Issues with Undeveloped Lots Are a 'Fine Line' for Village

On June 9, the Vancina family was out of town when a wall of storm water rushed toward their property, north of Route 30 near Lowe’s, and destroyed the drywall and new hardwood floors on the main level of their home, causing about $40,000 of damage.

The cause, say Bud and Kitty Vancina, is a lack of maintenance and upkeep on two vacant, adjacent properties to either side. On the east, a property now owned by MB Financial has changed hands multiple times, and on the west the old Flowers by Dan lot sits undeveloped. But when local government tries to resolve these issues, there are obstacles faced in getting developers to take action.

A contractor arrived at the Vancina home June 9 to install new kitchen floors when he found about 8 inches of water up against the east side of the house. Because the home isn’t in a flood zone (a flow line typically takes runoff into Hickory Creek) the Vancinas didn’t have flood insurance. Since then, Bud Vancina, who runs a landscaping company, installed a culvert and berm on his property in the hope of avoiding a repeat disaster.

"We've been through 11-inch rains through the years and never had any problems,” said Bud Vancina, who has lived in the home since 1970. “It just came and went that quick."

The sudden rush of rain, Bud said, took debris off the flow line and bottled up against the culvert on the MB Financial property. When that overflowed, the water moved rapidly down the south end of the property and eventually over to the home instead of moving eastward from the onset and heading into the creek. That’s what he determined by following the flow line and assessing the damage, and he’s reached out to the village and township for help, though to no avail.

Obstacles for Local Government

Bud Vancina says MB Financial needs to create storm detention on its property, and Insite Realty (the owners of the old Flowers by Dan property) must redirect runoff to the ravine on the west end of the property to keep it from flooding to the east. Additionally, he said New Lenox Township should correct the flow line on the west side of the property to keep drainage moving north to Hickory Creek.

When local government steps into matters involving private developments, though, there are many issues that can arise. The first and most simple, village engineer Will Nash said, is figuring out who the correct person is to talk to. When a property such as that changes hands multiple times and is then owned by a national bank, that can be a struggle.

More importantly, though, is making sure any action is within the village ordinance. And in this case, Nash said both properties are meeting village code for erosion control. He said there are some minor upkeep issues, such as fixing tears in a black silt fence, but that the overall maintenance of the property hasn’t deteriorated. In regard to storm detention, Nash said the MB Financial property is still zoned as agricultural land and thus doesn’t have as strict detention requirements as it would when construction begins.

“There’s not a whole lot we can do because they’re not developing a site,” Nash said. “It’s walking a fine line. We do spot checks, but we’re more concerned with sites in some form of construction. It’s an ongoing battle the village has with development around town, but many are good about it.”

Public intervention on private property can have its obstacles even in something as small as weed-cutting. With a number of vacant residential properties in town, weeds can sometimes grow past the 8 inches outlined in the village code. But then it can take a complaint to bring it to the village’s attention, after which the village contacts the property owner, who has 10 days to cut weeds. If it isn’t done by then, the village steps in and gets its contractor to cut the weeds within another seven days.

“Sometimes people don’t understand there is a legal process for how we must do these things,” Mayor Tim Baldermann said during a recent village board meeting.

But for the Vancinas, they’re hoping more action can be taken to prevent the storm water runoff issue from happening again.

"We're not even trying to get a dime out of anybody, because we know we won't,” Kitty Vancina said. “But it's going to be an even bigger catastrophe if it happens again."