Politics & Government

Village Board Favors Proposed Techny Park Expansion

Trustees conducted a preliminary review of the Park District's proposal to annex six acres adjacent to Techny Prairie Park and Fields.

Trustees have tentatively given the green light to the ’s proposal to annex a six-acre property adjacent to .

During a preliminary review at a village board meeting Tuesday night, trustees overwhelmingly supported the park district’s plans to expand Techny Prairie Park and Fields with the purchase of the site .

In late August, the park district’s board of commissioners , where the Anetsberger family operated a food equipment manufacturing business . The company was sold in 2009.

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“It’s a really great asset for the community,” park district executive director Rick Hanetho told Patch in early September.

The park district is seeking village board approval to annex the property, which is currently situated in unincorporated Cook County, as well as to rezone the site for institutional buildings.

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The park district is also seeking to waive the annexation fees, which would be approximately $363,000, according to Tom Poupard, director of development and planning services. 

The village board has a history of waiving annexation fees for public bodies, according to Poupard, and trustees said they didn’t see a problem with doing so this time, given that collecting fees would mean one taxing body taking funds from another.

“It’s an exact wash this way,” said Trustee Todd Heller 

Trustee Kathryn Ciesla said she was concerned that there might not be enough stormwater capacity in the basin in Techny Prairie Park and Fields to accommodate the new property. Poupard assured her, however, that the park district had designed the whole site to accommodate stormwater overflow with the assumption that the six acres just purchased would eventually be included in public lands. 

Although provisions may be made for flooding on the site itself, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) in Techny Prairie Park and Fields for expansion.

MWRD plans to move forward this year with feasibility studies of possible projects to manage stormwater around the North Branch of the Chicago River. One of those projects involves a $116 million expansion of the water retention basin in Techny Prairie Park and Fields, which helps manage overflow from the West Fork of the river’s North Branch. 

Until the agency conducts a feasibility study, however, the project is simply one of many proposals on the table, according to John Murray, principal civil engineer with MWRD. 

In early September, park district and village officials met with representatives of MWRD to discuss that potential project. 

“They’ve agreed to work with us cooperatively on that,” said Kelly Hamill, director of public works and engineering. 

Before developing the six-acre site just south of the golf course at Techny Prairie, the park district is planning an extensive process to gather community input. 

“The opportunity that the community now has to evaluate and look at how we use this six acres—this is really unique,” Hanetho said in August.

 

 

 

 

 


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