The Park District is unveiling the final plan on the St. Boniface renovation. In previous public meetings certain items were requested and we have provided the overall look of the park in this final layout. The Park District is applying for an OSLAD (Open Space Lands Acquisition & Development) Grant through the IDNR (Illinois Department of Natural Resource) to help with the development cost of the renovation of the property. If the application is successful, the Park District will get a 50% matching grant for the cost of the project. The plan above is the OSLAD project plan that will improve the overall functionality of the park itself.

The OSLAD project includes a new playground, walking path, basketball court, volleyball court, pickleball court, soccer/lacrosse field, softball field, and parking lot. The plan includes some excavation to improve the field condition of both the softball and soccer/lacrosse fields. As street parking is an issue, we are increasing the parking to approximately 51 spots from the existing 34. We also understand that the residents have asked for a connection to the forest preserve which we are looking into; it is marked on the plan but at this point is just a possibility.

Should the grant application not be awarded, we will be renovating the park in the near future but the scope of work would be reduced to bring the cost down. The items that would be affected would include the removal of pickleball and volleyball courts, and new parking lot. The down-scaled plan would use the existing parking lot layout with a resurfacing and look toward a new parking layout to gain additional parking spots.

Either way we are looking for your feedback on this project going forward for the OSLAD grant application. We are hosting a public meeting on Monday, September 17, 2018 at 7 PM at the Tony Bettenhausen Recreation Center (8125 W. 171^st Street, Tinley Park).  If you are unable to make the meeting or would like to provide feedback or have additional questions please contact us via email at info@tinleyparkdistrict.org with the subject line “St. Boniface Renovation 2018”.