Lakewood Grove-- G23 Development Ground Breaking

Just last week we had a ground breaking for the Lakewood Grove Commercial project. We had a nice turnout for the shovel action, but the big machine in the background of the picture did the majority of the work however. I blogged about this project awhile ago here. So its nice to see the next step taking place.

The developer has a nice PDF for the project on this link. Its quite informative and we should be seeing some action in terms of retail and office space quite soon!

G23 Project Moves Forward

The final permits and details have all been hammered into shape in the last few weeks at the G23 Commercial project on Route 60 and Arden. You will probably notice that earth is being moved and things will be happening shortly there.

The picture at left is an artists rendering of what the Northwest corner will look like. Watch this space for details on who might be moving into the project. Right now a major drug store, video and coffee action are potentials that are closer then you might think!

Lakewood SSA Bonds Refinanced

A few weeks ago we passed a refinancing of the Lakewood Grove Special Service Area (SSA) bonds that I wrote about here back in November. The actual numbers shook out as follows:

• We were able to reduce the total debt from by $4.3 million dollars,
• The interest rate dropped from 6.75% to 4.85%.
• The total savings to a homeowner is $380 per year
• If you own a town home or duplex its $254.

While its not the reduction I am sure the homeowners would want, its a step in the right direction. Just a reminder that this SSA went to schools and road infrastructure improvements.

I spoke at a Lakewood Homes HOA awhile ago and I told them that in retrospect I would never do a SSA similar to what we did here if I knew todays outcomes back then. Of course its easy to have 20/20 hindsight. At the time when I inherited the concept from then Mayor Jim Lumber, the concept was reasonable because it addressed schools and transportation.

Ever Wonder Whats Happens When Your Water Pipes Burst?

Last Saturday during my walk, in Lakewood, we saw that the street was soaked with water. Considering how many jackets, hats and gloves I had on, seeing running water made no sense. So I looked around and saw this scene. Item 1, broken and frozen pipe location, Item 2 the height of the stream of water that had been shooting into the air, Item 3 is the landing zone of the water. The water had saturated under the snow, and was flowing out into the street creating a giant pool that was slowly draining and freezing.

The house is not lived in so I called our Public Works Director and about 10 minutes later we had someone shutting off the water. Not exactly CSI Round Lake, but a satisfying problem to solve.

Lakewood HOA Talk Last Night

I was invited to talk to the Lakewood Homes HOA meeting last night. They might be regretting that since I went on for about 2 hours until Sherry Perkowitz dragged me away from the Q &A. Hopefully I did not wear out my welcome.

I got some great questions, transportation, SSA's, multiple taxing districts, questions on parks, and on commercial. Overall it was very good for me, I heard lots of things that we need to address as a village.

They have a very nice new web page which is linked above, they also have an energized forthright HOA board which is a huge step forward.

Animals in the Wetlands

Recently I have been noticing and getting complaints about people walking pets in and around in the wetlands at Valley Lakes and in other developments as well. The village inserted as standard verbiage into most of the relevant HOA declarations the following.

Section 8.17 of the Valley Lakes declaration lists prohibited acts: "No Unit Owner, Occupant, or Person shall be permitted:" and if you read down you discover that section item J reads:
(j) to bring or allow to enter into a dedicated wetland any dog, cat or other animal or pet.

The above was placed in the declarations for Valley Lakes specifically because the Army Corps of Engineers required it because of the wetlands studies that Pritzker (the original owners) had to go through.

While the declaration does not specifically prohibit a member from entering the wetlands, it does prohibit dogs (and minors). I would like to discourage residents from wandering at will through the wetlands and prefer to encourage them to think of them as "off limits". In Valley Lakes there is a walkway through a portion of the wetlands with plans to add more in the future, but members are encouraged to stick to those areas and not wander at will through the wetlands. The area up near Valley Lakes 2 (Behind the CVS) tends to be high ground and as such is dryer and already criss-crossed with trails which I think encourages them you think they are open to member access. In Madrona Prairie Walk and Lakewood we have a path system set up that hopefully encourages you to walk your dogs on it

It's ultimately up to your HOA board to create a policy to determine how to manage access to this area, however in no circumstances would it be okay for a member to bring a dog with them. I would encourage the HOA to post "No Trespassing signs" (as required by the declaration and wetland maintenance agreement on file with the Village in most cases) and make sure all of the residents knew that if they were going to go out in this area that they should ensue they do not cross these areas.

I would also ensure that a sign was installed facing into the property along the perimeter anywhere there is a path that indicated that was the limit of the property. This puts the burden on the Association to mark it's own property line (again, as required in the agreement) and put the burden on anyone choosing to go back there to stay on HOA property. I would also make sure it was clear to residents that dogs are not allowed in these areas. I would also discourage members from entering these areas until sufficient restoration and preservation efforts have been put forth to sufficiently protect them. The ones between Valley Lakes and Valley Lakes 2 for example are after all some of the highest quality wetlands in the area.

I know that the Valley Lakes HOA who own the Mud Lake wet lands is in the process of developing a wetland maintenance plan for the Mud Lake wetlands that will protect this area for the long term.

I would encourage all HOA's to carefully review their declarations and implement polices to protect these wetlands.

Potential Lakewood SSA Bond Refinancing?

Six years ago when I was the chairman of the Planning Commission Lakewood Homes presented a proposal for building 800 homes in the area where they currently exist. We insisted (I was not Mayor then) on a variety of things that I concurred with, the two commercial parcels, the extension of the Cedar Lake Road, park set asides, and the impact fee structures. I won't go into the tactical reasons why going ahead with Lakewood at that time was important to the village, (that's a whole other post). Eventually the decision was made that to achieve the major objectives with SSA financing. The SSA is basically an addition to your tax bill to pay off bonds that were floated for your specific neighborhood, village etc. I won't go into the way SSA's can potentially help buyers get more home for less etc here (also another blog post as well). By the way not one trustee who voted yes on Lakewood is still on the Village Board.

Now fast forward 5 years later, Lakewood is built out, Fremont Township's assessments are some of the highest around, and the SSA is tacked on. You get high tax bills.

I have been working with some Lakewood residents who have contacted me about some issues specific to their homes and purchases, so it has led me to doing some global thinking about how we can lighten the load for the Lakewood Homeowners with the SSA's currently in place.

Speaking with the company that handles our bonds, Speer Financial, they were of the opinion that currently there is the ability to "refinance" the existing bonds. While not going into the obscure technical details we can reduce the interest rate by almost two points. At the moment with some quick calculations this can reduce the SSA total by $3.6 million over the life of the SSA.

Obviously a potential saving to the residents of Lakewood of any amount on their tax bills would be a positive. I am not sure how much impact this would be on the tax bill but we are going to find out.

I directed the Village Board Finance Committee chaired by Trustee Sherry Perkowitz and with Vice Chair Trustee Brian Brubaker to look into this and report back to the board as quickly as they can to see if this is feasible and firm up the process so we can act to cut the total owed and the rate.

HOA's-- Another Voice Heard From

NOTE: This post is a first, the first not written by me. John Gutknecht wrote this on my comment section on yesterdays post, he is the first commenter to ever reach the limit to how much text could be commented on not once but three times! John and I have not been on the same page on some issues (I was right) over the years and we have agreed on others, but I can tell you that he is one of the most organized people I know and the Valley Lakes HOA runs very smoothly becuase of him. John serves the village as a board member on the Round Lake Management Commission for our lake. Our community is that much better becuase people like John live here!

Why all this hostility to HOA's?

Like it or not, mandatory homeowners associations are the result of responsible development and are the result of the evolution of residential property development and ownership. Associations are the only way to deal with the realities of commonly held property which is the result of communities demanding more "open space" and "less density" in their developments.
By purchasing into a community association, the homeowner agrees to abide by the community's pre-established guidelines. In our modern developments, homeowners live very close to each other (often on less than 1/6th of an acre) and share common facilities and property and this requires that they sacrifice certain freedoms for the cause of protecting communal property values and reducing nuisances. Reasonable restrictions, consistently enforced over time, will preserve the net value of the community and maintain a high quality of life for residents. The purpose and functions of an HOA are outside of those for municipal government which is in place to serve the ENTIRE municipality.

Even if a municipal government were to take over an HOA, they would still be required to enforce the declaration. In some cases (Valley Lakes) even if the HOA is abolished, the restrictions in the declaration "shall continue only until the expiration of twenty (20) years after the death of the last surviving child born in Lake County, Illinois, in the year 1998." which in most estimates is sometime in the year 2100!

So even if you abolish your HOA, most of the "issues" that people have with HOA's would still exist, but instead of local homeowners calling the shots, a bunch of elected politicians would be deciding the fate of your neighborhood. And who's to say that the money you pay in taxes (instead of assessments) isn't put into some general fund with only a small portion of that money actually being spent to maintain the value of your community. Do you want some guy who's more interested in being re-elected so he can protect his "good old boy" buddies deciding how much money is being spent on the upkeep of your community, or would you rather have one of your neighbors calling the shots?

Each community has a distinct and unique character that was present from the beginning. It's the HOA's responsibility to maintain that character which includes such things as architectural control and common area maintenance. Some communities are more burdened than others.
For example, Lakewood has the added amenity of having a swimming pool for it's members to use. I think it's a safe bet to say that less than half of the people buying a home there actually gave any thought as to who was going to pay for the upkeep of that pool. If you knew you were going to end up paying $300-$400 a year for the upkeep of a community pool, would you have bought a home there?? Maybe, maybe not, but just because you didn't take the time to find out you were responsible for that expense before you moved in, doesn't give you the right to abandon that responsibility.

Instead of b!~@&!%# about the your HOA, why not get involved and make a difference. I think you'll find that like most people who get involved in HOA's they quickly realize that they are bound by what the declaration allows them to do. Most HOA's are not as "all powerful" as most people think they are. But if you get involved in a constructive manner, you'll have a chance to actually have a hand in the direction of your community. You have a much better chance of affecting the direction of your community through your HOA than you do through the Village Board. But I think what's really going on here is the same problem we have in general in this country - apathy. People whine and complain about stuff - especially on the internet - but when it comes time to actually DO anything about it or voice their opinion in person, they just stay locked up in their nice suburban homes peering out through closed windows and spewing hate on the keyboard. I witnessed this first hand last year when the Valley Lakes Board increased assessments by 15% (after not having an increase for 7 years) With all of the comments and complaints we received, we were prepared for the worst. With 1172 homeowners, we expected 10-15% would show up to voice their concerns. So we were prepared for 200 or more people. When 5 (yes FIVE) people showed up, I knew we had reached a new level in apathy.

I completely disagree with the argument that HOA's are another layer of government and an additional tax on the homeowner. This is simply not true. HOA's are limited by their charter as written in the declaration. So you ALWAYS know what you're getting yourself into. A municipal government on the other hand, can write law after law anytime they want all in the interest of "public health and welfare". Your assessment money goes directly to support your community and YOUR property (you hold title in common to your community property, so it IS your property) Your tax money on the other hand goes to support the welfare of your entire community which can grown and expand at anytime. Your tax burden can increase at anytime to accommodate the growing needs of your larger community, your assessments on the other hand can only be spent for your association and that's not likely to grow once the development is finished.

If you want to live in a community that has open common space and one that maintains the architectural integrity of the community, then live in an HOA and sacrifice some of your freedoms for the assurance that you'll live in a community where everyone in the community has a stake in protecting your common property value and share in the high quality of life that comes as a result.

If you don't want those things or you just can't bear to give up your God given right as a citizen of the United States of America to paint your house purple and cover your lawn with miniature replicas of icons from around the world and silhouette cutouts of kids in cute poses then DON'T buy a home in an association, there are plenty of those homes in the area.

Nobody's forcing you to live in an HOA, you did READ the declaration before you bought your home - didn't you?

FINAL NOTE: The picture is of Valley Lakes looking South. This was about a year and a half ago.

Route 60 Commercial Development

A long time reader Graham Little emailed me and asked about what's going on at 60 and Arden. So since I needed a post, I thought this was an excellent topic for the blog.

When the Lakewood homes development was on the drawing board, we were faced with a few choices. The major choice was the boards insistence that there be a significant investment in 60 and the new Cedar Lake Road. The second choice was our insistence on 30 acres in commercial set asides. At that time the village had a grand total of 43 acres (Fairfield and 134, Madrona, Bright Meadows and Wilson Road) of available commercial acreage so this was a substantial gain.

We could have demanded more commercial, but at a trade off for the Route 60 and Cedar Lake road project. In addition we originally wanted 40 acres together, but logistically this was not possible, so we settled for the the split site that currently exists, with 11 acres at the corner of 60 and Cedar Lake called Cedar Commons and the 20 acres on the South side of 60.

The project called Cedar Commons had a checkered history with the original developer being sued in every county in the area for all sorts of things it seemed like, and of course us having nothing happening until Lakewood could extricate themselves from the contract to market what is today Cedar Commons.

In the last few months we have made some excellent progress on the 26 acres and in fact are very close to getting final approvals for 26 acres of some very attractive stores and offices! This proposal has 192,000 sq ft of retail and office, along with a new signalized interesection. I am very excited by this project. The graphic above is of one of the proposed buildings as of a few weeks ago.

If anyone wants me to email the two PDF files of the development plans please email me and I will send you a copy.

Riding with the Police

I rode around with Chief Metaxa last night and we had a more eventful night then the last time I went out with him last spring. The highlights (or lowlights) were:

• A rollover accident on Route 120, (see picture in the center you can see the roof of the rolled over car).
• Amorous couple caught flagrante delicto in a parking lot.
• High speed trip from Lakewood to near the High School with lights and sirens on. Every 8 year olds dream!
• Got to see the new squad cars electronic equipment in action, video camera, radar detector, and lightbar array.

Overall it was quite interesting and educational, its excellent to see the tools we are now giving our officers being used effectively and efficiently.

The Cedar Lake Road Extension

This is an old article from last year, but since I attended a meeting of the Lakewood Orchard HOA last night where the Cedar Lake Road extension was a topic of discussion I thought I would reprint it.

I was asked an excellent question by a Prairewalk Resident named Doug Pentek that I decided to respond to here since I am sure many people have the same questions.

The answer requires a full discussion of the Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So thanks to John Gutknecht for the updated map!

First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids will be going out in October of this year, construction will start in the spring of 2007 and finish in the Fall of 2007. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2008 and finished in 2009. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

However to finally get to Mr Pentek's question the state has looked at putting a light at Bacon and 120 and is currently doing a tentative survey of it, but my guess is since within 5 years the need for it will have vanished I am thinking it will not get done. My only advice is don't drive that way, I avoid those intersections if I can.

Road Improvements Along 120 and Curran

I have seen some interesting comments about holding developers accountable for traffic issues. Coincidently I got some pictures of the road improvements that we insited on from Pulte and Centerville as a result of their residential and commercial projects. Centerville assumed responsibility for management of the roadwork project. The roadwork was essentially completed on Friday with the final installation of landscaping and grass mat.

I would like to make a couple of comments about past developments that I was involved with and the traffic issues that we held developers accountable for. As a general rule of thumb traffic improvements rank in the top 3 issues we want to address from a potential developer.

• Lakewood Homes-- They were required to do away with Bacon Road, and build from scratch the intersection, the extension of Cedar Lake northwards from 60 and then dedicate the remaining right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension. Off the top of my head Lakewood forked over in excess of $5 million dollars for traffic improvements from 800 homes.
• Madrona Homes-- In some respects we are not seeing the benefit from the traffic improvements from them yet, but hopefully the foresight the village had to make them set aside the 300 foot right away for the 120 bypass comes to fruition. In addtion we also set aside right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension from 120 to Townline Road. In partnership with Neuman Homes at Prairie Walk they also were required to improve Townline road which is a free benefit to District 46's "sometime" new school. I have no idea how much money the right away is, but its substantial based on roughly 800 homes.
  

I do wish that more could be done to route 60 specifically the light at 60 and Petersen. I did get a copy of the Lake County Transportation Plan for 2006-2011, and intersection improvements are slated for 2008. If the counties traffic refererendum had passed the intersection and many other needed improvements would be here much sooner.

Traffic Warning!

Fair warning! We have been getting numerous complaints about cars racing through the Lakewood neighborhood right off of Cedar Lake Road, turning left on Jonathan, and the left on Kristina and re-emerging on 60 about 10 cars ahead of where they were before. You can see the route on the map that people are taking to move forward in line.

Clever! But its going to cost you. We are going to be running a "Stop Sign Awareness Program" at the intersection. We will have some officers stopping cars who don't obey the sign in the mornings for awhile. With school starting soon we would not want to have cars racing through the streets so we aim to enforce quite strictly! Oh if you live on the streets mentioned, you will pass the test with flying colors. If you seem to be driving down our quiet streets on your daily commute and not obeying traffic laws you may find yourself flunking!

The New Cedar Lake Road

The Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So using the USGS mapping service and a service called Terraserver I was able to find a 2002 aerial picture of the area. Using my limited graphics experience I labeled 7 key areas in the plan.



First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids went out in October 2005, construction will start in the spring of 2006 and finish in the Fall of 2006. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2009 and finished in 2010. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

Bike Trails---An Update

Loyal reader Brad Ogilvie asked me a question a few weeks ago about bike trails. I wrote some of this way back in October but I think some of it bears repeating. The Lake County Forest Preserves have a project called the Millennium Trail which is a trail network connecting an area from the Indiana border to Milwaukee.

Here in Round Lake the trail is coming sooner rather then later, when it does come it will go up through the south side of Valley Lakes, across the back of the new Ryland Development and then it will go up the Com Ed right away into Round Lake Beach. One of the alternatives that I am pushing is a connection throughout the Synnesvedt property to the new Nippersink Forrest Preserve off of 120. If that's the way it goes then we want to explore a way to get some connector trails across 120 and into Madrona and the down all the way to Lakewood homes. We are not sure how right now, but I am going to figure out something. In addition I want it to connect to the future downtown development district.

The Year that was-- 2005

2005 was the year of the Rooster, and here in Round Lake we have plenty to crow over. We have two new Trustee's Brian Brubaker and Bob Del Prato a new Police Chief in Cliff Metaxa and a new Director of Public Works Davis Clark. Some of the other highlights are:

• We finally adopted a new human resources plan that encompasses employee reviews, job descriptions a fair an equitable pay plan.
• Restructuring of the Police Department is well under way, with a modern efficient and more effective police department starting to emerge.
  
• We are moving full speed ahead on the Downtown Development Project and hope to have it done by 2008 (our 100th anniversary)
  
• We have familiar faces in new places with Terre Eyzk moving up into the Chair of the Planning Commission (my old seat), Hans Zigmund moving up into the Chair of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) and Steve Skinner moving from the ARC to the Planning and Zoning Commission, former trustee Dale Multerer is now the president of the Police Board.
• Sean Gillette led a wonderful group of people who planned and organized the second annual Streets of Summer festival this summer. Lonnie Brooks headlined and 1,000's attended!
• New commercial development is coming online at the Centerville Commons on Route 60 and Cedar Lake Road, Curran Commons at 120 and Curran, and more development at the corner of 134 and Fairfield to go along with the CVS Pharmacy. More will be happening in 2006 as well.
  
• The construction of a new $7 million 35,000 square foot Police and Public Works Station on the corner of Bacon and Townline road. This facility is big enough for our current population and for our future needs. It was designed and built so it can and could expand if needed in the future.
• Many of the housing projects that we have been hearing about for sometime are finally complete or nearly so, with Valley Lakes, Madrona, Lakewood Homes, Bradford Place, and Silver Leaf Glen reaching that point.
  

On a personal note I am thankful for the opportunity you gave me in April 2005 to lead the village for another four years. Serving as Mayor is the single most rewarding thing I have ever done in my professional life, and I thank you for your support. I aim to make Round Lake the best possible place it can be.

Sewer and Bonds--101

Reader Tim Latta asked a question about the sewer and water bonds that we sold for $3 million a few years ago. To set the stage I need to talk about the bigger picture for a bit. Round Lake developed a comprehensive plan that visualizes its natural borders as Fish Lake Road to the West, and Chardon Road to the South. This comprehensive plan was completed and adopted in late 1999 and early 2000 and had some clear ideas of what the vast majority of the land West of Fairfield and South of 120 would be (we call this our Southwest Quadrant by the way). The land use was primarily commercial and industrial with some residential in the mix as well.

Over time the village has consistently moved forward with this plan. However since 90% of the land in the SW Quadrant is not annexed to any municipality its fair game to any village or the County for development of any kind. I have told you what Round Lake intends to do in the area. But there is another player in the area, Volo, Volo's comprehensive plan involves commercial and industrial development along the Route 12 corridor, and homes starting at Gilmer and 120 going east to almost Fairfield Road. If I were the Mayor of Volo, I would pursue this path as logical for the goals of Volo by the way. I believe that Volo, building homes, in the area we have planned for commercial and industrial development in the SW Quadrant would be counter to Round Lake's future best interest. The other player is Lake County, they are not to be trusted, but they have not shown signs of doing residential development in the last few years out here since the Tanneron Bay and Brooks Farm development.

A major key to development is bringing sewer and water to a parcel. Because if you want to build homes or industrial parks and or office parks you need sewer and water. Septic fields are not the greatest of either of the these for development purposes. So over the last three to four years Volo and Round Lake have been attempting to bring sewer and water to this area so each village can execute its comprehensive plan. The Ryland parcel which was just approved by the village board allows us to get our sewer and water to the SW Quadrant at last.

The village board recognized how important this project was to the long term future of the village and was willing to spend money to do it. Bringing sewer and water from behind the housing behind the CVS at Fairfield and 134 was what $2.5 million of the bonding was for. The project runs south from behind the homes along the right of way for Com Ed, until it crosses Nippersink where it takes a short turn westwards to line up with Dawn Marie. It then proceeds south along the street until it reached a vacant parcel of land we own, and at that time, was the end of Round Lake's corporate boundaries. As Ryland came on board we were able to get them to shoulder the additional cost of bringing the sewer and water the rest of the way to 120 and Wilson. In addtion to funding the connection to the sewer line for the residents of Dawn Marie. All this is a long set-up to answer the question.

This sewer connection has a service area, which bascially covers the SW Quadrant service zone mentioned above. This service area contains a maximum amount of capacity, in other words how much sewage can flow through the pipe. So what is done to ensure that the capacity is not used up is that there is an engineering calculation done that allocates sewer throughout the entire sewer service area. Since the village paid for the sewer to come to the area it should and will get paid for the costs of building the sewer this form of payment is called "recapture". So the $2.5 million we spent to bring sewer to the SW Quadrant will eventually be returned to the village in the form of this recapture. As a parcel gets developed and hooks on to the sewer line, they repay the village the recapture fee which is calculated by a complex formula designed to "recapture" the village investment. This sewer protection zone also has official legal protection via the Lakes Region Sanitary Sewer District (the relevant sewer district in that area) so even if there is development in the area that occurs in Volo or in the unincorporated areas of the county that attaches to our sewer, the village gets paid recapture.

Alert readers will notice that we used $2.5 million of the $3 million for this project. The other $500,000 of the bonding was used to improve and upgrade from an 8" to a 16" line the main north south sewer line that runs down to Madrona and Lakewood homes, but is in the older part of the village along Cedar Lake Road and Goodnow.

Over time, and a municipality can afford to take the long view, the bonding money will come back to the village, and with the renewed push for the 120 bypass, and the increased interest from the parcel owners inside the SW quadrant to do something, I believe the payoff will be quick for the village.

Observations and Clarifications on Traffic Improvements in the Area.

I have noticed a variety of comments to some of my posts on the 120 bypass and decided that rather then answering them piecemeal I would answer them in one larger post.

Since the day I moved here I have been keenly aware of the need for some form of major traffic relief and minor traffic relief as well. The original idea and concept I read about was the route 53 extension. The right of ways and the plans had been bought and studied for nearly 50 years, municipal support was and still is overwhelming. The political realities of the last 20 years in this county have precluded any concerted effort to get the route 53 extension here. Its useless to point fingers and have recriminations now. I don't think the Route 53 bypass will get done in my lifetime. But it is wonderful to have 98% of the county on board with the 120 bypass now!

As many of you know this county for some reason voted down two transportation referendums in the last few years that would have provided over $100 million dollars of infrastructure improvements to the county. I believe this referendum could have gone a long way to improving traffic flow in the county. However it failed and more then likely the county board will never put it on the ballot again because they will be on the next few ballots, but that's politics!

I won't go into the recent transportation summit issues because I have already covered it here and here. However I would like to outline what the village has done for traffic inside its borders.

Cedar Lake Road Extension (article here)
When the village was considering the Lakewood homes annexation we recognized that traffic would be a major issue so we insisted that Lakewood build one third of the counties proposed extension of Cedar Lake south from 120 to 60. This would do away with the ultra dangerous intersection of 60 and Bacon. The Cedar Lake Road extension project is being phased and ultimately will provide a huge traffic relief to North and South commutes. The cost to the taxpayer and the village was zero, Lakewood paid for all the intersection improvements at 60 and Cedar Lake, and the improvements all along the mile long stretch of road.

Traffic Intersection at 60 and Fairfield
We worked closely with the county and state on this project. Even though it was not in the village we were able to illustrate the needs and wishes of our residents. Its certainly a lot better then a 4 way stop sign that it was.

Traffic Intersection at Wilson and 134
Again we worked with the state and county to illustrate the needs for traffic flow management here.

Intersection Improvements at Fairfield and 134
With the new commercial area at this corner (CVS corner) we were able to make the developer improve the turn lanes and make traffic flow smoother through the area. The intersection already had a light but enhanced turn lanes and signals make it easier to manage.

Signalized Intersection at 134 and Cedar Lake
This is one where we made a mistake, the board voted to not allow the state to develop a light there. Then Trustee Kohlmeyer convinced a majority of her colleagues that it would adversely affect some of the businesses in the area. I think we made a mistake here, but that's why we elect people to decide things.

Intersection of Fairfield and Nippersink
When the Valley Lakes PUD was completed in 1997 it had a $400,000 fund set aside for intersection improvements as they related to the Valley Lakes development. When there were a variety of accidents and a fatality at this intersection the board unanimously voted to seek a partnership with Avon Township, Lake County and ourselves to put up a temporary traffic light two-three years in advance of the counties programmed construction of such an intersection and use the $400,000 as our share of the proceeds for the construction.

We recognized that a business was on the corner of the SW side and we attempted to work closely with them and the property ownership to plan the transition including offering planning assistance to move the bins out of the right of way where they currently exist.

This has suddenly become a political hot potato so I won't go into the details, but we will get it done and this intersection will have all the needed intersection improvements which will improve the flow of traffic.

Signals at Rosedale and Cedar Lake Road
We have been able to get funding from the state for a traffic signal at this busy intersection that serves the Round Lake High School. I don't have all the details as to when it will be installed but we will update when I have more information.

The 120 Bypass
This plan stretches from Wildwood and 120 where existing Route 120 narrows to 2 lanes, to Wilson Road near Baxter. The plan flows south of existing 120 and will go over train tracks and avoid the choke points in Grayslake, it will then angle up and through Madrona homes where we have a 300 foot corridor planned for it. There are 4 exits and entrances, Route 45, Allegheny, Fairfield and Wilson. If you want to visualize what it will look like it should be similar to the stretch of highway between 94 and Hunt Club Road on current Route 120.

I am sure I am forgetting some of the improvements but my fingers are getting tired so I will blog and addendum at some later point.

The Cedar Lake Road Extension

I was asked an excellent question by a Prairewalk Resident named Doug Pentek that I decided to respond to here since I am sure many people have the same questions.

The question was about the need for a stop light at Bacon and 120 and could we expect one?

The answer requires a full discussion of the Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So using the USGS mapping service and a service called Terraserver I was able to find a 2002 aerial picture of the area. Using my limited graphics experience I labeled 7 key areas in the plan.

First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids will be going out in October of this year, construction will start in the spring of 2006 and finish in the Fall of 2006. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2009 and finished in 2010. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

However to finally get to Mr Pentek's question the state has looked at putting a light at Bacon and 120 and is currently doing a tentative survey of it, but my guess is since within 5 years the need for it will have vanished I am thinking it will not get done. My only advice is don't drive that way, I avoid those intersections if I can.

Radioactive! Radio the Round Lake Way on FM 98.3

One of the most exciting new things on the Round Lake Area horizon is RONDARADIO a low frequency radio station that has been on the drawing board for years and is in its final stages prior to going live and on the air. I must also point out that I was able to assist in the fundraising by securing a $30,000 grant from Lakewood Homes for some of the major startup costs two years ago.

This is such a good idea, I wish I had thought of it, but I didn't! Round Lake resident Bish Krywko did along with his wife Fran and the energy and drive to get the radio station to this point are all down to their vision.

RONDARADIO is a community-based radio station that will be run by volunteer community members and students from Round Lake, Grayslake, Grant and Lakes high schools who live, work and play in the stations service area. They will also serve as a working classroom for broadcast students from area colleges and universities.

The station will operate on the frequency of 98.3 FM, broadcasting at 100 watts of power. Operation will be 24/7 and will utilize computers to assist with programming.

The Village of Round Lake Heights is home to the WRLR Studios and our 130' broadcast tower. The signal will radiate out to an area 3.5 to 5 miles in diameter from the antenna and most likely will extend even further, 7 to 10 miles out.

The stations 100 watt signal will reach a potential 90,000 plus residents living in the greater Round Lake area including all the Round Lake villages, Hainesville, Lake Villa, Grayslake, Lindenhurst, Ingleside, Long Lake, Fox Lake, Antioch, unincorporated Lake County and many others