The Park District of Oak Park will host a couple of meetings next week to review and discuss the Fox Park Master Plan and also foster development of the Oak Park Pools Master Plan.
The Fox Park meeting, which will be held Tuesday, Feb. 18, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Fox Center, Oak Park Avenue and Jackson Boulevard, will allow residents an opportunity to revisit the original 2006 master plan, developed to improve the park. Along with a review of the previous plan, which included input from the community, this year’s meeting will also include discussion of alternate or additional improvements to the park. Planning Resources Inc., which completed the original site plan for Fox Park in 2007, will be creating the updated site plan.
“When Fox Park was renovated in 2009, the entire north area of the park was made to grade, and new creative play areas were installed for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, featuring rubber surfacing for improved accessibility,” said Diane Stanke, the park district’s director of Marketing & Customer Services. “The water feature, featuring the squirting whale, was restored and a sand play area was added. Accessibility to the restrooms was also improved.”
The Oak Park pools meeting will be held Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Park Conservatory, East Avenue and Garfield Street. As the first of two meetings regarding Oak Park’s pools, consultants from Nagle Hartray Architects and Water Technology Inc. will lead the meeting to review recent improvements to both Ridgeland Common and Rehm pools with a focus on the latter. According to Stanke, the park district’s consultants will discuss and collect feedback regarding future exterior aquatic features, accessibility of the bathhouse building, and reconfiguration of the bathhouse roof to provide extended coverage at the entrance area. A second meeting, date to be determined, will be held to provide concepts. The consultants are tentatively scheduled to complete the pool planning process by June.
As part of the ongoing major renovation at Ridgeland Common, the pool will include a new zero depth children’s play pool slide and water features, along with entrance and locker room improvements when it opens this summer.
Future improvements at Rehm Pool are also a priority.
“We added family changing rooms and a water feature to Rehm Pool before the 2013 pool season and made some improvements to the locker rooms,” Stanke said.
The upcoming sessions represent the latest in a series of meetings to revisit master plans of parks in town.
On Tuesday, March 18 at 7 p.m., the original Longfellow Park Master Plan will be reviewed at the Longfellow Center. A meeting was also held in mid-January to review and discuss the Carroll Park Master Plan at the Carroll Center. Updated site plans for Longfellow and Fox parks are scheduled to be completed and presented to the park board by June 2014. The new master plan for Maple Park (original plan, 2007) was completed in June of 2013.
CONTACT: Marty@oakpark.com
