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The Highway J Citizens Group (HJCG)
represents residents of Waukesha and Washington
Counties who are concerned about the potential destruction
of the region along a proposed highway route. We
are committed to preserving the beauty, tranquility,
and environment of the area and support an improved
two-lane road through our communities as opposed
to a four-lane expansion.
The
Ackerville Bridge site is located in a prime
wetland area. Credit: HJCG |
The
HJCG was created in the spring of 1999 by an informal
group of concerned citizens in response to the acquisition
of jurisdiction over what was then County Highway
J, by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
(WisDOT). WisDOT renamed the road State Highway
164 and began preparations for expanding the two
lane county highway to a four-lane, divided, state
highway with a 30-foot wide median strip that reserves
the ability to further expand to six lanes in the
future.
We have an eight-person steering
committee (made up of citizen representatives from
each of the affected communities), which plans and
directs the activities of the group.
Every active member of our citizens
group is a dedicated, unpaid volunteer who spends
countless hours of time furthering the community-oriented
goals of the group through grassroots activities
including:
1. Regularly distributing leaflets, newsletters,
and e-mail updates,
2. Organizing and holding petition drives, demonstrations,
and citizen rallies,
3. Obtaining town and county resolutions opposing
these road expansions,
4. Making appeals to federal and state government
agencies,
5. Meeting with our state legislators and local
government officials, and
6. Conducting a comprehensive media campaign, which
has included writing letters-to-the-editor for local
newspapers, producing and airing radio advertisements,
and conducting interviews with newspaper and TV
news media.
Concerned
citizens unite at a meeting to vote against
the WisDOT’s plan to widen Highway 164 through
two counties of unique wetlands. The vote to
oppose the expansion was unanimous. Credit:
HJCG |
These
grassroots efforts have all been specifically designed
to maximize citizen interest and participation in
protecting the water quality, wetlands, shorelines,
rivers, lakes, and aquatic habitats in the Highway
J/164 area of the Great Lakes watershed. The 22-mile
long Highway J/164 corridor in Waukesha and Washington
Counties crosses wetland areas, several rivers,
and is in close proximity to several lakes. All
of these waterways are within the Great Lakes Basin.
If WisDOT is allowed to expand Highway J/164 to
four-lanes, some local governments plan to convert
land use and zoning along this roadway from the
current agricultural/residential classification
to a commercial/industrial classification. We fear
that changing the Highway J/164 land use and zoning
in this fashion would encourage developers to fill-in
wetlands and alter river paths, causing widespread
destruction to the area’s aquatic habitat. Concerns
have also been raised with regards to groundwater
contamination problems in the Ackerville area and
whether the construction may exacerbate those problems.
In July of 2002, our citizens group
filed a federal lawsuit against WisDOT, the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA), and US Department
of Transportation (USDOT) to stop the Ackerville
Bridge Reconstruction Project and the four-lane
expansion of Highway J/164. In June of 2003, the
U.S. District Court in Milwaukee ruled in favor
of these three roadbuilding agencies. We promptly
appealed the district court’s decision to the 7th
Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Our appeal
was heard by a three-judge panel in September of
2003 and in November of 2003 the Court of Appeals
again ruled in favor of the defendants (the three
roadbuilding agencies).
Despite the setbacks incurred by
the two court rulings, we will continue our fight
to stop the expansion of the Ackerville Bridge and
Highway J/164. We plan to file an appeal by February
2004.
If our appeal is successful, the
WisDOT may be required to 1) investigate and clean-up
the Ackerville-area groundwater contamination problems,
2) adopt other more fiscallyresponsible and environmentally-friendly
alternatives as opposed to expanding Highway J/164
to four lanes, and 3) prepare a new comprehensive
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire
22-mile long Highway J/164 corridor.
Since 1999, the HJCG has raised
and spent approximately $80,000 to further the grassroots
goals of our group. Our group’s necessary expenses
have included legal fees, professional consultant
fees, court costs, fundraising expenses, office
supplies, advertising, and group promotions. Nearly
90% of these have come from concerned citizens who
live in the affected communities on or near the
Highway J corridor. We have also received some grants
and donations from other organizations, including
GLAHNF, which has helped supplement the costs of
attorney fees as well as fundraising and advertising
expenses.
Since our group’s formation over
four years ago, the HJCG has been hugely successful
in our ability to energize and unite citizens concerned
about the effects to the environment and their quality
of life should the highway expansion project be
completed. We have been able to bring together thousands
of concerned citizens, local, county, and state
elected officials, and many environmental groups
and other organizations, to vigorously oppose the
WisDOT’s road expansion plans. Another major victory
in this project has been our ability to generate
substantial continuing interest and coverage of
this ongoing battle in the local and state newspaper,
radio, and television media.
Our biggest challenge through this
battle is what we see as the roadbuilding agencies’
(WisDOT, FHWA, and USDOT) complete non responsiveness
to citizen input, and their apparent lack of concern
for the health and safety of the people who will
be negatively impacted by these massive road and
bridge projects. The WisDOT is moving forward with
both the Ackerville Bridge and the Highway J/164
four-lane expansion projects, which we believe are
causing significant damage to the area’s environment
and jeopardizing the health and safety of the residents
who live here. These government agencies appear
to be used to "getting their own way",
and, as we quickly learned, very rarely bend to
pure political and public pressure. It is due to
this unresponsiveness that the HJCG had no choice
but to file this federal lawsuit.
To any group of concerned citizens
contemplating a similar grassroots effort to stop
a road expansion project we share these lessons
learned form our own experience: we recommend organizing
your members, keeping them regularly informed and
involved, and raising funds for upcoming necessary
expenses as early as possible. We also suggest retaining
the very best legal, scientific, and environmental
experts in preparation for likely legal action.
You should be prepared for a long, hard grassroots
battle both prior to and during the filing of legal
action.
Highway J Citizens
Group
Raymond Cox
4510 Loch View Rd. Hubertus, WI 53033
(262) 628-0596
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