A foundation filled with rainwater is causing a noisy controversy on quiet Gum Street in New Lenox.
Neighbors who fear flooded basements and lakelike yards if a house is built on the long vacant lot at 138 Gum St. gathered at the Village Hall this week, looking for a resolution.
Peter Stock, who lives across the street from the land where George Repiscak is building a house for his daughter, said the area becomes waterlogged after heavy rain.
“The reason people aren’t getting any water in their basements is that you dug a hole,” Stock told Repiscak. “If you raise (the grade on) that lot, people are going to get water.”
Repiscak’s lot had long served the neighborhood as a storm-water retention area, and neighbors considered the land unbuildable.
Trustee Dave Smith and Village Engineer Scott Killinger said there are no records identifying the lot as a non-buildable property or a wetland.
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Repiscak, who said he had a site plan and a drainage plan drawn up before starting to build, traced neighborhood drainage problems to filled-in drainage ditches and a malfunctioning catch basin at a neighboring church.
“I would love to see a nice little house on that lot as long as the drainage is taken care of,” said neighbor Ed Bartholomew.
Smith said he will recommend that village officials work with the church to get the pump in working order. The drainage will be monitored, he said.