The following was included in today’s email from the McHenry County Defenders:

Meeting Tonight!
When: August 16th, 2007, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Crystal Lake Park District, One East Crystal Lake Blvd.
What: McHenry County College Baseball Park Proposal

As you may or may not be aware, McHenry County College has requested a zoning variance from the City of Crystal Lake for an increase from 20% to almost 50% impervious surface coverage in the watershed in order to build a Baseball Park and Fitness Center.

There are a number of serious issues with this proposal. Two main concerns:

1) A watershed manual and study are being used to justify the variance. The manual and study

a) are not complete
b) have not been reviewed or publicly debated
c) have not been voted on by the City Council.

If the variance is passed with this manual as the justification, it will set a precedent for offering the same variance for any development in the entire watershed/ Route 14 corridor. This could have devastating consequences for the watershed and Crystal Lake itself.

2) There are concerns with the specifics of the current proposed development related to best management practices, the quality of the water infiltration and filtering, location of detention basins, etc. We have been told that new plans are being submitted, but how many improvements/changes to the design will be in the next plan, we do not know.

f this development is to be approved, it should employ the “best of the best” in terms of conservation design and best management practices. This development could be a model for conservation development if MCC and their designers/architects take the right approach.

Note: Defenders members will be speaking at the Crystal Lake Park District Board Meeting, TODAY, August 16th, 7:30 PM at Park District’s Administrative Offices, One East Crystal Lake Avenue, located at the corner of Walkup and Crystal Lake Avenues. I invite you all to please attend this meeting.