The Champaign City Council decided Tuesday to create a neighborhood-friendly development for the Boneyard Creek Second Street detention project. The area will function as a park amenity and control Boneyard overflow- – and cost almost three times the original budget.

Council backed the plan by a vote of 6-2 with Councilmembers Vic McIntosh and Ken Pirok dissenting.

The estimated $20.3 million project will combine underground and aboveground detention of creek flooding. City staff recommended a design that would use mostly aboveground detention, using ponds and pools to hold flood waters. Instead the Council opted to back a plan for underground storage of storm water in Scott Park, 82 E. University Ave. Additional storm water would be stored underground between White Street to University Avenue.

This plan costs an estimated $2.6 million more than the one recommended by city staff.

Eleanor Blackmon, assistant city engineer for Champaign, said the council approved direction on a more expensive plan because they wanted to see an area that could serve as more of a park space for the neighborhood. When construction is completed, the city hopes to allow the Champaign Park District to take over management of the park, Blackmon said.

Construction will most likely begin on Scott Park in 2008, with development in the the other areas beginning no sooner than 2010. Blackmon said it is too soon in the project’s development to determine when construction will be completed.