The Village of North Riverside and the MWRD will celebrate the completion of one of the MWRD’s largest Green Infrastructure Partnership Program projects to date when it cuts the ribbon on the green parking lots at the Village Commons.

To complete this project, six asphalt parking lots surrounding North Riverside facilities were converted into permeable pavement. The pavement is designed to capture up to 539,000 gallons of water, diverting it from combined local sewers to mitigate flooding, basement backups and improve area water quality. The green infrastructure installation is one of 10 projects the MWRD selected in 2022 through its Green Infrastructure Partnership Program, and one of more than 100 the MWRD has taken on since 2015.

The MWRD contributed $1.28 million toward the $1.53 million in improvements in North Riverside. The 71,000 square feet of parking spaces accounts for roughly 17 percent of the Village Commons area.

Green infrastructure is designed to manage stormwater by mimicking nature. It captures and stores water where it falls, allowing stormwater to infiltrate into the ground before entering the sewer system. This reduces the amount of water flowing through sewers systems that are often overwhelmed by intense rain events. It can be a way of reducing stormwater runoff and improving the water quality of area waterways, including the Des Plaines River, which runs through North Riverside.