The Village of Palos Park wants to do something with the property on the southwest corner of 86th Avenue and 123rd street near the Plush Horse ice cream shop.
Officials will be figuring out a game plan in the coming weeks.
“It’s been a number of years but the Village of Palos Park has owned it since 1987 and it’s just an empty piece of land,” Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters said at the June 8 village council meeting.
“Over the last couple of years, the village has been working with District 118 and Hansen Landscaping for a possible sensory garden and an educational outdoor learning space.”
She added that it will also serve the public as well.
“It will be a place you will be able to walk through and enjoy the beauty around you,” the mayor said. “The kids can come and have field trips there and families can walk around and wander through. In the end, it will just be a beautiful space that has been vacant for so long.”
The mayor put an item on the agenda pertaining to the project to allow Westchester-based FGM Architects Inc. for conceptual architectural services not to exceed $15,000 with the idea that the actual cost of building the park would come from grant money.
The council, however, unanimously voted to table the proposal to study the matter a little more in depth.
“First of all, seeing this was an agenda item was a big surprise,” Commissioner Dan Polk said. “I was unaware of us having this discussion. I know a variety of thoughts have been suggested over the course of several years of what to do, if anything, with that piece of land.”
He said it sounds like a “wonderful” plan but some thought needs to be put into what else could be put into that space. He also worried that since it’s a busy corner across the street from the popular Plush Horse. He wondered what the parking and traffic situation would be like.
If the sensory garden is indeed a go, Milovich-Walters is looking at a plan that will include a building and pavilion.
She hopes to get approval as soon as possible in order to secure grant money, but also wants the council’s blessing on the proposal.