Woodlands Improvements on Hinsdale Board Agenda

The Board of Trustees will discuss and possibly vote on a green infrastructure improvement plan for the Woodlands neighborhood that would install environmentally friendly technology to help an area hampered for decades by stormwater inefficiency, but not without a pretty price tag.

At , trustee Doug Geoga said the approval of the Woodlands project as is would lead to the village borrowing $24 million. Though Geoga said the village will be borrowing with or without the project to cover for a front-loaded Master Infrastructure Plan (MIP), the Woodlands project alone would lead to $9 million in unpaid debt at the conclusion of the 15-year MIP. 

“Something has to give so that we don’t have to borrow $24 million of additional indebtedness,” Geoga said. “Whatever happens, that should not be the result.”

Trustee Laura LaPlaca expressed support for the plan. 

“It’s a good time to do it,” LaPlaca said. “Money is cheap, construction costs are low, and I think it would be a good addition to the MIP.”

Bob Saigh, the third EPS Committee member in attendance Sept. 12, said he fell somewhere in between Geoga and LaPlaca. 

The way the Woodlands project is currently written, the improvements, which include rain gardens and bioswales, would take place over the next six years and would necessitate the establishment of a Special Service Area (SSA). Through the SSA, the residents of Woodlands benefitting from the project would pay for 40 percent of the road improvements, approximately $2.1 million to $2.5 million of an expected total project cost of $15.2 million.

LaPlaca said last week that a vote is likely Tuesday in order to keep the project moving as planned. If passed by the board, she said, ground would be broken in Woodlands next spring.

For more information about the project, see .