Winnetka is taking steps toward accomplishing the early phases of a stormwater management plan for two of its flood-prone areas.
The Village Board agreed recently to pay consultant Strand Associates up to $107,800 to prepare underground stormwater storage facility designs for Duke Childs Field and the Skokie Playfield, as well as for Crow Island Woods.
The designs are necessary if Winnetka wants to negotiate land use agreements with the Winnetka Park District, New Trier High School District 203, and Winnetka Public Schools District 36, Village Engineer Steve Saunders said Sept. 5. They won’t be final designs of underground storage facilities, he said, but they will allow the village to proceed with talks.
The talks are required by the Cook County Forest Preserve District board, with which Winnetka signed a memorandum of agreement earlier this year, Saunders said.
The council’s approval also authorizes Strand to draw up applications to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois EPA and other regulatory bodies for permits that would apply to the Forest Preserve detention project.
All the work should be completed by March 1, 2018, Saunders said.
Together, the permits, designs and drawings comprise the building blocks of what’s officially known as the first two phases of Winnetka’s stormwater management vision for its west and northwest areas, according to Saunders’ report.
Saunders and Village President Chris Rintz emphasized that Strand’s first designs won’t be the final version of detention planned for the school and park district properties. Instead, they would be the first of what would probably be several iterations of designs, all of which would be affected by public hearing processes and negotiations between the various government bodies, Rintz said. In that way, their development would echo the development of the forest preserve plan, which went through several versions before Winnetka and the forest preserve signed the memorandum, he said.
Although Trustee Scott Myers joined council colleagues in approving the resolution, he said he hadn’t realized that Winnetka had already agreed to make stormwater detention on school or park district properties underground facilities.
“I don’t think I was ever clear on that,” he told Rintz. He also said community discussions about any future proposals need to take place, and not just at the board level. He also asked if the requirement for complete underground detention on school and park district properties would increase overall project costs. Trustee Kristin Ziv also said she was surprised to hear about the underground detention assumption.
Rintz said agreeing to put stormwater detention underground at Duke Childs Field and Skokie Playfield, and in Crow Island Woods, was the only way that Winnetka could win broad support for the overall plan, either from forest preserve board members Tony Preckwinkle and Larry Suffredin, supporters of Crow Island Woods, and other Crow Island area residents.
Their support was predicated on assurances that the plan would impact the woods as little as possible, and that there would be no surface detention — which could be dangerous to children — near Crow Island School, Rintz said.
He also said that $57.3 million remains the village’s cost limit for the project, and reminded council members that there will be many chances for community engagement as planning proceeds, including chances for discussion in front of the school and park boards. He also said he and other village officials have already met many times to talk with residents about stormwater plans, often in people’s living rooms.
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