New Water Rules in the Works for Orland Park

UPDATE, 11:30 p.m. Monday

Orland Park is working on a water conservation law that will build off of water rules already in place. 

Village staff is working with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to adopt new rules for using water within and outside all buildings in Orland Park. 

On Wednesday, residents are invited for a public forum 6 p.m. at the Orland Park Public Library to voice concerns and ask questions. After Wednesday's forum, and one more opportunity for public comment to come in March, an ordinance with new water rules will be presented to the village for a vote. A new ordinance is expected to be voted on during April, although that could be moved back, said Village Manager Paul Grimes.

"The heavy hand of regulation is not going to be introduced in Orland Park," Grimes said. "It will be suggestive and phased in. A lot will be included in the design phase of construction."

Among possible inclusions will be rain sensors that stop people from watering lawns while rain falls, and ways to recycle and reclaim water. Low-flow toilets are also likely to be part of the new ordinance, as early looks at the work with CMAP shown Monday point to toilets as the largest users of indoor water. 

Municipal accounts were identified as high users during initial reports Monday night, but staff said more research is needed to pinpoint why that is the case and how it compares to the overall village's water use.

"We're installing low-flow shower heads when we go in to retrofit buildings," Grimes said. "But we're going to water our (ball) fields. You can't have good quality fields without watering. That's a lot of water. We also have a water park."

Original post, 2:53 p.m. Monday

Tonight, Orland Park Patch is taking a slight leap with our technology.

We will be using the live-blogging system Cover It Live to give a minute-by-minute rundown of Monday night's Orland Park Village Board meeting. This is a new foray, so we ask for a healthy dose of patience as we move forward. 

Attached are agendas and media packets for what will be discussed tonight. Leading up to the meeting, let me know if there's anything you particularly want to know about in the comments.

Here's an example of how this was used on Frankfort Patch. The transcript from the live blog will remain on the site for perusal at a future time.

http://frankfort.patch.com/articles/live-blog-will-d161-go-with-tuition-based-full-day-kindergarten

Feel free to leave questions or email me at benjamin@patch.com.