After 25 years of owning 11 acres of property at the Altenheim, Forest Park is finally planning to build on part of it. The village is constructing new million-gallon tanks to hold potable water for residents, since, in 2023, emergency buttresses were installed to the current reservoir’s deteriorating ceiling below the Howard Mohr Community Center.
Amidst regular meetings about how to further develop the village-owned Altenheim property, at the Aug. 24 council meeting, commissioners approved Christopher B. Burke Engineering to design two new underground water reservoirs at the southeast corner of the Altenheim site.
Throughout the year, the engineering firm will design the site, the reservoir and pump station structures, plus the pump station’s mechanical design. Under a separate contract, the engineering firm has already completed a topographical survey and will do a geotechnical survey as well as provide architectural design services. The bidding process for constructing the new reservoirs is expected to begin this fall with construction starting next spring.
Come next year, there will also be a new water main installed along Jackson Blvd. — from the existing pump station next to the Howard Mohr Community Center, underneath the Canadian Railroad Company tracks, then southwest under the CTA Blue Line parking lot.
Building two separate million-gallon underground reservoirs is expected to cost the village $13 million, according to a Christopher B. Burke Engineering representative last March. The firm’s engineering services will run the village nearly $750,000, paid from local funds. Construction and construction engineering will be paid for through both local funds and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s low-interest loan program.
“We’re going to probably make additional requests,” Mayor Rory Hoskins told the Review. “We’ll get as much paid for by other units of government, state, county, what have you, as we can.”
After a meeting last May, when village staff and commissioners discussed land use options for the village-owned portion of the Altenheim, Village Administrator Rachell Entler was directed to work toward installing a submerged water reservoir in the southeast corner of the property.
At that meeting, Hoskins, Commissioners Michelle Melin-Rogovin and Jessica Voogd were in favor of building the reservoirs at the Altenheim. Commissioners Maria Maxham and Ryan Nero voted to build reservoirs at the adjacent CTA Blue Line parking lot.
“All this discussion and talk we’ve had in recent weeks about the Altenheim – shovel-ready, buildable land in town that the village owns — I still think it’s not the right idea to go ahead and put potable water storage there,” Nero said at the Aug. 24 council meeting. “It costs more money. It’s farther away from the pump station. I still think the best solution is an underutilized parking lot.”
Nero was the only one who voted against the resolution to approve the water reservoirs at the Altenheim. Though Maxham wants them installed at the CTA lot, too, she voted to authorize Burke’s engineering services for the Altenheim location.
“Commissioner Nero and I would have preferred a village-owned parking lot so that the Altenheim would stay free and clear for potential development or other uses,” Maxham told the Review. “I still would prefer a parking lot, but I know that the will of the council is to have it there,” at the Altenheim.
At the council meeting before the Aug. 24 one, Village Planner Pete Losue presented next steps for the village-owned Altenheim property — that commissioners should choose whether to build something other than they’re approved to, which is currently R1 and R2 development, or single-family and two-family dwellings, townhouses and publicly owned parks and playgrounds.
“I’m very, very frustrated with the lack of movement on this,” Maxham told the Review. Though Losue said there would be monthly discussions about the Altenheim property, Maxham said, “It still feels like it’s starting over again, like we’re back in kindergarten, with ‘Let’s talk about what we want’ and ‘Let’s meet with the Altenheim board.’ These are things that we have done more than once in the past, and I want to see a real plan in place and real movement on this.”