A plan to expand Mokena’s wastewater treatment plant was outlined recently for the Planning Commission.
The village has purchased 23 acres near 187th Street and Wolf Road and wants to annex the land and rezone it for public use, Village Administrator John Downs said.
The Park District would develop the 7 acres on the north side into a park. The village would use the other 16 acres to expand its wastewater treatment plant.
The expansion plans call for building a second plant, but that won’t happen until about 2015, Downs said.
The current plant, to the south of the newly purchased site, would be upgraded first, with one expansion slated for 1999 and one for 2007.
A planting of evergreens along the west side of the land slated for wastewater treatment would screen the area from the view of homeowners in the Creek View subdivision, Downs said. A landscape buffer might need to be planted to the east, he said.
Funding for the landscaping would come from sale of easement rights for a crude oil pipeline to cut across the property, he said. The village’s proposed agreement with the pipeline company would limit the company’s options for use of the line.