Comment EI-22958
Received or sent (printed as 5/24/2016)
I didn't know anything about this until a few weeks ago. I then started investigating what this was all about and couldn't believe that somehow a privately funded railroad project was gonna come within 500 feet of my house. This is crazy that some guys can just get an idea to do something and move forward with it when it will cause so many problems with so many people. I can't believe that a for profit group of people can just take over property and have the zoning rules changed any way they want to benefit them. I tried to build a house on my property for my parents to live in and couldn't do that due to zoning rules, but some CONNECTED investors can put a train right next to my front door. I built a house in the country to avoid all of this. I came from New Lenox and had to deal with metra every time I tried to go anywhere, and now I'm gonna have a railroad crossing right in front of my house. Its different if you buy a house with a train track already there, but when you spend $500,000 on a house for you family and then have to deal with 110 freight trains a day blowing their horn and the dinging of the crossing all day long. I have 2 children with cystic fibrosis and my wife and I decided that we were happy where we were in the country with the fresh air and peace and quiet. My kids have enough problems with breathing and dealing with life let alone this. We enjoy the wildlife that comes across our property from the woods. We enjoy the fact that I can let my children be outside and not have to worry about them doing anything other than being children. All this is gone if a train comes through. The smoke will effect the quality of the air around our house which in turn will effect their respiratory, the parents in our subdivision will have to worry about 110 trains a day hitting one of the kids in the area, let alone if it derails and kills someone since it is right next door. If we decided that we wanted to move to get away from all of this insanity, who would buy $500,000 next to a train track. I am sure that I am not the only person who is concerned about this coming through their community. I just don't understand how so many people that pay income, sales, property, and every other registration tax can raise a concern but yet their voice doesn't matter. How is this railway a benefit to any community that it goes through. Is the railway gonna pay my $8000 a year tax bill for a property next to a railroad crossing. Even if the route is changed, it will create a whole new batch of concerned people that aren't raising their voice now but will later. Other then the railroad investors making a profit, who benefits from this. Is that benefit worth destroying the quality of life of families that live in the country for the peace and quiet that it offers.
Submitted by: David Hatz · Verona, 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-35952/comment/EI-22958 · back to the docket sheet