The Upper Forked Creek Watershed Committee in Green Garden Township is dipping its toes into Peotone School District’s plans for a 25-acre sports facility.
Committee representative Thomas Becker has contacted Mark Hoskins, Floodstudies Engineer for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Office of Water Resources (OWR) asking that any permits for floodplain development sought for the original project design be denied.
Becker also offered extensive information and some new ideas that might help the district find a better way to build a news sports facility.
In a communication released late Sunday night, Becker explained the Chicago District Army Corps of Engineers recommended the committee contact Hoskins’ office to address floodplain concerns regarding a proposed 207-U development in a Zone A Floodplain of Rock Creek, in Peotone.
“The Village of Peotone, in Will County, is nestled between Black Walnut Creek and Rock Creek, which are both tributaries of the Kankakee River,” Becker wrote.
“Last year, the Peotone School District began plans to develop a 25-acre parcel for sports facilities between the Peotone High School and Oak Street, located in the historic stormwater pattern of a Zone A Floodplain of Rock Creek.
“However, most of this Zone A Floodplain, identified with a high-risk for flooding, is already occupied by seven streets in the NW corner of Peotone: Rathje Road, Joliet Road, Oak Street, Division Street, Mill Road, Conrad Street, and Glenview Lane.
“In the 1960s, village planners began approving home building in this floodway without adequate storm sewers, drain tiling, or detention,” he noted. “Likewise, residents were not informed their new homes were located in Rock Creek’s floodplain. The first homes had minimal issues. But, after a swampy area east of the fire station near Bennett Industries was filled in and home and street development expanded to its current location, serious flooding began to manifest. During heavy storms, the village has had to barricade flooded streets from traffic, floodwaters can surround and reach front steps of homes, and basements flood despite having up to four active sump pumps to remove overwhelming groundwater. These problems have been reported in the local newspaper for 50 years and, after rainstorms, residents can find fish and muskrats on their lawns. Even with modest rains, ‘streams’ and ‘lakes’ regularly appear in the yards of homeowners, especially on Joliet Road, Oak Street, Division Street, and Glenview Lane.
“It is into this already environmentally-compromised Rock Creek location that the school district proposes to develop the last open space of this Zone A Floodplain. Significantly, this acreage contains the only remaining path for stormwater, as well as a channel of Rock Creek. It also meets all criteria for federally-protected wetlands, being adjacent to Rock Creek and qualifying under the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court Sackett v. E.P.A. decision, along with possessing Ashkum hydric soil, hydrophytic vegetation, and sufficient seasonal hydrology.
“Nonetheless, last year, the school district prematurely hired engineers who prepared plans for development without first obtaining an Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) jurisdictional review, without initiating environmental delineations, or providing public notice to surrounding homeowners.
“As a result,” Becker continued, “last September concerned villagers sent more than 40 petitions to the Chicago District ACOE to request oversight on this proposed project, to preserve Rock Creek and its wetlands, and to prevent adverse flooding impacts to nearby homes.”
Becker wrote that, in mid-January, the ACOE Project Manager, who is tasked with reviewing the school district’s proposal, shared the following about the Peotone site: “At this time, the project has been withdrawn and we are awaiting additional coordination with the applicant and their environmental consultant for more detail regarding the project.” As noted, the school district’s original plan has been withdrawn. The village’s engineer also sent a comment letter to the school district, requiring plans to define any wetland and regulatory floodplain boundaries.
“This open field at issue is a valuable natural resource within the village limits. Hydric soils in the NW section of Peotone annually hold tens-of-millions of gallons of stormwater that are then slowly released into Rock Creek at this site. Disruption to this stormwater path and excavation and compression damaging the site’s hydric soils will predictably shift stormwater storage into neighboring homeowner yards, causing subsurface saturation and risk of harm to more than 50 Peotone home foundations.
“Given these circumstances, we would request the IDNR OWR deny the permit(s) for floodplain development sought in the proposed school district design.”
Becker added that the school district’s plan “is not the only option available for providing improved athletic facilities.” Over a year ago, he noted, “The Peotone Park District sought collaboration with the school district to return to a former inter-agency agreement to upgrade community sports facilities historically shared by school students and local public leagues. However, the school district chose instead to pursue this project. Meetings between the park district and school district should resume to improve community sports facilities, which can be achieved at a fraction of the cost and to the benefit of all.
“When buying land for the new high school, the Peotone School District was required to also buy this adjacent floodplain field, as well as five unbuildable lots on Oak Street.
“However, development of this acreage has been strongly opposed by the neighborhood, as their streets, homes, and backyards already flood, due to poor village planning and neglect by public officials, who have ignored their complaints for years.”
Becker said the controversy over the project “provides a unique opportunity to resolve these longstanding flooding problems.”
“A comprehensive stormwater management plan is needed for the northwest section of Peotone. We understand grant funding for a small rural town like Peotone, with flooding concerns, can be achieved by partnering with agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, or other government agencies. Below are three suggested stages that could be accomplished in a grant funding project. These include:
•The Village of Peotone purchases the 25-acre field from the school district to create a Rock Creek stormwater management area to serve the entire community. The five vacant lots on Oak Street are also purchased from the school district to create detention areas that would immediately improve conditions on Oak Street.
•The Village of Peotone hires an engineering firm that clarifies neighborhood flooding problems as shared by residents, generates hydrologic models and plans, and acquires the appropriate ACOE and IDNR OWR permits and reviews to both preserve natural resources and improve conditions.
•The village implements stormwater management improvements, including installing adequately-sized storm sewers, detention locations and drain tiling. To mitigate neighborhood backyard ‘lakes’ and ‘streams’, inexpensive plastic drain tiling with drain traps are installed along yard lot boundaries to discharge stormwater away from homes and lawns and into culverts and detention areas. Today’s non-invasive installation techniques reduce disturbance to homeowner yards, and narrowly-confined village easements, similar to utility right-of-ways, provide for future drain tile maintenance, while homeowners retain the same surface rights to their properties.
The Watershed Committee also requested any guidance Hoskins could provide about grant funding opportunities, including agencies to contact or any floodplain issues that should be highlighted in a grant proposal sought by the Village of Peotone.
School administrators, as well as village officials and residents, who submitted petitions opposing the sports project, also were given copies of the letter.
Becker told The Vedette that the voluntary watershed committee was formed more than 20 years ago in response to subdivision development in Green Garden Township.
“We quickly learned developers’ disregard for local natural resources, in order to maximize the number of lots for sale, caused serious flooding consequences to surrounding and downstream neighbors,” he said.
“Thus, we began advocacy to preserve our streams and wetlands, not only for their intrinsic beauty and value but to protect the homes and properties of nearby residents.
“Last summer, I was approached by Peotone residents about this proposed Peotone School District project and had conversations with villagers living in the NW section of Peotone. I learned of their concerns and their misfortunes.
“Given this proposed project was situated in a Zone A Floodplain in Rock Creek, and that no required review by the Army Corps had been undertaken, we assisted the residents with a petition drive and then submitted a series of letters to the Chicago District Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) requesting federal oversight. Intervention by the ACOE, the agency tasked with jurisdictional review to preserve the boundaries of American streams and wetlands, resulted in the initial plan by the school district recently being withdrawn.
“We believe there is a solution through grant funding that can benefit all parties involved. If the village purchases the floodplain field and lots from the school district, the school district (and taxpayers) can be reimbursed for parcels it was required to buy that are essentially unbuildable, being located in a stream system. The village can remedy its long-neglected responsibility to resolve flooding problems in the NW section of Peotone by creating a stormwater management plan utilizing this field acreage. Local residents, whose objections to the school district plan highlighted long-standing flooding issues, can look forward to finally having their concerns heard and resolved.
“We feel this grant proposal, or a similar solution, can only succeed with public awareness and genuine consensus.”
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