Future of Penny Park in Park Board's Hands

The fate of Penny Park will lie with the city of Evanston’s Parks and Recreation Board after the City Council deferred the issue of development there at its January 26 meeting, the Evanston Review reports.

Penny Park, located at 1500 Lake Street in Evanston since 1990, was planned to be demolished by the city to make room for a new park in 2013, but a citizen’s group created a website to save the park.

“Residents voiced strong support for considering options to preserve the existing wood playground,” the Review wrote following Monday’s meeting. Petitions with more than 2,3000 signatures were presented to the Council in favor of preserving the park’s current design.

“Part of Penny Park’s charm is that it is constructed nearly entirely of wood, with very few design elements that are appropriate for only one form of play or one age range. At Penny Park, kids of all ages can freely wander and explore, and any wooden beam can be part of a climbing wall, any nook can be a secret room in a castle, and any platform can be whatever our children imagine it can be,” according to preservepennypark.com.

Sixth Ward Alderman Mark Tendam said the Park Board should be capable of “gathering the known information we have at this point and coming up with a solution to recommend to the council.”

Read more via the Evanston Review