‘Find another location’ : Allies advocate against displacement caused by Myrtle Ave. pond and park

Sharron McGee waved a white envelope thick. In it, a signed petition from Harvey residents who oppose a $9.85 million water detention pond project. There are over 1,200 signatures.

She and others went downtown Chicago twice in November to impress upon the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to pull out of a stormwater initiative on 153rd St. and Myrtle Ave.

They’ll be showing up “every two weeks, regardless,” McGee said.

The dual-use park and pond is a collaboration between the District and Harvey, replete with new storm sewers. The goal is to reduce local flooding. But it requires displacement of families, who were to vacate their homes by Nov. 4. 

One family remains on the block: the Poole-Tingle’s. They haven’t signed any paperwork and are holding out. Now, the District is preparing to use eminent domain, a court seizure, to force them to leave, the HWH has learned.

Ald. Tracy Key (4th) spoke on their behalf, as well as Ald. Colby Chapman (2nd), in whose ward the project is slated to be built. Key and Chapman cast the two lone votes against the project. Two weeks prior, four councilpersons showed up with Mayor Chris Clark and seniors to express support.

“I’m asking that we find another location for the pond,” Key said, “because people are getting ready to lose their homes. They don’t want to leave, and they shouldn’t be forced out.” 

The District has worked with the Village of Robbins to endeavor a similar dual-use park and pond initiative. 

The 52-acre “Robbins Heritage Park and Midlothian Creek Restoration Project” couples a retention pond with 30 acres of parkland. 

A far pricier $30 million price tag, it will restore the riverbank. With the village’s Metra station nearby, attempts to catalyze transit-oriented development. Officials broke ground in 2022, and is expected to be completed by 2025. 

Key raised alarm about the planning and final site location.

In 2018, Harvey officials contacted the District for flooding woes near 147th St. and Wood St. 

The municipality and region’s water treatment facility worked closely to plan. Impacted residents were blindsided last summer when they were finally told about the project and their need to relocate.

Director of Engineering Catherine O’Connor told impacted residents the site location was driven by Harvey’s decision to build the Central Park, comments confirmed by preliminary engineering reports.

After criticism grew — and Clark gave the District verbal encouragement — officials changed their responses. Now, they say, the block is the best of sites considered.

That’s different than what occurred in Robbins. The District held multiple workshops where residents and engineers brainstormed multiple options, according to its website. The District is not displacing residents there, Key noted.

Official business

The District’s board of commissioners agreed to pay law firm Neal & Leroy, LLC. $340,000 to represent the District in property acquisitions for Robbins’ flood control project. The initial amount was $300,000.

The board also approved settlements to two eminent domain cases to acquire vacant parcels for project completion. Neither parcel is residential. One is a car lot, and the other forested space.

The board also set a flood-reduction project at 157th Street and Spring Creek in Orland Park into motion. The board paid $150,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding to Orland Park Township for preliminary engineering.

The District is planning to use $1.5 million in ARPA dollars to advance stormwater improvements on 147th St. and Wood St. in Harvey, one of several new projects it announced this summer.