Transformation continues at former Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park in Sycamore

SYCAMORE – This week’s heavy rains served as a reminder of why the former Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park wasn’t a safe place to live.

Located in a floodplain adjacent to Kishwaukee River, parts of the former mobile park, 955 E. State St., Sycamore, were quickly inundated as the water level rose.

“If people were still living there, the rain would have been a serious concern,” said Paul Miller, DeKalb County’s Planning, Zoning and Building director. “It’s an immense relief for everyone that it’s no longer a concern. This is exactly why this project was needed.”

As clean-up continues at the former Evergreen Village mobile home park, the site's potential as a future picnic spot is getting brighter.

Once all of the work is completed, the property could be transferred to the DeKalb County Forest Preserve District. But that likely won’t happen until 2016, DeKalb County Forest Preserve Superintendent Terry Hannan said.

“Preliminary plans for the 59-acre site may include a parking area, trailhead, picnic area, fishing pond, hiking and cross-country ski trails, and floodplain prairie habitat restoration,” Hannan said in an email to the Daily Chronicle.

There also is a possibility to connect the Great Western Trail west to the former mobile home park, he said. Before definite plans and cost projections can be made, the clean-up work must be completed and a land-use assessment would be needed.

DeKalb County got $7.1 million in state and federal emergency management grants to buy the property, relocate about 400 residents and return the area to open space. The project was initially expected to be finished by May 1, but some remediation work still remains to be done.

The 123 mobile homes have been demolished and some of the interior roadways have been removed, and so has the the site’s waste-water treatment plant. Septic tanks have been dug up and wells have been capped, said DeKalb County Assistant Planner Rebecca Von Drasek said.

“This site will definitely be better off than it was,” she said.

Miller said that while work continues at the site, it should be substantially completed before the end of the summer.

“Given the complexity, the project has gone extremely well,” he said.

County officials are still in the early stages of planning for the future of the site, which is in a flood plain. One of the requirements of the grant is that the land, which is be left as open space once the remediation is completed. That means it won’t be developed, but it could be used for passive recreation, such as hiking.

“The restored site along with Sycamore Park and the Great Western Trail,” Hannan said, “will be a beautiful entrance into Sycamore.”