The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District has approved property annexations in a move that could allow for expanded bus service and increased access to health facilities.
The MTD board voted Wednesday to annex multiple parcels of land on the southern end of the area, including Cherry Hills and the Liberty on the Lakes neighborhoods in Champaign and Savoy.
That could allow the agency to expand its bus routes to the Carle Health facility along Curtis Road and Mattis Avenue and a separate assisted living facility.
MTD Managing Director Karl Gnadt said ever since the health system chose the location, the transit agency has heard from community members who want bus service to reach the building.
“There was quite a community uproar that they built it outside of the district … there were significant numbers of people complaining about not being able to access that that facility,” he said. “
Annexation allows the transit agency to expand its service service by bringing other properties onto its property tax rolls.
Multiple homeowners voiced opposition to the change during a public hearing earlier in March. Gnadt said they did not want bus service in their neighborhood.
Jan Carter Niccum, a former Village of Savoy trustee, cited that opposition on Wednesday and urged the board to delay or reconsider the annexation measure. He said the MTD could find ways to bring buses to the Carle facility without annexing additional property.
“I’m not a person that opposes transit, but I don’t like to see the annexation of properties whenever it might not be necessary,” Niccum said.
Gnadt said the annexation does not lock in any specific fixed bus routes to the area. He added the MTD is considering multiple route configurations that could access the health facility and limit service in the neighborhood.
MTD Board Member Phil Fiscella said he recognized the opposition from some residents. But he said transit service is critical to many community members.
“The reason people pick Champaign-Urbana instead of some place like Houston, where you have to drive everywhere, is a lot of these really brilliant people are coming from major cities all over the world, and even many of our students that are in their 20s have never had a driver’s license.
“Many of our professors that are coming in now and doctors at the hospital, in these clinics, they don’t drive,” Fiscella said. “Transit is really as far as these major economic engines, the people that are crucial to them rely on transit.”