WEST TOWN — A public park will be developed on city-owned land next to a stretch of the Kennedy Expy. through a proposal passed by the City Council on Wednesday.
First introduced in June by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the nearly 1-acre park on the southwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Erie Street in West Town would be designed and built using $643,000 in open space impact fees.
Open space impact fees are generated by new residential development projects to accommodate the need for open space across the city.
The money would be equally split toward environmental cleanup and landscaping cost, city officials previously said.
The site, in the 600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue near an Ontario Street feeder ramp to the Kennedy Expy., would be transferred to the Chicago Park District after completion of the work.
The Park District will run the park, but there will be no programming there.
The new park has not yet been named, said Zvezdana Kubat, a Park District spokeswoman.
The Chicago Park District currently manages 598 parks, according to Kubat, and the number for the new park has not yet been determined.
City-owned land that will become a park [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
Aerial view of the nearly 1-acre city-owned land parcel [Google Maps]
City-owned land at the southwest corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Erie Street [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]
