside the city limits of CL as far as I can tell from the map on the city’s website, which I presume is current.

Another concern expressed is that Ridgefield is too small to protect itself by incorporating.

Short of incorporation, they are going to be swallowed up by Crystal Lake.

When I was posting about the 400th day of Crystal Lake Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% city sales tax increase, I was fantasizing that Alexander Lumber was moving to the unincorporated Ridgefield location of the old 84 Lumber property in order to obtain a competitive advantage over Crystal Lake-based lumber yards like Menard’s and Home Depot.

That would be the result, but the reason for the relocation from its current 6.33 acre Virginia Street Road and Rakow Road location is more prosaic, even though economically based.

The firm is combining it McHenry and Crystal Lake locations, according to Alexander’s manager.

Then, I saw the Northwest Herald story about Metra’s wanting to build a Ridgefield commuter station.

It’s right next to the Alexandra Lumber site. You see it in the foreground here from Country Club Road.

Here’s a view from the tracks next to Seeger’s Grain elevators. As nearly as I can figure it, the station platform would be at the tip of the more or less pie-shaped property beyond the barbed wire fence of the Alexander Lumber Company property in the foreground.

Kevin Craver’s article says putting the commuter station on the property is contingent on its being annexed to Crystal Lake.

If that happened, there is no doubt that the city council would also annex Alexander Lumber, removing, of course, the 0.75% sales tax advantage the future unincorporated local bestows.

How would Crystal Lake annex property in the fiercely independent Ridgefield area?

Take a look at this map:

The Google map pointer is across the street from the proposed Metra station.

Crystal Lake’s city boundary is west of Route 14 just south of the northern section of Ridgefield Road. My understanding is that the property owner across Route 14 to the east, north of McHenry County College would not mind being annexed.

Somehow the city would have to annex a parcel at least 72 feet wide (remember how O’Hare Airport is annexed to Chicago by the Kennedy Expressway). Maybe it will be across the cornfield to the west of Ridgefield’s Regional Sports Center.

= = = = =
Correction noted by a reader:

” In the article you wrote ‘remember how O’Hare Airport is annexed to Chicago by the Kennedy Expressway.’ The expressway has nothing to do with how the airport property was annexed to Chicago. The connection between O’Hare and the rest of the city is about one half mile south of the expressway. There is a narrow corridor of city land along the north side of Foster Avenue sandwiched between Rosemont and Schiller Park.”
= = = = =

Looking at the map, it appears that the proposed station location will not be convenient for McHenry County College students, especially, if they had to walk a Country Club Road route to the campus. (My guess is they would just walk across the train tracks, taking the shortest route to their classrooms.)

But maybe there won’t be many of them taking the train.

Although the tracks are close to Ridgefield Road near the college’s eastern entrance, the land in that area is low and often covered with standing water.

If the college board wanted to kick in enough money, maybe the station could be built near where its Tartan Drive butts into Ridgefield Road. It could even donate part of the recently purchased 56 acres the land and ask Metra to use whatever it planned to use to buy land on Country Club Road to construct an over- or underpass to the nearby tracks.

It is worth noting that former Metra Board Chairman Jeff Ladd lives in the neighborhood and long sought a Ridgefield train station.

There’s one other observation that might be of interest. Realtor Mike Deacon’s name is on the sign at the Metra site. It’s probably just that he is a friend of McHenry County Board Chairman and former part owner of Flowerwood, whom the Northwest Herald reports is part of a trust owing the property.

Deacon was also the broker when the Crystal Lake Park District purchased Viking Dodge. Note that the Viking sign has been removed.

I don’t know about the city council and planning commission members, but “many outraged emails” are arriving in Crystal Lake Park Board inboxes.

The proposal is to allow T-Mobile to build a 75-foot cellular phone tower.

And why does parkside neighbor Tom Eibel think the park board voted for the proposal?

“Greed.”

That’s what he told me Saturday afternoon as he was walking around the site.

He is the one who signed a letter to neighbors.

Put yourself in the places of people who very probably paid extra to have their homes’ back yards facing the open space of the park.

You would be incensed if your park board sold one of the selling points of your home—an unrestricted view of open space—for $2,000 a month.

I don’t know how high the flag pole you see above at the Metra Train Station in Downtown Crystal Lake is, but the T-Mobile cell tower next to the tennis courts will be 75-feet high.

The Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission the night after the election at 7:30 PM.

If you can’t make it but would like to talk to a commissioner, James F. Batastini let me know his phone numbers and said I could publish them:

815-455-4398

The cell tower you see from the top of the playland at Ken Bird Park is simulated.

I don’t know about the city council and planning commission members, but “many outraged emails” are arriving in Crystal Lake Park Board inboxes.

The proposal is to allow T-Mobile to build a 75-foot cellular phone tower.

And why does parkside neighbor Tom Eibel think the park board voted for the proposal?

“Greed.”

That’s what he told me Saturday afternoon as he was walking around the site.

He is the one who signed a letter to neighbors.

Put yourself in the places of people who very probably paid extra to have their homes’ back yards facing the open space of the park.

You would be incensed if your park board sold one of the selling points of your home—an unrestricted view of open space—for $2,000 a month.

I don’t know how high the flag pole you see above at the Metra Train Station in Downtown Crystal Lake is, but the T-Mobile cell tower next to the tennis courts will be 75-feet high.

The Crystal Lake Planning and Zoning Commission the night after the election at 7:30 PM.

If you can’t make it but would like to talk to a commissioner, James F. Batastini let me know his phone numbers and said I could publish them:

815-455-4398

The cell tower you see from the top of the playland at Ken Bird Park is simulated.