The 7th Avenue Creek Project includes a watershed plan and Master Plan, a construction project for the 7th Avenue Creek watershed that will remove structures from the floodplain and provide naturalized greenway areas along the creek, increasing water quality and restoring the creek to a natural state.
In 2008, 7th Avenue Creek experienced significant flooding. The flooding caused large scale property damage and street flooding. The 2008 flood kicked off a series of events, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) floodway and floodplain re-mapping process and the City’s plan to reduce and/or eliminate flooding within the 7th Avenue Creek watershed.
FEMA has modeled a new floodplain, which as of 2018, is in its final stages of development and approval. The new floodplain maps may become effective as soon as 2019, mapping 55 residences and 15 commercial structures into the floodplain or floodway.
The City completed development of a Master Plan in 2017, which outlines a construction project for the 7th Avenue Creek watershed that will not only remove all of the structures from the floodplain, but will also provide naturalized greenway areas along the creek, increasing water quality and restoring the creek to a natural state. In addition to the master plan, the City developed a Watershed Plan for 7th Avenue Creek (in conjunction with State Street Creek). This plan addresses stakeholder concerns within the watershed and provides recommendations of ways that water quality can be improved.
Following completion of the Master Plan and watershed plan, the City applied for grant funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for a Section 319 grant. Section 319 grants specifically fund water quality improvements. The City’s grant application was approved for a total funding amount of 1.2 million dollars towards the construction of a greenway/park-like area along 7th Avenue Creek between S. 10th Avenue and Indiana Avenue. Additional improvements are required in combination with the water quality improvements to the achieve flood reduction benefits outlined in the Master Plan. This total construction project is being referred to as Phase 1 of the 7th Avenue Creek Master Plan.
For more information on Phase 1, see the presentation provided to City Council on October 15, 2018, found in the project documents section of this page.
Additional older project information, including watershed plan development, can be found on the 7th Avenue Creek Project Plan website.
Phase 1 final engineering is underway: the City has retained HR Green, Inc. to complete final engineering design and obtain construction permits. Improvements will include restoration of the creek to a natural state, streambank stabilization, upsizing of culverts underneath Illinois, Indiana and South Avenues, removal of a portion of S. 9th Avenue and the creation of park-like setting with naturalized plantings and a walking path.
