Arlington Heights village trustees have signed off on the first part of a park district plan decades in the making to transform one of the oldest and most well-known parks in town.
The $3.3 million phase one Recreation Park improvement project calls for installation of what would be the park district’s first accessible playground — train-themed, to complement the nearby railroad tracks — new tennis courts, a skate park, picnic shelters, outdoor fitness equipment, bag toss court, walking paths and rain gardens.
It’s part of a three-phase, $23.6 million refresh of the 85-year-old recreational and open space at 500 E. Miner St. in the center of town — home to the popular Frontier Days summer festival.
The rest of the project — including preservation and restoration of the Works Progress Administration-built field house, a new pool, upgraded baseball/softball field, and new basketball court — still requires review by the village’s community development department and final votes from the village board.
But officials had enough detailed blueprints from the park district to take a vote Monday night on the initial phase — tied to a $600,000 state grant that calls for work to be complete next April. It’s among $4 million earmarked to the district from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Local reserves will pay for the rest.
The first construction vehicles on site this summer will have wrecking balls for three park district-owned properties on the edge of the park: two recently-closed auto shops at 500 and 506 E. Northwest Highway, and an apartment building at 21 S. Belmont Ave. Amid some intense public negotiations in 2020, the district purchased and tore down Grandt’s Shell at 406 E. Northwest Highway, but the park upgrades are being done around a single-family house at 15 S. Belmont Ave., which the district hasn’t been able to acquire.
Though he was part of the unanimous vote of the village board to grant zoning approvals and variations, Trustee Jim Bertucci called attention to the loss of $380,000 in sales tax revenues from the closure of the auto shops, and additional lost property tax dollars when the park district bought the sites taking them off the tax rolls.
Jim Bertucci
“It’s just a cautionary statement to our community — to our planners — going forward that we be careful about taking properties off the business thoroughfares and not getting tax revenue,” Bertucci told Carrie Fullerton, the park district’s executive director. “But we have lovely parks. I love our parks. No question.”
Fullerton said the properties have been owned by the park district for years, and the renters were told the buildings “could come down anytime” to implement the district’s Recreation Park master plan.
Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village’s director of planning and community development, said the previous downtown master plan envisioned expansion of the park to Northwest Highway.
“This has been long in the making,” he said.
As for what’s not included in the short- or long-term plans: pickleball.
Instead, three new tennis courts will be installed just south of where the current ones are, along with newer, taller light poles.
“Pickleball was discussed, but we determined the proximity to the homes would just not be a good fit,” Fullerton said.
Carrie Fullerton
Of the 16 courts in play throughout the district, Fullerton said the ones at Green Slopes Park — bordered by homes on two sides — have caused noise issues. That has prompted the district to install sound screens.
“It’s noisy. Irritatingly noisy,” she said.