The public hearing on the location of the future Metra Woodstock Rail Yard was held in the Woodstock Opera House meeting room. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

Metra settled on the location for its new Woodstock rail yard — the farmland near the existing Union Pacific Northwest Line tracks, east of Lamb Road

Metra wants to build a larger, more modern rail yard to replace the existing rail yards in downtown Crystal Lake and Barrington. Those yards are essentially landlocked, and the new yard is expected to improve equipment maintenance and allow more service in McHenry County.

Metra considered several sites, eventually narrowing it down to the land west of Lamb Road (Site 2) and the land east of Lamb Road (Site 1).

The commuter rail agency announced its decision at the March 18 open house meeting, which was held at the historic Woodstock Opera House. The east option is expected to have less environmental impact, and there are fewer zoning hurdles and better access to utilities. McHenry County officials in attendance praised the project as a way to create jobs, encourage more people to move to the area and improve service.

But the new rail yard isn’t entirely a done deal. Metra will still need to buy the land from its current owners, and construction funding still needs to be secured. If the transit agency overcomes those hurdles, construction is expected to start in 2029 at the earliest and take around two years

Union Pacific Northwest Line has seven stations in McHenry County, but service to McHenry only operates during rush hour, and Woodstock and Harvard get about half as much service as Crystal Lake and the stations further southeast.

According to the Metra presentation, the new rail yard will have seven storage tracks that can hold up a to 14 trains, and two tracks used for equipment maintenance. The property will also have an 8,700-sqare-foot maintenance and crew building, a 45,000-gallon diesel fuel storage tank, two stormwater detention ponds and “at least 80 parking spaces” for Metra employees.

According to the Metra fact sheet, the yard would allow it to run up to 21 additional trips. That would represent an approximately 27 percent increase in the number of weekday trips. Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Chronicle Media that more trips north of Crystal Lake “is a possibility, for sure.”

Metra chose Site 1 after conducting an environmental study required to qualify for federal construction funding. The presentation mentioned that building Site 1 wouldn’t hurt the wetlands, which reduce flooding, the way building on Site 2 would. Site 1 also has “good access to utilities” and it is already zoned for manufacturing, which a rail yard would fall under.

Chronicle Media spoke to two farmers who attended the meeting. Both declined to give their names, but overall, they didn’t have any concerns aside from the possibility of diesel from idling trains blowing on their property.

According to a project fact sheet provided by McHenry County, the project engineering costs are estimated to be around $11 million, and construction is estimated to cost around $120 million. The engineering costs will be funded through an $850,000 federal earmark secured by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-11th, with the remaining $212,000 coming from the county’s RTA Sales Tax Fund, the sales tax revenue collar counties receive from the Regional Transportation Authority to help fund transit projects.

The County Board appropriated another $1.8 million in RTA sales tax funding toward the project back in January. It currently plans to spend a contribute $11 million over the next three years. Metra is still working to secure the funding to buy the land, finalize the design and build the yard.

McHenry County Board Chair Michael Buehler said that the county is pitching in because “it’s going to benefit our residents greatly once this project is completed.”

“This project is going to not only create jobs, but it will be (creating) scheduling opportunities to add trains to [Chicago],” he said.

County Board member Brian Sager, District 7, also represents the county on the RTA Board of Directors and previously served as the mayor of Woodstock. He said that brothers Steve and Digger Gavers own the biggest portion of Site 1, and he doesn’t foresee any issues with them selling the property. Sager also said that, historically, the county worked fairly well with state and federal legislators to secure funding, so he was optimistic that it will hold for this project.

He believes the project would create jobs not just through the rail yard, but through increased Metra services. The increased service would make it more practical for Woodstock residents to commute to jobs in Chicago and suburbs closer to the city, Sager said, which will bring in more residents — which, in turn, would help economic development.

“There will be individuals who will move to McHenry County, and there will be businesses that will want to invest in the area as well,” he said.