Stewardship of Village of Montgomery & Stormwater Basin Management

Natural Area Maintenance & Long-term Basin Management

The Village of Montgomery wanted to ensure the beauty of their natural areas and to maintain both the structure and function of 28 village-owned basins throughout Montgomery, IL long-term. Water quality is also an extremely important matter for The Village of Montgomery.

The Village of Montgomery has over 21,000 residents along the banks of the Fox River shared between Kane and Kendall County. Approximately 40 miles southwest of Chicago and due south of Aurora, IL.

Stewardship & Stormwater Basin Management

The Village of Montgomery believes that water quality is an extremely important issue; they also believe that naturalized detention basins are an efficient way to achieve their desired water quality outcomes while addressing traditional water quantity concerns through stormwater detention or retention systems. By requiring that these systems be naturalized, the Village is improving the quality of water passing through these stormwater systems while increasing habitat, reducing goose populations, and maintaining/improving aesthetics throughout their community. In order to do this, the Village used the existing Kane County Stormwater Ordinance as a base and developed their own document, Naturalized Stormwater Management Facility Design, Planting, and Management Plan Guidelines (PRI, January 2010), which goes a step beyond the County Ordinance and sets established standards.

The Village’s basin guidelines ensure that a developer meets certain standards in the creation of a naturalized stormwater system and that the owner appropriately maintains the system in perpetuity. The guidelines include approved native seed mixes, approved methods of installation and approved methods of maintenance. Once a basin is accepted by the Village, the owner may opt to maintain the basin on their own (keeping the basin up to the standards required in the guidelines) or they may opt to have the basin become a Special Service Area (SSA), where the Village levies funds from the owner and takes control of basin stewardship and the responsibility of maintaining the basin up to the standards required by the guidelines. If an owner maintaining a basin independent of the Village fails to keep the basin within acceptable standards, the Village may enforce an underlying SSA and take control of the basin maintenance.

In 2007, the Village hired Pizzo & Associates, Ltd. as the Village’s “Native Landscape and Water Quality Maintenance Contractor”. Once the Village had taken control of a naturalized basin, Pizzo was charged with bringing any under-performing basins into acceptance and maintaining all Village-controlled basins once acceptance standards had been met. In 2007, the Village controlled 3 naturalized basins, and as of 2010, it controlled 12. That number increased significantly to 28 basins managed in 2024. Tasks include native seed, plug, and tree installation, mowing, herbicide application, seed collection & dispersal, and professional prescribed fire.

Impactful Results of On-Going Stewardship of Natural Areas

The results of a long-term commitment to stewardship are apparent to residents and visitors to the natural areas. The diversity of native plants across all basins is immense, and the aesthetic appeal of each area is potent – people are drawn to these areas to see the flowers, relax in the shade, and enjoy wildlife not found in nearby communities.