Speed limit reductions on 4 McHenry County roads headed for vote Tuesday

Drivers on Pyott Road in Lake in the Hills might soon be required to slow down – but only if McHenry County Board members override a committee vote against the speed limit reduction.

The proposal to lower the speed limit between Oak and Willow streets from 50 to 45 mph has support from the Lake in the Hills police chief, but it was voted down at the county‘s transportation committee last month.

Chief Matt Mannino wrote a letter, dated May 15, to McHenry County Board member Carolyn Campbell, D-Crystal Lake, endorsing the proposed reduction. Willow Street is in Campbell’s district, but the rest of the stretch is not.

“As a police officer for over 19 years and now Chief of Police in Lake in the Hills, I have responded to and/or been made aware of many crashes at those intersections. I believe that this change is a step in the right direction to reducing crashes and is vital for safety and well-being of our community,” Mannino wrote in the letter, which the Northwest Herald obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Mannino also expressed support for traffic controls at Oak Street and Pyott Road, and said it’s worth considering at Willow Street and Pyott Road. He mentioned a specific crash in January at the latter intersection that “sparked many comments on social media regarding traffic safety around these two intersections.” He wrote that he had been informed further studies are underway.

County Board member Joe Gottemoller, R-Crystal Lake, cited the letter during a Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday. He said it was “appropriate,” pointing to a discussion earlier in the meeting about efforts to reduce traffic deaths to zero.

“Now we’re talking about not lowering speed limits because it’s inconvenient for some board members,” Gottemoller said, prompting some laughter from the board.

Campbell said Thursday that while there has been resistance to speed limit reductions because of a belief that county roads are supposed to move people around quicker, conditions have changed in a lot of places. She said Pyott isn’t used only by commuters but also “hundreds of residents” getting to and from their homes.

“Pyott Road no longer bisects open fields, but entire residential neighborhoods, creating a barrier instead of serving as a means of neighborhood connection,” Campbell said, adding she’s talked with about 20 neighbors and the vast majority were “adamant” about a speed reduction.

Campbell pointed to a previous Pyott Road speed reduction proposal that didn’t go to the board. She said there was a “part of me that says you can’t blame our residents for believing that we don’t care.”

That stretch of Pyott Road was up for a speed reduction last year, but it was voted down in committee. Under the rules at the time, now changed, that vote signaled the end of the road for that speed limit plan.

Board member John Collins, D-Crystal Lake, said he takes Pyott Road every day to work, and there are times when going the speed limit isn’t something done “by anybody driving it.”

He said he supports the speed limit reduction.

Besides Pyott, board members are expected at their meeting Tuesday evening to vote on three other speed limit reductions. Only one, a stretch of McConnell Road near Woodstock, got approval from the committee but was modified before passing. The other proposals include:

• Blivin Street from Route 12 north for about a half mile in Spring Grove: Proposed reduction from 35 to 30 mph.
• McConnell Road from Lily Pond Road to just west of Country Club Road near Woodstock. The initial proposal was to reduce from 55 to 45 mph, but the committee voted to go with 50 mph.
• Spring Grove Road between Sunset and Ringwood roads in the Johnsburg and Spring Grove area: Proposed lowering from 55 to 50 mph.

All speed limit reductions, regardless of whether they get committee approval, go before the County Board under new rules that took effect last year. The board is expected to take up the proposals at its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at the county building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.