Area residents are not happy with Illinois Department of Transportation plans that could eliminate more homes and businesses in Bensenville to build airport roadways in a community already been hit hard by O’Hare International Airport expansion.

IDOT held a public meeting Wednesday at Oak Meadows Golf Course in Addison to unveil seven transportation plans as part of its Elgin-O’Hare West Bypass Project study that focuses on transportation issues on the west and southwestern sides of O’Hare.

IDOT has been reviewing as many as 14 options for the past two years to improve traffic and transportation, which includes the possible extension of the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway down the Thorndale Avenue corridor, new rail options and a bypass road that could run on any or all sides of the airport. It would also include the long-rumored western access road into O’Hare off York Road.

Liz Coffey, a spokeswoman for IDOT, said the meeting was to help narrow down the list of options in the study and to give residents a chance to comment on the seven plans.

“Over the next year, we will continue the process of eliminating some of these options based on feedback we get from the communities,” she said.

While hundreds of people attended Wednesday’s meeting, the most vocal group was from Bensenville, as plans for southern bypass roads show one option that would run right through Bensenville, which has already lost more than 500 homes and businesses due to the O’Hare Modernization Program’s plans to build a new southern runway at the airport.

Bensenville Communications Director Linda Dickson said residents have been calling the village asking about the plans, and how the plans could impact them.

“It has been an important issue for our residents,” she said.

Bensenville Trustee Marianne Tralewski said one of the plans shows a bypass road running north and south through Bensenville west of County Line Road, which could devastate dozens of properties and impact Redmond Park.

“Any road plan that runs west of the airport is unacceptable to us,” Tralewski said. “We have lost so many homes already, this would devastate us.”

The main concern of Bensenville officials and residents is the location of a proposed bypass road on the western side of the airport. While the O’Hare Modernization Program calls for a 300-foot-wide corridor east of York Road on airport property to accompany a road that would link interstates 90 and 294, residents are skeptical on where that highway would run, as no site plan exists.

There would also be an economic impact on the village with more properties removed from the tax rolls. Part of the problem, Bensenville economic development planner Beth Hibner said, is that IDOT still has not indicated how many properties would be lost if a bypass road were to plow through Bensenville.

“We have been asking for this information for a while, and still have not received it,” Hibner said.

Larry Martin, an engineering consultant for IDOT, said that data is still being compiled, but indicated that there are five other options for the southern bypass road, most of which run east of Bensenville.

“None of this is set in stone yet,” he said.

But other communities that could be impacted, such as Itasca and Wood Dale, have been more supportive of the plans.

Wood Dale Mayor Ken Johnson, who has been a supporter of the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway plan as part of a redevelopment of Thorndale Avenue, is pleased that IDOT has chosen to “fast track” the project.

Itasca Village Administrator David Williams said the village has met with IDOT many times regarding the issue, and the meetings have been positive. If western access is built correctly, he said, it would have a huge economic impact on not only Itasca, but the region in general.

“On the other hand, if it is nothing more than an expressway to the airport, it will have a negative impact,” Williams said. “But we have been optimistic on what we have seen of the plans so far.”