The Route 53 Greenway

For more than 60 years, the state bought land across central Lake County to extend Route 53 north into the county. In 2019, after years of opposition and organizing, the Tollway withdrew support for the project because it lacked both the political support and the funding. Now about 1,100 acres from Long Grove to Grayslake can become a 12-mile greenway of trails, prairies and wetlands, protected and accessible to everyone.

An adult and two children in knit hats and puffy jackets walk hand in hand down a trail through autumn woods, backlit by a low sun
“A Walk in Fall Colors” by Carter Conrad, an entry in the Green Corridor Coalition’s 2021 corridor photo contest.

From tollway corridor to public land

  1. Six decades of land buyingBeginning in the 1960s, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) gradually assembles about 1,100 acres for a Route 53 extension north from Lake-Cook Road, land later valued at roughly $54 million.
  2. 2017 to 2019The Green Corridor Coalition, which MSG helped found, campaigns against the Route 53/120 tollway as unaffordable, unneeded and unfair.
  3. July 12, 2019The Illinois Tollway ends its environmental study of the extension, stopping the project for the fourth time.
  4. 2021The General Assembly creates the Illinois Route 53 Expansion Land Alternative Use Task Force to decide what should happen to the land.
  5. July 2021The Chicago Tribune editorial board backs the greenway, calling it the obvious use for the 1,100 acres and urging Springfield not to drag out the decision. Read the editorial.
  6. December 2022The task force recommends moving the land from IDOT to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and preserving it as a state park or trail. Sixteen of its 19 members vote in favor.
  7. March 2023The Lake County Board endorses the recommendation. Barbara Klipp speaks in support on behalf of the Green Corridor Coalition.
  8. February 2024Governor Pritzker proposes $1 million for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to write a master land-use plan for the corridor, and it is eventually included in the state budget.
  9. March 2024A fire protection district proposes a regional public safety training facility on 34 acres of the corridor in Long Grove, and a bill is filed to let IDOT transfer the land for $1. Barbara Klipp argues the proposal belongs in the greenway planning process, and Hawthorn Woods warns against fragmenting the greenway.
  10. June 2024The General Assembly approves the $1 million, available July 1. Barbara Klipp describes the greenway as an urban wildlife corridor and nature trail.
  11. April 2025The Lake County Forest Preserves opens talks with the state to take over about 1,000 acres, preserve them as open space and build multi-use trails.
  12. NextCompleting the transfer and the master plan. The Forest Preserves has said planning and building will take years. We will keep pressing to keep the corridor whole.
A large group of supporters in matching yellow No Rt. 53 Tax Hike shirts posing in front of a park pavilion
Supporters during the campaign that stopped the tollway. Photo: Midwest Sustainability Group.

The Green Corridor Coalition

Midwest Sustainability Group was a driving force in building the Green Corridor Coalition, an alliance of residents, civic groups and conservation organizations, including Friends of Indian Creek Wetlands, Lake County Audubon, Openlands and the Sierra Club, formed to win the greenway. The coalition combined grassroots and political pressure: it gathered petition signatures, built support among the villages along the corridor, and kept showing up at public meetings, from the state task force to the County Board, until both backed the greenway.

When the legislature approved planning money in 2024, Midwest Sustainability Group called it an extraordinary milestone after several decades of work. It was. It is also not the finish line.

The coalition’s vision for the corridor

The corridor represents one of the most scenic landscapes remaining in Lake County, and we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fully unleash its value as an iconic nature trail and conservation area, where residents of our communities can treasure the atmosphere that makes central Lake County such an appealing place to live.

To achieve this vision, we propose designating the corridor as a Greenway where the majority, but not necessarily all, of the land would be designated for public recreation, natural stewardship, and flood protection, while at the same time harnessing the potential for economic development that capitalizes on the popularity of open space.

The linear configuration of this corridor, combined with the fact that much of the property is already in public custody, makes it a natural destination for a nature trail, where local residents can walk, jog, bike, or just escape into a transformative world next door. Along that journey, they would explore a virtual tapestry of visual jewels, from the deep emeralds of woods and meadows to the golden tint of sunrise rippling across wetlands and creeks. It’s a space that can be solemn enough for alone time, and joyful enough for a family picnic.

The 12 miles of new trail would also broaden access to existing recreational amenities by connecting to the Des Plaines River Trail, other trail systems and local forest preserves.

And perhaps the most beautiful part is that this vision requires only that we recognize that these lands will yield their greatest value if we simply honor them in their natural state. The less we do to alter them, the more they will pay dividends for our communities: as a recreational amenity, as a conduit for businesses that cater to outdoor activities, and as a barrier to costly floods.

We may have preserved these properties for a different purpose. But over time, especially as so much of the county’s natural environment has dwindled away, this corridor has only grown in value precisely because it was never paved over. That makes it a precious commodity that we can’t afford to squander. Residents want to be near places like this. In fact, Lake County’s own economic development plan affirms this idea, stating that the area’s natural resources are an instrumental part of its growth strategy.

We believe that by allowing these lands to thrive naturally, our communities can grow for the better with them.

From the Green Corridor Coalition’s vision statement

Oaks in rust and gold autumn color line the shore of a lake under a blue sky with drifting mist
“Fall at the Lakeside,” an entry in the Green Corridor Coalition’s 2021 corridor photo contest.

What the greenway can be

A scenic, continuous trail for walking, running and biking across the middle of the county, linking Long Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Mundelein and Grayslake. Protected wetlands, prairies and forests along the way. Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart has pointed out that Lake County has more threatened and endangered species and more biodiversity than any other county in Illinois, and this corridor is part of the reason.

The greenway would connect to other trail systems, like the Millennium Trail and the Des Plaines River Trail. Our long-term vision would also connect north: from the greenway to the Liberty Prairie Reserve, Volo Bog and Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge.

That is one more reason we are watching the Route 120 study. A bypass south of Route 120 would cut across the same landscape the greenway is meant to connect. Read about Route 120.

A gravel trail running south under summer trees beside a utility line along the Des Plaines River Trail
The Des Plaines River Trail in Libertyville shows what a long corridor trail can be. Photo: AlphaBeta135, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A white-tailed deer wades through shallow, still water at dawn, its reflection below it
“Sunrise Solitude” by David Jacobson, an entry in the Green Corridor Coalition’s 2021 corridor photo contest.

The corridor, through photographers’ eyes

We asked regional photographers to photograph the Route 53 corridor and the landscape around it. These are some of the entries in the Green Corridor Coalition’s 2021 photo contest: wetlands, forests, wildlife and working farms, all within reach of a future greenway trail.

Wooden plank steps lead down a leaf-covered slope toward a dark creek in a ravine under yellow autumn trees
Reed-Turner Ravine by Gina Sheade
A killdeer in flight against a gray sky, its two black breast bands and white wing stripes showing
Killdeer, Kildeer, Killdeer by Michael Schmitt
Rows of cabbage and broccoli in a farm field under an orange sunrise and a sky of scattered clouds, with a barn and bare trees behind
Broccoli Sunrise by Jennifer Miller
A massive old oak with deeply furrowed bark and sprawling twisted limbs in a green woodland
The Mighty Oak by Mike Trahan

Help keep the corridor protected

Land transfers and master plans move slowly, and proposals to carve off a piece keep coming, like the 2024 plan for a training facility on 34 acres in Long Grove. The best protection is a public that keeps showing up. Get our updates and we will tell you when a meeting or a vote needs you. Gifts keep us at those meetings, and volunteers help us engage the communities.

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