Comment EI-5409
Received or sent (printed as 2/14/2008)
Thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns regarding Canadian National's acquisition of the EJ&E Railway. Living where I do I am impacted by the rail crossings on Hough Road, Northwest Highway, Lake Zurich Road, Cuba Road, and even Rand Road if the added rail traffic requires upgrading that over pass. There are numerous quality of life issues including the increased noise and pollution that are difficult to quantify. I know the route of my runs and walks to downtown Barrington will be negatively impacted. I would regret that the money was spent on Citizen's Park as its utilization will decrease as it becomes more difficult to get to and once there the beauty and peacefulness of the park will be more frequently disrupted as more trains pass close by. But since quality of life issues are subjective I'd like to address my quantifiable concerns. I'm concerned the increased train traffic will negatively impact the downtown business of Barrington and property taxes of the homes throughout the village. Additional traffic congestion resulting from more train activity will force more downtown businesses to fail. The village's effort to revitalize the downtown will either be futile or more local money will be spent to try to offset the train's impact. As these businesses struggle the sales tax revenue they contribute will decrease. At the same time the village's expenses will increase due to inflation and ever increasing demands for services; floods of last summer and the snow of this winter for example. As the village's need for revenue increases and the contribution from the local businesses decrease more tax burden will fall on the home owners. Compounding this is my expectation that increased rail traffic will cause my property value to drop. The result is Barrington becomes a more expensive place to live with a less vital and useable downtown. As the quality of life in the area decreases and the burdon on the home owners increases Barrington will become a much less attractive place to live. Regards, Phil Amsrud
Submitted by: Philip Amsrud · Barrington, IL
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-35087/comment/EI-5409 · back to the docket sheet