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Albion Avenue Park to Include Crushed-Gravel Path, Lighted Pergola Seating

By Benjamin Woodard | April 10, 2013 7:19am

ROGERS PARK — The park planned for the end of Albion Avenue at the lake will include a crushed-gravel path and boulder-style seating under a lighted pergola, officials said.

Renderings of the park released by Ald. Joe Moore (49th) Tuesday night show a grassy green space with shade trees and a meandering path leading from Albion Avenue to Hartigan Beach.

In the center of the park, just past a drinking fountain, two lighted pergolas overshadow boulder-style seating, according to the Chicago Park District rendering.

Moore said the project is being "fast-tracked" by the city and he hopes to break ground soon, expecting the park to be completed by summer 2014 "or sooner."

The vacant parking lot, which has been owned by the city since 2007, nearly had been developed in 2012, but the proposal for the community garden and dune restoration area came a few votes shy in the ward's annual participatory budgeting voting.

But Moore said he and the park district found enough money in a city fund created by the Open Space Impact Fee, which is set aside for the development of open space in the city.

Projects funded by the fee must be approved by the City Council, and the park district estimates the Albion Avenue project will cost $275,000.

Moore plans to host a community meeting on the project at 7 p.m. April 16 at Loyola University's Crown Center at Loyola Avenue and the lake.