School Street Park Now $50K Closer to Goal, Plans July 4 Opening

Lake View’s upcoming School Street Park is now $50,000 closer to its fundraising goal after neighbors came together for the first ever Soiree on School Street.

The park, which has been years in the making, is a 21,000-square-foot parcel at 1230 W. School St. Once finished, it’ll be home to a large green space, playground equipment, splash-pad and more.

Organizers with the School Street Park Advisory Council came forward in June to announce the soil contamination study came back clean. The land was a cause for concern as it was once home to railroad tracks and a parking lot used for Cratsman Planting & Tinning.

The advisory council has a $200,000 fundraising goal to purchase additional details at the park, and is now at the $155,000 mark. Officials with the committee have been aggressively gathering community support between selling signature bricks to hosting events and restaurant partnerships.

Now they hope to have the School Street Park up and running by July 4, 2014.

“The process to transfer the land to the park district and the construction level park designs are almost complete,” the group said in a statement. “The Cubs are hopeful that by the end of November they will be in a position to move forward with the Wrigley Renovation and release the $1M park funds. In parallel the PAC and The Cubs are working together to fund the completion of the construction designs and to identify the project managers and builders.”

The entire park is estimated to cost upwards of $2.5 million. Between land donated by Craftsman Planting & Tinning and monetary commitments from Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), the Chicago Park District, Sen. John Cullerton and the Cubs, the team effort is making construction possible.