Conscious Choice: Prairie Watchdogs

February 2006

Prairie Watchdogs

Conservationists are pinning their hopes on an upcoming Army Corps of Engineers decision to save a rare orchid and an even rarer wetlands prairie in the south suburbs

By Harvey Henao

Botanist Jack Shouba first discovered Terry Prairie in 1992 while on a break from jury duty at the Bridgeview, Ill., Courthouse on 76th Street.

Since then, Shouba has returned to the property across the street from the south suburban courthouse and identified about 200 species of plants. Some, such as the ladies’ tresses orchid, are rare. The orchid may become even more rare, he said, because while federal laws protect the wetlands portion of the prairie, there are no laws to protect the non-wetland portions. And the prairie, which is one of the last of high-quality wetland prairies in northeastern Illinois, is under threat from a developer who has already begun construction of a 300-unit condo development on the land.

“I’m a lot more concerned about the prairie portion of it being destroyed than the wetlands,” Shouba said. “It’s really different from anything else.” That’s because the prairie is made up of a mix of sandy and wet soil, highly unusual for this part of Illinois, he said.

Shouba is among the conservationists hoping that a decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will halt, or at least reduce, construction of the development. The decision is expected this spring.

Concord Homes started building last summer on a portion of the 36 acres of the wetland prairie but stopped because it lacked the appropriate permits, said Steve Gagnon, environmental engineer for the Chicago Regulatory Branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s one of the largest unprotected wet prairies left in the area,” said Douglas Chien, conservation field representative for the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. “It’s really an amazing site, and that’s why it’s worth saving.”

However, Bridgeview has included the land in a tax-increment financing district, Chien said.

A Bridgeview buildings department representative declined to comment on the case and referred any inquiries to be made via a Freedom of Information Act request. A FOIA request was filed this past fall, but no response has yet been received, other than a copy of ordinances from July 2004 that established the 103rd Street and 76th Avenue Redevelopment Project Area as a TIF district.

Chien said the Sierra Club informed the corps of engineers about the situation and then swung into action to alert the public. He said the Sierra Club hopes that, at best, the Corps will deny all permit requests to build on the land, or at the very least will allow building to continue only with several conservation requirements.

During the Corps’ public comment period this autumn, “a couple hundred” comments were submitted, many of them from Sierra Club members, Gagnon said.

Conservationists already scored a minor victory after Concord Homes decided to preserve 9-10 acres of the wetland prairie in the northwestern portion of the property, Chien said.

“I suppose it’s better than nothing, but we still hope we can save more of the prairie,” Chien said.

The developer has also agreed to build a detention pond to recreate the wetlands, Chien said. However, this is also not an acceptable concession, he said.

“Recreated wetlands don’t always work,” Chien said. “It’s ironic they would do that when they already have 36 acres of high-quality wetland prairie.”

The developer was building without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, although Concord Homes claimed they submitted an application for the permit in February 2005 and because they never heard back, assumed it was OK to proceed, Chien said.

Concord Homes first applied for environmental building permits in February 2005, Gagnon said. No permits have been approved since then, although Concord Homes began building on the property over the summer, he said.

Gagnon said he did not know why the builder decided to go ahead with construction even though it lacked the proper permits from the Corps and was building “at (its) own risk.”

A decision is expected soon as the Corps is expected to “take at least a couple of months” after the Dec. 23 deadline Concord Homes had to respond to public comments about the project, according to Gagnon, who said the Corps will take as much time as it needs to conduct a thorough review.

“The amount of construction they might have already completed will have no bearing on what our decision is,” Gagnon said.

Meanwhile, Shouba remains optimistic that a compromise can be reached, and the fact that at least 10 acres of the wet prairie would be saved under the current Concord Homes proposal gives him hope.

“If we all work together, I think we can save a lot more than the developer has proposed,” Shouba said. “The public ought to be heard … We can be creative and reach a solution.”

Harvey Henao is a Chicago-area writer.

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