Redeveloping Hubble won't alleviate flooding

It was long thought that redeveloping the former Hubble Middle School site could alleviate flooding in downtown Wheaton.

City officials say they don't believe that anymore.

Engineering consultants this week said that even a highly complex and very costly stormwater project involving the 22-acre site at Naperville and Roosevelt roads wouldn't do much to reduce flooding in the surrounding area.

"I'm surprised. I thought we would be able to do more with that," Mayor Michael Gresk said after the Thursday night presentation by the engineering firm of Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd.

The presentation was for members of a steering committee that's working with real estate consultants trying to determine the best use for the old Hubble property. The new Hubble Middle School is slated to open in a few weeks in Warrenville.

S.B. Friedman and Co., a Chicago-based consulting firm the city hired, is expected to take two years to create a redevelopment plan for the old Hubble site.

One of the points made during this week's presentation is that the bowllike nature of the Hubble site means 11 acres is in a floodplain. So whoever develops the property will have to limit what they construct to the 11 acres of higher ground.

"In terms of the development of the property, that's no surprise to us," said Rosemary Swanson, vice president of the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 school board. "In all of our appraisals and thinking about it, we've always thought it was going to be the area that's basically covered by the school."

While the initial concept of the project hasn't changed, the perception that it could substantially reduce flooding in the downtown area has.

The engineering consultants outlined a variety of stormwater solutions that could be applied to the Hubble site. But many were described as highly costly and none achieved more than a marginal reduction of the floodplain.

"The major revelation for me was that the flooding in the downtown area cannot be substantially mitigated to the extent that I thought it could be," Gresk said. "Whatever flood benefits we get out of here - at whatever cost we decide -would be marginal at best and very localized."

Still, Swanson said she's hopeful neighbors can get help with their flooding problems.

"This told us there's not an easy, quick solution," she said. "But it provided some fodder to think about in terms of out-of-the-box things that might help a little. Clearly, there's nothing that's going to solve the entire problem."

Councilman Liz Corry agreed.

"I don't think we could solve it," Corry said. "But I think anything we can do to lessen the impact would be more than what we're doing right now."

In the meantime, officials have been trying to tackle the town's flooding issues.

Wheaton has hired a stormwater engineer who is working to develop strategies for reducing flooding issues throughout the community. In addition, the city is looking to rebuild a culvert along Main Street next year to address flooding concerns in and around Northside Park, which is near Prairie Avenue and Main.

The city also is working with the Wheaton Sanitary District to make improvements to sanitary sewers that should help prevent backups.