The city of Aurora is continuing to work towards building a new sound wall along Orchard Road and is expected to soon get quotes on the exact cost of the project.
The sound wall, which has been in the works for many years, would shield residents living near the busy road on the far West Side of Aurora from the well-documented vehicle noise. The Aurora City Council agreed last October to an intergovernmental agreement with Kane County for the sound wall, a major step towards construction that officials were hoping would take place this year, but the project has hit delays.
The plan has been to replace the existing wooden fence along the highway with a concrete wall that city officials have previously said will be something between the current fence and the full Illinois Department of Transportation sound walls used along expressways and interstate roadways. If the sound wall does get built, the city would be responsible for basic maintenance while Kane County would do any capital maintenance needed, per the intergovernmental agreement.
A portion of the new sound wall’s construction cost, around $100,000 of the previously-estimated $4 million price tag, was set to be paid for by residents through a special service area property tax, similar to how many other capital projects within the city have been funded, according to past reporting. The property owners in the affected area would have gotten the chance to vote on the 25-year tax, and if a majority agreed, the special service area would have been established.
However, the city found out this year that it may need to establish multiple different special service areas to help fund the project, according to Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward. His ward holds the roadway, and he said the project has been something he has worked on for years.
While the multiple special service area situation has been figured out, he said, the city also learned earlier this year that it had lost $500,000 in state funds previously committed to the project.
“I’m not putting the blame on anybody for that,” Franco said. “It’s just when the time goes by this far, sometimes you don’t know where the money went.”
Aurora is now putting out a request for quotes to figure out exactly how much the project will cost, according to Mayor John Laesch. He said the city doesn’t even have a “real number” for the project’s cost at this point, but once it does, then “we’ll revisit how to pay for it.”
As the project continues to be delayed, prices continue to rise and the city needs to have exact numbers if it plans to use one or more special service areas to fund the project — but it will take some time to get those numbers, Franco said. Plus, the city may be looking to make some changes to the design of the wall, such as varying the height of the wall based on the landscape, he said, which will likely take more time and raise the cost of the project.
According to Franco, the city has nearly $3.5 million dedicated towards the project from various sources, including $650,000 of his own ward funds and over a million dollars from the city itself, with a match from Kane County. Before the city lost the committed $500,000, it was around $100,000 away from meeting its funding goal, and the special service area would have made up the difference, he said.
“We were there, we had it, you know, but now, things have changed a little bit,” Franco said.
While the city waits for updated construction costs, Laesch said the city would be lobbying for additional funding from state and federal lawmakers.
Both Laesch and Franco called the sound wall one of their priorities, but they disagreed on how to make up the gap that may exist between the funding they find and the cost of construction. While Franco said that using a special service area was equitable, since other similar projects throughout the city have been financed in this way, Laesch said he would prefer not to, but it would depend on how the numbers come back and what the residents are willing to do.
Last year, when the intergovernmental agreement was before City Council for approval, Laesch suggested the city look into using gaming taxes rather than a special service area to cover the gap, according to past reporting. As an alderman at-large at the time, he introduced an amendment to the agreement that said the city would look into other ways to fund the wall in the future, but it was voted down.
When talking about the topic with The Beacon-News this week, Laesch mentioned that the city would hopefully be seeing a “sizable” increase to its gaming tax after the opening of the under-construction Hollywood Casino-Aurora resort.
The city wants to get the sound wall construction done next year so it doesn’t lose additional funding, Laesch said. According to Franco, the project could be started by next March if everything goes well, but it would depend on how much the project ends up costing and how long it takes the city to find enough money to cover that cost.
If there is a special service area involved in paying for the project, the goal would be to keep the cost under $100 per year for property owners, which would have been the case before the city lost the $500,000 in state funds, he said.
Although he knows government moves slowly and that there were different layers of government to deal with, Franco said he is frustrated by how long the process is taking and thinks that the city should have moved faster after the agreement with Kane County was approved.
It was “kind of like the perfect storm” because of the special service area situation, losing the money and the departure earlier this year of many city staffers who were involved in and knowledgeable about the project, he said.
“It’s just frustrating because I’ve been telling people for years, ‘We’re almost there. We’re moving along,’ … and then we hit this roadblock on a couple different fronts,” he said. “I just feel bad for those people who are wanting it and really almost needing it, and we can’t quite get it done yet.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com