The Mokena Village Board Monday night voted to annex and rezone land earmarked for a neighborhood park and wastewater treatment expansion.
Village Administrator John Downs said the project will include landscape buffering on both sides of the property and a dedicated right-of-way for future construction of a street at 114th Avenue.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mayor Robert Chiszar of the decisions taken at the board meeting. “It was not a quick decision.”
Downs said planning for wastewater treatment plant expansion began in the 1980s. He said the expansion will take place gradually.
The village bought the 23 acres near 187th Street and Wolf Road last year with a view toward expanding its wastewater treatment capacities on the southernmost 16 acres and turning over 7 acres on the north for development as a community park.
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The Planning Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals voted in May to recommend annexing and rezoning the land.
No building is expected on the area set aside for wastewater treatment until about 2015, according to Downs. The existing plant will be expanded first, with work scheduled to begin between 1999 and 2015.
The village’s plan calls for using landscape buffering to screen the area from the neighboring Creekview subdivision, where neighbors have been concerned about the effects of the plan on their property values.
No residents from the subdivision spoke at the public hearing held by the Village Board before the vote.