​Residents of Champaign’s Garden Hills neighborhood have to deal with a list of problems, including inordinate levels of poverty, gun violence and vacant houses. The neighborhood on the city’s northwest side has another problem: a lack of infrastructure, like storm sewers and streetlights. The Champaign City Council is taking a first step towards a remedy for Garden Hills. But it could be a long wait to the second step.

Urban flooding is most notable for flooded streets and flooded basements, especially due to storm sewer backups.   This type of flooding occurs in all of the counties in Illinois and usually happens in older sections of town where the infrastructure is old and also in subdivisions that were built in the 1950's and 1960's.