State should move quickly to create a park along unused Route 53 right of way in Lake County

A vista of some of the land that would be preserved if the land set aside for the Route 53 extension becomes a park. (Kaavya Vassa/Openlands)

Lake County has a chance to have its own version of Chicago’s The 606 trail or the western suburbs’ Prairie Path. Gov. J.B. Pritzker should push to get the project going.

In December, the Illinois Route 53 Expansion Land Alternative Use Task Force voted to make a park out of land the state had purchased back in the 1960s for the possible northern extension of Route 53. Route 53 now ends near Lake-Cook Road, and traffic data show the extension is not needed. The land for the road has remained open.