Elmhurst Neighborhood Wants Help With Flooding

ELMHURST, IL — A neighborhood in northwest Elmhurst is asking the city for help with its flooding situation. Its residents fear the construction of a stormwater detention pond at a nearby school may worsen flooding.

A few weeks ago, residents in the North Graue Woods neighborhood organized a task force, representing residents on Shady Lane and River Glen and Ferndale avenues. They said they want to work with the city and Elmhurst School District 205 to find a solution.

The residents are focusing on the current construction project at Emerson Elementary School, which is northeast of the neighborhood. According to the school district's website, it is adding a detention pond on the west side of the school to lessen flooding. It said the project would not only benefit the school, but neighboring residents.

However, North Graue Woods residents told the City Council on Monday that they were unsure. Ferndale resident Emily Moran said flooding on nearby West Avenue travels over the school's circle drive and onto Ferndale. The major concern, she said, is that Emerson's detention pond would be set to drain into the neighborhood's "piecemeal" stormwater sewer system.

"There are a series of drains and pipes that lead to open culverts, streets and apparently streams west of River Glen along Route 83," Moran said. "This type of system doesn't seem like it was built for the volume of water that our low-lying neighborhood gets as well as Emerson's volume of water."

She said it was unclear where the neighborhood's final outlet for stormwater is and that residents wanted clarification. She questioned why Emerson would drain into a system that has a history of flooding.

Another Ferndale resident, Jake Hill, told the council that the problem in North Graue Woods could worsen if the trend of extreme precipitation continues, threatening safety and property values. He said the reason for urgency is the ongoing detention pond construction, which he said could be adjusted to lessen the problem of neighborhood flooding.

Historically, Hill said, flooding issues are often take care of with special assessment districts, where residents in a neighborhood pay more property taxes to take care of their issues. But he said that would hurt North Graue Woods because many older residents on fixed income and younger families would be hard-pressed to pay for the tax hike. He also said it may be unreasonable for residents on higher grades unaffected by flooding to pay the tax.

Hill noted the city last month agreed to pay $4.7 million for a stormwater project to protect 94 houses in the areas of Swain and Saylor avenues and Vallette Street on Elmhurst's southwest side. He asked the city to include his neighborhood on its stormwater projects page.

The residents said they received positive feedback recently from the city's public works committee. At Monday's council meeting, aldermen did not respond to the residents' statements.

The neighborhood is in Ward 2, represented by aldermen Norm Leader and Bob Dunn.