Park district officials are talking with Lake County Stormwater Management Commission and Highland Park officials about applying for a grant from FEMA after recently unveiling concepts to convert most of the former golf course into a nature preserve.
The plans include a habitat water garden, pond overlook, savannah picnic grove, council ring, nature maze, turtle meadow, walking trails and other features.
Hey and Associates, an environmental engineering and design firm hired by the park district, are developing the plans with input from an advisory panel.
Rebecca Grill, natural areas manager for the park district, said officials also are looking at ways to increase stormwater detention capacity on the site while developing the concept plans.
“Quite some time ago, we conducted an inundation analysis that looks at where the property floods when it floods,” said Grill, adding how the analysis looked at how long stormwater remains on the site.
The study identified two pond areas that could be joined together to create an open water area of about 10 acres for stormwater storage, she said.
“That would provide help for the community and give us the opportunity to drive that conversation in a direction that leaves our passive recreation area in good shape,” Grill said. “That is super-important.”
The park district also could incorporate wetland habitats into the detention project, she said. But the pursuit of federal funding does create uncertainty with the mitigation project, Grill said.
“It is a grant, so it may or may not come to fruition,” she said.
Michael Warner, executive director of the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission, said his agency will pay for the consulting work needed to submit the grant application, using Hey and Associates under its own contract with the firm.
“There are already studies out there that have been done on this watershed, so we may not have to recreate the wheel,” Warner said.
He did acknowledge the application may not have a good chance to be funded through FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation program.
“We are going to do our best through the application process to try and check all of the boxes that we need to,” Warner said. “It is a fairly complex application.”
Ghida Neukirch, city manager for Highland Park, said the city also supports the park district’s grant application.
“One condition the city insisted on as part of the golf course sale to the park district last year was that the property be considered for regional stormwater management purposes based on the determination of the United States Army Corp of Engineers and other agencies currently engaged in a review and engineering of the site,” Neukirch said. “The park district has been an excellent partner in that regard.”
The application would be submitted in late 2019 or early 2020, and the partner agencies should hear back later next year, officials said.
“The earliest we could start that work would be spring of 2021, which fits into our plan fine,” Grill said.
In the meantime, the park district would continue to execute its nature preserve plans, avoiding investments that would be imprudent if the stormwater project comes through, officials said.
The Skokie River, a fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, runs through the former golf course property. The property’s potential as a flood control resource has been part of local discussions spanning decades.
When the city purchased the Highland Park Country Club property in 1993, citizens and elected officials wanted to keep the golf course as open space with flood control benefits in the face of a developer’s proposal to construct a residential subdivision on the property.
The benefits of converting the property to a nature preserve include the ability of native plants to absorb stormwater, Grill said.
kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com
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