In landlocked River Forest you can’t make more land. But you can occasionally repurpose what you’ve got. An intriguing idea has surfaced at the River Forest Park District, which will soon ask the village government’s trustees to consider closing Keystone Avenue from Lake Street to the Metra viaduct.
Here’s what it could accomplish: Connect the two rough halves of the village’s signature park. Add park space in a village short of park space. Eliminate a traffic safety hazard (and some valuable street parking in that process). Maybe, just maybe, allow creation of a dog park on a portion of the potential new park land.
We are in the trial balloon phase as the park board decided to send a letter to the village board. It is a quaint way to make policy, but it beats conducting business on Twitter.
We hope the response of village government is to set a meeting to discuss the pros and cons, to surface the issues not yet thought of, and to move toward an outcome that puts local residents front and center.
