Park Board Approves Memorandum of Understanding for the Neighborhood Storage Project
The Village is pleased to announce that the Park Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Neighborhood Storage Project at their meeting on Monday, August 19. The next step is for the MOU to be reviewed and approved by the Village Board at their meeting on August 27 at 7:00 PM at Village Hall.
The primary purpose of the MOU is to determine the preferred vault configuration for each of the three parks sites, Community Playfield, Hibbard Park and Thornwood Park. Of note, the final location of the underground vaults at all three parks were selected to minimize tree loss. At Thornwood Park, the existing oak grove will be protected and at Community Playfield, the cottonwood grove will be protected.
The vote by the Park District was followed by a series of public meetings aimed at gathering public input on the project. The Village and Park District extend a sincere thanks to all of the residents who participated in this collaborative process. With the MOU in place, the Village’s engineering team can begin working on the final design with construction at Community Playfields anticipated to begin in Spring 2020.
Click here to review the MOU and exhibits showing the proposed underground vaults.
Click here to view public comments regarding the Neighborhood Stormwater Project.
The Village of Wilmette is excited to announce that construction is scheduled to begin in the 4th quarter of 2019 on the larger storm sewers associated with Phase 1A of the West Side Neighborhood Storage Project (Project). For more information about the first phase of the project, please click here: Frequently Asked Questions.
Project Background
Following five years of study, and an intensive public education campaign, the Wilmette Board of Trustees voted on April 17, 2018 to pursue a stormwater improvement project to address flooding issues for residents who live west of Ridge Road. Ultimately, the majority of the Board of Trustees voted to proceed with Neighborhood Storage improvements at an estimated cost of $48-55 million.
The Village’s goal is to be ready to commence work on the first neighborhood storage project at Community Playfield by summer 2020.
In order to meet this goal, the Village issued a Request for Proposals and received responses from seven firms, several of which teamed together because of the size of the project. After careful review of the proposals, staff interviewed three firms. The team of Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd. (CBBEL) and Baxter and Woodman was selected based on their relevant experience, knowledge of the system, comprehensive scope of work and competitive fee.
CBBEL was the project manager during the initial hydraulic study. As its original developer, CBBEL has tremendous knowledge of Wilmette’s storm sewer model and provided an option in their proposal to expand flood relief to underserved neighborhoods. This will be reviewed in detail during the preliminary engineering phase.
To gather community feedback, The Wilmette Park District will hold public meetings in two separate formats beginning March 11, 2019. For more information, please visit http://wilmettepark.org/village-stormwater-project.
To learn more about the Stormwater Improvement Project go to wsnsp.com.