Carpentersville asks Kane County to clear permitting snag for Randall Road right-turn lane; county staff warn of legal and platting hurdles

Village officials pressed the Kane County Executive Committee to help move a long-planned traffic improvement on Randall Road after they said the county recently refused to issue a construction permit.

Brad Stewart, village manager of Carpentersville, said the county board unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the village last month so the village could proceed with expanding a right-turn lane near the Menards shopping center. Stewart told the committee the village’s engineer and a contractor have been engaged and the contractor is ready to begin, but county permitting has been held up because not all property owners in the shopping center have signed an amended IGA.

“The reality is that it is extremely challenging to get national retailers to return a signature on a minor project,” Stewart said, describing corporate approval processes that delay execution.

Village President John Skilman told the committee the improvement would relieve weekend congestion and improve safety at the intersection, and asked the county for a solution that would let construction begin while outstanding paperwork is completed.

County staff and the state’s attorney gave a detailed legal and technical briefing. The county’s attorney said the 1998 IGA covered a single owner at the time but the property now has multiple successor owners; that change makes it unclear whether the contract exception allowing work without every owner’s sign-off applies. The attorney warned the county could be exposed to contract claims if it allowed construction that interferes with existing owner rights.

Tom Rickert, division head for Kane County Transportation, said staff and the county engineer must follow the county’s highway and platting regulations. Rickert said staff believes the improvement is a good idea and that the county has typically required corrected platting before permitting permanent access changes. He also said a consultant’s note suggesting staff had promised a permit conditional on later items contradicted internal county emails and created confusion.

State’s Attorney staff said a conditional permit could be drafted to allow construction work to proceed while withholding the legal opening of the right-out until the plat and IGA are fixed and all signatures are obtained, but that approach carries enforcement risk and may require “extreme” protective language to let the county physically close or otherwise enforce the access if owners later contest it.

Committee members expressed sympathy for the village’s timing concerns but were reluctant to authorize action that risked breaching a contract or violating platting rules. Several members urged the county transportation division, the state’s attorney and village officials to meet quickly and present a recommendation to the Transportation Committee or a special meeting, aiming to preserve the contractor’s window while protecting the county.

The committee did not approve immediate board action. Instead members directed staff and counsel to pursue a carefully worded approach, consider a conditional permit that prevents the access from opening until legal steps are complete, and attempt to resolve outstanding owner-signature and platting issues before the full board meeting.