Harvey residents pleaded Thursday for the city and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to consider alternate locations for a flood relief basin, saying when there are so many vacant lots in town, it is unfair longtime residents will be forced from their homes.

“A lot of them are 70 or 80 years old, where are they going to restart their lives?” said resident Chapelle Hooks. “Some of them, this is generational wealth for them because it’s the property their parents or grandparents started.”

But while MWRD Board President Kari Steele said they would investigate alternatives and listen to residents, project designers and Mayor Christopher Clark appeared to rule out other possibilities for the proposed Central Park Stormwater Detention Basin Project.

Engineers specifically ruled out calls to use land farther west, including the vacant property at 151st Street and Dixie Highway where Dixie Square Mall once stood, saying it is far away, on higher ground and there are other main water diversion pipes crossing the path.

“The water has to run toward the lower point,” Clark said. “That’s why you can’t put it in Dixie Square, because that’s not the lowest point.”

Daniel Walsh, a senior civil engineer with MWRD, said other sites were considered but this location near Myrtle Avenue and 153rd Street is at the right elevation, near other drainage pipes and central to the area where they seek to alleviate flooding. The project is intended to protect 209 buildings in Harvey and cost about $9.8 million, according to the MWRD.

It will involve installing nearly 2 miles of storm sewers, according to the MWRD, which is working to secure federal grant money. Walsh said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already approved this site and a change now could threaten such funding.

The MWRD said of 31 properties being acquired, 15 are occupied and the rest are vacant.

Residents complained that while they were invited to public meetings, that occurred after the proposed site was selected. Many suggested investigating smaller retention ponds near the affected area, or moving it a few blocks to where there are already vacant lots.

Ryan Sinwelski, a member of the Plan Commission and a resident near the proposed site, said he only learned of the proposal recently.

“We are completely out of the loop,” Sinwelski said.

Fourth Ward Ald. Tracy Key said the MWRD should present four or five possibilities for the project.

But 1st Ward Ald. Shirley Drewenski urged residents to think of the greater good the project would do for the community. She noted there was a lot of hostility when Ingalls Hospital expanded in the 1980s, purchasing property in its neighborhood. But the result is a hospital many residents now use, she said.

Steele said the district was proceeding with the plan at the village’s request to address flooding near 144th and Wood, but said the City Council and her board could change direction if there are viable alternatives or resident opposition.

“If you don’t want this project, then that’s a discussion we need to have,” she said.

But she urged residents who have received letters to make appointment with the property appraisers and to met with Kim Polk, the MWRD relocation specialist, to learn how much they will get for their property and in assistance to purchase potentially more expensive comparable housing.

“You can say no, but see what your options are,” Steele said.

Clark said other, more affluent communities have received focus before from county, state and federal officials, or been able to afford to fund their own flood relief projects. Harvey does not have that option, he said, but now has the attention of high-ranking officials.

“For all the years we were overlooked, other people were getting the funding we should have had,” he said.