ROGERS PARK — The Chicago Park District broke ground this week on the new lakeside park at the end of Albion Avenue.
Plans for the park, which will feature a meandering gravel path, a water fountain and lighted pergola seating, were first reported in spring 2013.
The $275,000 park was praised by neighbors last spring when renderings revealed the planned transformation of a long-vacant lot at the end of Albion Avenue.
Plans call for the fence now surrounding the lot to be removed. The district plans to erect a 4-foot-tall, black chain-link fence on the west and north sides. The boulders and concrete chunks that line the beach would remain under the plan.
The Park District has owned the land since 2007, but only recently found the additional money needed to redevelop the property in a fund created by the Open Space Impact Fee, which is set aside for the development of open space in the city.
The former parking lot had been nearly developed as part of a plan put together for 2012's participatory budgeting process, but the proposal came a few votes shy.
The 2012 ballot listed the project as the "Albion Lakeside Park," with the following description: "Transform an isolated, unused gravel parking lot at the Albion street-end on Lake Michigan into a dune restoration area and garden."
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