Near West Side park to get facelift it's been waiting for

A water spray area updated with benches, paths and landscaping enhancements. A new scoreboard and seating for the baseball field.

Those are some of the improvements on tap at the Near West Side’s Touhy-Herbert Park, a makeover that some residents consider long overdue.

“Touhy-Herbert Park for years hasn’t had any improvements,” said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th). “This is something that the community has been asking for.”

The Chicago Park District announced the makeover plans Monday and updated residents on Tuesday.

Chicago Park District

In addition to the updated water-spray feature and baseball field renovations, amenities and improvements at the 4-acre park will include a picnic area and repairs and expansions to pathways.

The proposed “Gateway” to Touhy-Herbert Park will feature the concrete spray feature surrounded by the benches and other enhancements.

To decide on the improvements, the park district listened to voices from the community, including the Touhy-Herbert Park Council.

“It’s been a labor of love,” said Michael Lang, a lakefront planning coordinator with the park district. “What we’ve got today is really the fruits of all that labor, understanding this is what the community really asked for.”

In 2022, the project received $3.5 million in funding from the Central West Tax Increment Financing District.

Burnett supported the use of the TIF funding to improve the park for neighborhood residents.

“We want to make sure that they get their fair share,” he said.

Construction of the improvements is slated to run from late spring to the end of the year. The first phase will involve demolishing the field house, which Lang said now functions as a “storage room,” and the second will focus on general improvements to the park.

The project also includes building a gym and “multipurpose club room” at Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School, which the park district and Chicago Public Schools will share.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Construction on that building began last May, said Eboni Nixon, principal of the elementary school. It is expected to open in August. The gymn will serve students during school hours and be open to the community at other times.

Nixon looks forward to having another recreational space for the community.

“In this neighborhood, some of the kids have deficits with trying to finagle how to be social, how it is to have conflict and have resolution at the same time,” Nixon said. “The students here are excited, because to them, they feel like it brings a new school.”

Chicago Park District

Neighborhood resident Yesenia Avila, 27, brings her dog, Zeus, to Touhy-Herbert Park almost daily. She said she sees the park fill up with local kids in the afternoon and is happy they’ll benefit from the improvements.

“There’s a lot of little kids around here that will benefit from that,” she said. “It gets busy because we’re by the United Center, so for them to have their own space is great.”

The park district held a virtual community meeting Tuesday night to update residents on the improvement plans.

“People are excited to see it’s finally coming to light,” Lang said. “We thought it was important to go out and communicate with people to let them know what’s happening.”