Wheaton considers stormwater studies, funding options

In hopes of addressing flooding issues in the city, Wheaton officials are considering paying $600,000 over the next two years to have engineering studies completed in floodplain and flood-prone areas.

City Manager Don Rose said Monday during a city council planning session that the city is "lacking an organized focus" when it comes to address the flooding problems, due in large part to missing individualized data for various flood-prone areas.

Twenty flood-prone areas have been identified in the city - three of which have been studied. The proposal is to budget $300,000 each year for fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17 to get the other studies finished.

Some of the required data for floodplain properties has been or will be provided by the county, as part of their ongoing floodplain mapping efforts, but the budgeted amount does not reflect those potential cost savings.

When all the studies are complete, city staffers will be able to provide recommendations for a flood mitigation program.

Officials say the studies will also enable the city to apply for grants from other government entities - like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and DuPage County - to help fund flood mitigation projects.

The hope is to identify all the principle structures that experience flooding in the floodplain and flood-prone areas by April 2017.

Residents from the Williston Basin and Briarcliffe Lakes area, especially, have been asking the city to mitigate flooding for several years. If flooding cannot be mitigated, they have asked the city to help buy their properties, due to recurring flooding.

In addition to the need to have studies completed, Rose explained to the council that it will be necessary to start discussing how to fund the stormwater management issues.

Currently, the city's stormwater management fee of 65 cents per 100 cubic feet of water usage only provides enough money to fund the general maintenance of the stormwater system.

If the city becomes more aggressive in its improvement efforts for the stormwater system, there will be a need to find new funding. The two most likely sources, Rose said, would be general fund revenues - which would likely require property tax increases ­- or the creation of a stormwater utility.

"During the next year it would be helpful if we begin to better analyze this," Rose said. "We're covering our maintenance expenses, but it's not really accomplishing any capital activity."