Hinsdale Proposes Green Infrastructure Project for Woodlands Area

Green is how some potential infrastructure improvements in Hinsdale are being labeled because they are considered ahead of the curve environmentally. Green is also what will come out of some resident wallets if the improvements are approved. 

Residents of the Woodlands neighborhood—the area bounded by County Line Road to the west, the Tri-State Tollway to the east, 55th Street to the south and Woodside Avenue to the north—were introduced on June 22 to a  proposed road and stormwater improvement project for the area that would incorporate environmentally sound methodology, including rain gardens and bioswales, but also necessitate extra tax dollars from Woodlands homeowners in the form of a Special Service Area (SSA).

During a resident meeting at the Lodge, Village Manager Dave Cook, Village President Tom Cauley and board trustees Laura LaPlaca and Doug Geoga—who chair the Environment and Public Services and Finance committees, respectively—were among the representatives who took turns speaking after engineer T. Scott Creech, an associate at HR Green who is helping the village plan the project, explained its basics.

Though the approximately 60 residents in attendance asked plenty of questions and weren’t without skepticism, the plan received a round of applause and some vocal support as the meeting ended.

Under the improvements that would be installed in three phases over the next six years, rain gardens and bioswales—two methods of absorbing stormwater and directing it to natural underground seams—would be installed along the public rights of way in the area. Creech said these gardens will be “tucked in between” the road and residents’ front yards.

Though rain gardens have a reputation for appearing weedy and unattractive, those installed in Woodlands would feature prairie-style, aesthetically pleasing plants. 

“For this particular development, the character of the planting is going to be more formal,” Creech said.

Tanks below the rain gardens will collect stormwater and control its distribution back into the underground water seams, according to Creech, making the project environmentally responsible, or “green.”

“We’re just attempting to direct that [water] into the subsurface seam sooner just to take it off the surface,” Creech said.

Bill Seith, president of the Woodlands Homeowners Association and neighborhood resident since 1962, said drainage problems in Woodlands have been around for more than 50 years and have gotten worse as the area’s houses have gotten bigger and its green space has become sparser.

“Over time, houses have been added; streets have been added,” said Seith, who bought his childhood house at 917 Cleveland Rd. from his parents in 1984. “Generally speaking in the Woodlands, there’s just a lot less pervious surface or open space for the water to run to.”

Through the establishment of an SSA—a special taxing district that pays off  bonds sold by the village to cover additional services or infrastructure improvements to a particular area—Woodlands residents would be asked to pay for 13 to 16 percent of the overall project cost, according to Village Manager Cook.

Cook said the preliminary project cost, which includes drainage, road, and water main improvements, is estimated at $15.2 million. Residents who own the 229 tax parcels with driveway access to a Woodlands neighborhood roadway would be asked to pay for 40 percent of the roadway improvements only, which are expected to total $5 million to $6.2 million. The resident share, therefore, would be $2.1 million to $2.5 million.

“This cost-sharing percentage is very consistent with similar projects,” Cook said.

The amount each Woodlands homeowner is taxed to fund the SSA will be not be uniform, Cook said. Instead, rates will be customized for each homeowner based on equalized assessed valuation of their property.

Village President Cauley said the point of the June 22 meeting was to gauge the residents' interest in footing part of the bill; it’s important, according to Cauley, to get a large portion of the population behind the project.

“We can push it through if we get 51 percent; I don’t want to do that,” Cauley said. “We think this is a good plan and we want to get that consensus.”

Several residents in attendance at the meeting asked questions related to their own property and expressed anger about the condition of the unimproved streets. But the room appeared to be in support of the plan by the end of the meeting.

“This is the first board that is tackling this,” Taft Road resident Torrey Foster said. “We should be grateful, not barking at them. They have developed a plan that preserves the character of the Woodlands we love … We ought to slam dunk this thing and get it done.”

Cook said the next step is a public hearing in September or October. A board of trustees vote on an ordinance establishing the SSA would follow in the winter; a decision in favor of the SSA could only be overturned by a petition signed by 51 percent of the homeowners within 60 days of the vote.

The next step for Seith, an environmental lawyer who was once the deputy director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is to bring onboard the more than 150 Woodlands homeowners that didn’t attend June 22.

“Our intention is to literally go door to door to talk to people to make sure that they’re aware this project is coming to a head and moving forward and to make sure there’s sufficient support in the Woodlands for this project to move forward,” Seith said. “My general sense is that the support is there, but we have to confirm that.”