Village Looks to ComEd For Land Rights For Skokie Valley Trail

After six years of little forward progress, plans for a bike path that would fill a gap in trails between Wisconsin and Chicago may finally move ahead if Northbrook remaps the local segment of the route and pursues right-of-way from ComEd — a significantly less expensive option than what it has been considered in the past.  

At a board meeting Tuesday, village trustees said they will consider giving the go-ahead to planners, who would like to secure land rights from ComEd rather than the Union Pacific Railroad, as originally desired.

For the past several years, committee members from Northbrook, Glenview, Northfield and Wilmette have pursued a trail that would connect the local communities to a pre-existing path that begins at Lake Cook Road and runs all the way to Wisconsin, as well as another trail running south from Skokie to Chicago.

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The trail was designed to follow land owned by the Union Pacific Railroad — but over the past year, discussion has stalled as the villages and the railroad cannot agree on a purchase price.

“It’s been a long six years of work on this,” said trustee A.C. Buehler, as the board discussed the project at a meeting this week. “It’s been a very frustrating thing on the municipal side.”

Buehler said that the Union Pacific Railroad had asked for some $13.8 million in acquisition costs — a fee that is way out of reach for local municipalities on their own. And in February, the communities received notice that the federal government had denied their request for a $6.8-million rails-to-trails grant.

Planners initially selected a Union Pacific right of way over land owned by ComEd because the Union Pacific right of way contained existing trail beds that could help save on construction costs. Both rights of way run parallel to Skokie Boulevard.

Now, it appears that the right-of-way owned by Commonwealth Edison, which is just 50 to 75 feet west of the original trail planned in Northbrook, would be significantly cheaper, according to Jim Baxa, a project engineer with the village. 

“ComEd has been more likely to work with the village for more like $1 per year,” he told trustees at the meeting.

In order to begin discussions in earnest with ComEd, the village would have to pay for engineered plans and submit a fee for review, according to Baxa. But waiting until 2015-16, when the village has budgeted funds for the trail in its capital improvement plan, could tie the whole project up, he added. 

Village manager Richard Nahrstadt suggested that the board review the project again in November when the village takes a look at its capital improvement plan, and see whether they could find some money sooner. 

“We could lose the opportunity in the next two years,” said board member Bob Israel.

Trustees voted unanimously to bring the issue back for review along with the capital improvement plan in November.  

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