Cook County wants to buy all the homes in Riverside Lawn, turn it into forest preserve

Officials from the county and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) met Riverside Lawn residents July 30 in a public meeting to discuss how to bring relief to the flood-beleaguered residents in the unincorporated subdivision on the south bank of the Des Plaines River.

Riverside Lawn lies huddled in a forested area between Lyons and Riverside on the banks of the Des Plaines River, which borders the area on three sides.

At the center to the discussion at the meeting July 30 was the county’s offer to purchase Riverside Lawn land parcels. The county said the homes would be razed and the land turned over to the Cook County Forest Preserve District to remain permanently green and undeveloped.

There are approximately 71 parcels with 30 homes in the area, county officials said.

Each property would be assessed at the pre-2013 flooding date by county assessors. Residents could independently get their property assessed, as well, and present their appraisal to the county for consideration.

In the event a property owner and the county come to an impasse, an arbitrator would be called in, officials said of the process.

Robert Rose, executive director of the Cook County Land Bank Authority, said a “critical mass”of willing property sellers is essential, and the parcels would need to be contiguous with each other before the county would entertain purchasing them.

Simply put, the county would not make an offer to a hodgepodge of individual parcels within the flood plain of the subdivision.

“If you decide as a community ‘No,’ it’s over in the truest sense of the word,” Rose told homeowners at the meeting.

However, Jane Hornstein, deputy director for Community Development for Cook County, said the county would probably go ahead and purchase any property from a willing seller.

“The idea is to clear out as much people as we can,” Hornstein said. “We don’t want to leave just one person there. There’s no way we can force somebody to sell. But for practicality purposes, we would like to get everyone out of there. The objective is health and safety.”

Richard Fisher, senior civil engineer for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, said the area was previously evaluated for the possibility of building a protective levy, but property issues created a roadblock to the plan.