St. Charles project would create 'parklike setting' along 7th Avenue Creek
A residential area prone to flooding is on track to become a "parklike setting" by the end of 2021, complete with walking paths and natural greenery framing a meandering creek, St. Charles officials said.
The first phase of the city's long-awaited 7th Avenue Creek project aims to address recurring flooding issues between Washington and South 10th avenues - the most problematic section of the waterway, said Ken Jay, public works engineering manager.
Preliminary design plans, presented to aldermen last week, call for replacing culverts, completing utility work, improving the water quality and allowing the now-linear creek to flow more naturally. A pedestrian bridge, rock riffs and other beautification efforts also are included.
The city has been working since 2017 to acquire and demolish residential properties, plus a few vacant lots, in order to move the project forward, Jay said.
Heading into the final design stage, the city is anticipating project costs to come in around $5.2 million - $600,000 lower than original estimates, he said. About $4 million will be funded by the city, with the rest covered by grants from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Kane County riverboat casino fund.
The city's plans to improve the 7th Avenue Creek corridor have been in the works for more than a decade, paralleling the Federal Emergency Management's efforts to revise its flood insurance rate maps for the area. The updated FEMA maps are expected to be finalized next year, Jay said.
Both initiatives stemmed from heavy rainfall that caused severe flooding along the creek in 2008. At the time, 70 structures were in the floodplain, compared to 57 now, Jay said.
The first phase of the creek project will remove 13 more, he said. And if the city moves forward with a second and third phase, that number eventually will be zero.
Though she said she supports the project and understands its purpose, Alderman Rita Payleitner questioned whether transforming the area into a parklike environment was "our burden to bear," rather than the responsibility of the park district or neighborhood.
As the creek master plan was being developed, Jay said, the beautification efforts fit well into the city's goal for improving the area.
"The direction was kind of a blended result where we didn't want to just buy all the properties - which was the most expensive part - and leave a blighted area," he said. "(We wanted to) try to improve the area beyond just the flooding improvements."
The city expects to start submitting permits early next year, with construction slated to take place in 2021, Jay said.
The second phase would likely begin the following year, encompassing the creek corridor from Washington Avenue to the Fox River. A subsequent third phase would complete improvements from South 10th Avenue upstream to Tyler Road.