CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the payment of $162,750 to DuPage County for off-site wetland mitigation for the North Aurora Road Underpass project
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation, Engineering and Development
SUBMITTED BY: William J. Novack, Director/City Engineer
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
The City of Naperville and our project partners at Naperville Township and the City of Aurora have been finishing up the design and permitting for the improvements to the North Aurora Road underpass at the Canadian National railroad located approximately one mile west of Illinois Route 59. There are existing wetlands within the project limits that will be impacted and cannot be mitigated as part of the project. The only mitigation option available is to purchase wetland credits from a wetland bank.
DuPage County and the US Army Corps of Engineers are the regulatory agencies responsible for wetland permitting. Both agencies have agreed that wetland banking is appropriate for this project. A wetland mitigation banking fee must be paid to both agencies for this project because there are no available wetland banks in the West Branch of the DuPage River watershed.
DISCUSSION:
The project impacts 0.62 acres of wetland. Due to the quality of the wetland it must be mitigated at a 1.5 to 1 ratio. At $175,000 per acre the fee to DuPage County is $162,750. Attached is the invoice from the County for this mitigation.
The Army Corps is still establishing their next available wetland bank (located in the Des Plaines River watershed), so the final costs to the Army Corps is not known yet. It is believed it will be of similar value to the DuPage County cost. Once that amount is known and they issue us an invoice we will return for approval of that payment.
The Intergovernmental Agreement with our project partners stipulates that the three partners will equally share in the cost of the wetland mitigation. Since the City of Naperville is the lead agency for the project we will pay the full amount but will then be reimbursed by the partners for two-thirds of the cost.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP #: BR005
Wetland mitigation fees will be expensed to the Infrastructure account listed below as a part of capital improvement project BR005 - North Aurora Road Underpass at the CN Railroad. The 2023 budget includes $14,500,000 for engineering and construction costs. The City will pay the $162,750 fee, and then be reimbursed a total of $108,500 from the City of Aurora and Naperville Township.
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Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Budget Amount |
|
30282200-551502 |
Capital Projects Fund |
$27,482,000 |