At their June 22 meeting, the Forest Park Village Council voted unanimously to approve a plat of easement and allow High School District 209 to reduce parking spots, change the flow of traffic, reconfigure storm water management, and construct outdoor ball fields for physical education classes on the Proviso Math and Science Academy (PMSA) campus.
The easement, said Steve Glinke, Department of Public Health and Safety director, gives the village official access to the water main, a long-standing issue not memorialized in the original 2004 special-use agreement between the village and PMSA.
The board also voted to approve the improvements planned for the parking lot area outside PMSA, including adding outdoor recreation fields, landscaping, reduction of parking spaces, better traffic flow, and reconfigured storm water management.
“I’d like everyone on the board to know that this was a herculean effort,” said Glinke. “There were a lot of moving parts. This was a really great effort and is a pretty strong example of Forest Park’s support for District 209.”
He said the board, specifically Commissioner Jessica Voogd, who has championed environmental issues since her election, would be happy to know the project increases the amount of permeable surface by more than 50 percent.
“We’ve gone from what was 100 percent impervious to probably about 40 percent,” Glinke said, explaining that permeable pavers and natural grass fields account for the difference.
