The Center for Governmental Studies is proposing a new type of local government to assist with planning for growth created by a new Chicagoland highway.

The proposed “Corridor Council” will oversee growth around the Prairie Parkway, a proposed 36-mile highway linking Interstates 80 and 88 from Minooka to Elburn.

The council is part of a recent center study requested by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“The study that we’ve done is not a study about ‘should they build the road?’ and it’s not a study about ‘where should the road be?’” said Robert Gleeson, director of NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies. “The study we’ve done is, ‘If a major road is put in, how do you set up the governance of the region that’s affected by the road so that the development that occurs after the road is built is development that everyone sees as a benefit and not as a detriment?’”

The council will have no taxing or zoning authority but instead will create a comprehensive plan for the land within 1.5 miles of the highway.

Membership on the council will be voluntary among the counties and municipalities in Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties affected by the development. Voting representatives for each county will be divided equally among the county and affected municipalities and will be appointed by elected officials.

The council will create its plan for development in two or three years. Future zoning by municipalities on land within the corridor will conform to the plan unless the specific growth is approved by a super-majority vote of the municipality’s council or board.

Gleeson said this system of checks and balances allows for coordinated growth while respecting individual municipalities’ self-control.

The center recommends that the council be created by the state, although several intergovernmental agreements between the affected municipalities also could create it.

Gleeson said he hopes the council could be used as a guide for similar coordinated planning methods in other parts of the state and country.