A Comprehensive Plan for the Des Plaines River Watershed
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PLANNING REPORT NO. 44 A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FORTHE DES PLAINES RIVER WATERSHED Part Two Chapters 11-17 S O U T H E A S T E R N W I S C O N S I N R E G I O N A L P L A N N I N G C O M M I S S I O N SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION DES PLAINES RIVER WATERSHED COMMITTEE KENOSHA COUNTY RACINE COUNTY George E. Melcher . Director of Planning Chairman and Development, Kenosha County LeonT. Dreger Richard A. Hansen, Thomas J. Gorlinski Secretary Sheila M. Siegler Jean M. Jacobson Philip C. Evenson. Executive Director, SEWRPC James E. Moyer Secretary MILWAUKEE COUNTY WALWORTH COUNTY Nancy C. Braker . Director of Science and Stewardship, The Nature Conservancy Daniel J. Diliberti Anthony F. Balestrieri William R. Drew, Gregory L. Holden Vice Chairman Allen L. Morrison David C. Buehn. President, Village of Paddock Lake Linda J. Seemeyer John F. Burke . Manager, Halter Wildlife Area OZAUKEE COUNTY WASHINGTON COUNTY Robert A. Brooks Kenneth F. Miller James D’Antuono. Illinois Fox BasinTeam Leader, Thomas H. Buestrin, Daniel S. Schmidt Wisconsin Department Chairman Peter D. Ziegler, of Natural Resources Gus W. Wirth, Jr. Treasurer Wayne Eide . Chairman,Town of Bristol WAUKESHA COUNTY Duane H. Bluemke Carol J. Fischer. Chairman,Town of Somers Kenneth C. Herro Paul G. Vrakas Raymond A. Forgianni, Jr. Director, City Development, City of Kenosha Virgil Gentz . Chairman,Town of Paris Ronald L. Johnson. Chairman, Kenosha County Land Conservation Committee; Kenosha County Board Supervisor Wayne E. Koessl . Representative, SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN REGIONAL WISPARK Corporation PLANNING COMMISSION STAFF Ward S. Miller . Executive Director, Philip C. Evenson,AICP . Executive Director Lake County Stormwater Management Commission Kenneth R.Yunker, PE. Deputy Director Douglas J. Noble . Supervisor, Kenosha County Nancy M.Anderson,AICP . Chief Community Board of Supervisors Assistance Planner Robert E. Beglinger. Chief Transportation Engineer Michael R. Pollocoff. Administrator, Village of Pleasant Prairie Robert P.Biebel, PE, PH. Chief Environmental Engineer Arnold L. Clement . Planning and Development Leland H. Kreblin, RLS. Chief Planning Illustrator Director, Racine County ElizabethA. Larsen . Business Manager Phil H. Sander . Member, Des Plaines Wetland John G. McDougall. Geographic Information Conservancy, Inc. Systems Manager Edward St. Peter . General Manager, John R. Meland . Chief Economic Development Planner Kenosha Water Utility Donald M. Reed . Chief Biologist RonaldThomas. Executive Director, William J. Stauber,AICP . Chief Land Use Planner Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission Special acknowledgment is due Dr. Kurt W. Bauer, PE, RLS, AICP, Executive Director Emeritus, and Mr. Michael G. Hahn, PE, and Special acknowledgment is due Mr. O. Fred Nelson, retired General Mr. Ronald J. Printz, PE, Principal Engineers, for their efforts in Manager of the KenoshaWater Utility, who served on the Committee the conduct of this study and the preparation of this report. during much of the planning process. PLANNING REPORT NUMBER 44 A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR THE DES PLAINES RIVER WATERSHED Part Two of Three Parts Chapters 11–17 Prepared by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission P.O. Box 1607 W239 N1812 Rockwood Drive Waukesha, Wisconsin 53187-1607 June 2003 Inside Region $25.00 Outside Region $50.00 Chapter XI RECOMMENDED LAND USE PLAN AND PARK AND OPEN SPACE PLAN FOR THE WATERSHED INTRODUCTION The demographic and economic base and the existing land use pattern of the Des Plaines River watershed were described in Chapter III of this report. Forecasts of probable future population and economic activity levels, together with attendant demands for various land uses within the watershed, were set forth in Chapter IV. Under the alternative future selected for use in the watershed planning effort, the resident population of the watershed would increase from the 1990 level of about 19,700 persons to a year 2010 level of about 33,500 persons, an increase of about 71 percent, over the 20-year period. The number of households within the watershed would increase from the 1990 level of about 6,600 to a year 2010 level of about 11,500, an increase of about 74 percent. Similarly, employment within the watershed would increase from the 1990 level of about 8,200 jobs to a year 2010 level of about 36,700 jobs, an increase of about 348 percent. This growth in population, households, and employment would require the conversion of an additional 8.7 square miles of land within the watershed from rural to urban uses, increasing the amount of land devoted to urban use from about 12.5 square miles in 1990 to about 21.2 square miles in 2010, an increase of about 70 percent. The demand for urban land will have to be satisfied primarily through the conversion of a portion of the remaining agricultural and other open lands of the watershed to urban uses. This conversion, if unplanned or poorly planned and if not properly related to the natural resource base, may be expected to further intensify the existing developmental and environmental problems in portions of the watershed and to expand the scope of such problems within the watershed. It is thus important that new urban development within the watershed be properly related to soil capabilities, to the wetlands and woodlands of the watershed, to the floodlands of the streams and watercourses of the watershed, and to established utility systems. If the intensification of developmental and environmental problems is to be avoided and the problems of flooding and water pollution already existing within the Des Plaines River watershed are to be abated, new urban development within the watershed must assume a pattern which is more carefully adjusted to the ability of the underlying and sustaining natural resource base to support such development. A land use plan must, therefore, constitute a major element of any comprehensive plan for the development of the Des Plaines River watershed. This land use plan element should represent the basic approach to resolution of the growing developmental and environmental problems of the watershed. The land use plan element and any structural water control facility, floodland management, and water quality management plan elements should be mutually supportive in that land use development will determine to a considerable extent the loading on the floodlands and the water control and water quality management facilities, while those features of the watershed will, in turn, influence land use development, particularly in the riverine areas. 391 REGIONAL LAND USE PLAN Because the socioeconomic factors that determine growth in a large urbanizing region, such as Southeastern Wisconsin, operate on an areawide basis, transcending both political and natural watershed boundaries, a land use plan for a watershed within such a region must be set within the framework of an areawide, or regional, land use plan. The watershed land use plan recommended herein is accordingly set within the context of, and reflects the concepts contained in, the adopted regional land use plan for the design year 2010. The regional land use plan seeks to encourage the centralization of urban development to the greatest degree practicable; to encourage new urban development to occur in locations and at densities consistent with the economical provision of public centralized sanitary-sewer, water-supply, and mass transit facilities and services; and to encourage new urban development only in areas which are covered by soils well suited to urban use and which are not subject to such special hazards as flooding. Importantly, the plan seeks to protect and preserve in essentially natural, open uses the primary environmental corridors of the Region. These environmental corridors, while constituting only about 17 percent of the total area of the Region, encompass almost all the best remaining woodlands, wetlands, wildlife habitat areas, surface waters, and associated undeveloped floodlands and shorelands; areas covered by organic soils; areas of rough topography and significant geological formations; sites having scenic, scientific, and cultural value; areas of groundwater recharge and discharge; and the best remaining potential park and related open space sites. Protection and preservation of the primary environmental corridors is considered essential to the protection and wise use of the natural resource base; to the preservation of the cultural heritage and natural beauty of the Region; and to the enrichment of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of the resident population. Such protection and preservation is also necessary to avoid the intensification of existing developmental and environmental problems, such as flooding and water pollution, and to avoid the creation of new problems of this type. The topography, soils, and flood hazards in these corridors, moreover, make them poorly suited to intensive urban development of any kind, but well suited to recreational and conservancy uses. While the adopted regional land use plan forms the basis for the watershed land use plan as herein presented, it should be noted that in the preparation of the watershed land use plan, the regional land use plan was refined and detailed to reflect more precisely the flood hazards existing in the riverine areas of the watershed as determined under the watershed planning program; to reflect recent local development decisions regarding major trunk sewer locations; and, to the extent practicable, to reflect