It takes a dedicated team of expert planners, world-class landscape architects, and highly skilled craftspeople, to keep your parks beautiful and the facilities working perfectly, providing you with the recreational, fitness, and educational services you’ve come to expect from your Park District. We’d like to introduce you to some of the people who dream big, and then make sure every little detail is in place, so that you, your kids, your family, and your friends and neighbors can enjoy everything we have to offer.
The Planning and Projects team, led by Jeff Smith, our Director of Projects, Planning, and IT, works to a large degree behind the scenes, but the results are out front and visible to everyone every day. It starts with planning sessions, where big concepts like sustainability are addressed. “We are starting to take the lead on sustainability across the Park District,” said Planning Manager, Amalia Schwartz, “so we can ensure that what we do is systematic, actionable, measurable, and efficient.
Casey Lawler, Planning & Projects Supervisor, is leading the collaborative process to revise and update the Sustainability Plan. “We’ve done a great deal of research this year, looking at what cities and park districts across Illinois are doing. “We take a very holistic approach, looking at effects on the district and the community”
The new plan is due to be approved in 2025. “The plan will be robust, actionable, and impactful,” Lawler added, “and then my job will be to facilitate the implementation of that plan.”
The planning process for projects large and small that are required to keep the District running smoothly year-round is an integral part of the budgeting process. Jeff Smith explained “For our five-year Capital Plan we allocate funds and plan purchases for items over $10,000, and that happens every year. We developed a process where items in the plan have priorities, and we assign a tier to them to allocate funding. Amalia meets with every area of the district and we talk through their needs.”
Jeff’s team also includes Landscape Architect, Mike Evans—who has been with the District for more than 40 years—and Projects Manager, Ben Kutscheid, who is also a Landscape Architect with more than 30 years of experience. For planning and budgeting, Jeff said “We track the life expectancy of equipment, playgrounds, courts, and roofs—everything right down to the asphalt. I can tell you which courts are going to need to be replaced in 20 years, for example. All that comes together to inform the current plan, and in 2025 that becomes part of the budget. But our department’s plans always go out well beyond the next few years.”
How does even the most experienced planning and projects team continue to know what’s best for the District? By talking to staff in every department. That’s a given. But they do something that’s even more important. They talk to you! Community outreach is an integral part of their planning process, and it informs much of what the team puts into projects like the playground renovations that are so important to families.
“We go out and meet people in the parks,” said Casey. “For example, this summer I was out at Rosewood Park, Larry Fink Park, and Lincoln Park, talking to people and sharing our plans for the playground equipment. We like to bring them options, and the community is very much involved in the process of deciding what they want in their park.” Not only does that impact the playgrounds, but it affects decisions on things that might be overlooked, but are important to people who live around the park, “like the color of a building.”
For that, Amalia added “I think the renovations at Old Elm are a good example of how we communicate and interact with the neighbors and tailor our approach for each project. We sent out a postcard that alerted everybody to the planned improvements; we distributed and analyzed the results of a survey; we held community meetings and kept everyone informed of progress on the project through our website and social media. We did have quite a bit of interest in that playground, which was expected, but throughout the process we also heard an interest in the color of the bathroom building. We responded to that interest by offering three different color options for the building and for the trim. Over the course of the survey we heard from over 70 respondents. It’s exciting and fun when people want to engage with us about the parks.”
It’s the philosophy behind how these planners engage. It’s not theory. It’s real life. Sure, it’s big concepts, but it comes down to the details that make people’s lives a little bit better every day.
This feels like a good time to tell you about some of the projects that were completed in 2024 and a few that you’ll want to watch for in 2025. The new Jeff Fox Field, at Larry Fink Memorial Park, had a celebratory Grand Opening in August. The Compton Avenue Trail project finished in July, connecting The Preserve of Highland Park’s trail system to Half Day Road. Walkers and bikers rejoiced! Up above your head, there were a number of roofs replaced, keeping us all safe and dry. Tennis players enjoyed beautiful new courts at Woodridge Park. Kennedy Park has a brand new north field backstop, and there are new Tot Lot surfaces, and a new entry walk and gates at Danny Cunniff Park. In progress for 2025 are more than a dozen significant projects, including parks, playgrounds and Tot Lots, beaches and bluffs, and the opening of Club Pickle & Padel, a state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot venue designed to bring the community together to enjoy these two great sports. And did we mention that construction of a new West Ridge Center, will start next year? Dreams becoming reality, all across your Park District.
Ben Kutscheid talked about another important project. “With Lincoln School being torn down, they’re removing the 5 to 12 year-old playground. Our original plan for Lincoln Park was to replace the 2 to 5 year-old playground. We had gone through our usual robust public process, and chosen a direction. But because of the school being demolished, the community came to us with concerns about losing their ages 5 to 12 playground. So, we changed direction and the plan now includes both playgrounds. That’s how we try to respond to community needs.”
Two playgrounds cost more than one. Unplanned costs. But because this team has extensive experience with state and federal grants, they applied for and were awarded an Open Space Land and Development grant (OSLAD). Good news for everyone, and construction is scheduled to begin in July 2025. Ben added, “Grant funding was critical in this process, and will allow us to accomplish more for the community. It’s a great story.”
You can stay up-to-date on the plans and projects you’re interested in by visiting our dedicated website section. It always has the most current information about your neighborhood park and the beautiful spaces that the whole community enjoys.
As part of the team’s efforts to “meet people where they are, and not rely only on surveys” This year, Casey collaborated with the recreation department to create something unique in the ‘information gathering world’. “We joined forces with the recreation team to meet people where they are. The Recreation team planned a wonderful series of pop-ups in the parks and the planning team attended and was available to talk with community members interested in upcoming projects.” It worked like a charm. “There was a magician in a park, there was music in parks, they had arts and crafts in the parks. So, when they were out doing those pop-up events, I would be there too. It was crazy. It was huge!” Ben added, “120 people came out to watch a magician in the park!”
About the on-site listening sessions, Amalia said, “I started listening sessions in Highland Park when we did the lakefront for Master Plan update, and I was surprised at how well it worked. Sometimes I’d get tons of people, or I’d just get somebody who passed by and gave me a little piece of information that we’d never thought of. It’s a great way to get honest feedback. Last summer we went to every one of our parks at least twice, sat and talked to people. We got a lot of great information, and value the feedback from the people that depend on the parks.”
Surveys are still an important part of our process. The Summer 2024 “Your Parks, Your Perspectives” initiative involved hundreds of interviews during dozens of park visits, plus a substantial online survey. Read what you told us here.
Maybe you were one of those people who talked to Amalia, Ben, Casey, Mike and Jeff. Now that you know they are out there, you can add your personal experiences to the mix of great information being gathered. Perhaps now you know just a bit more about how your Park District works behind the scenes to make life better for the Highland Park and Highwood communities. The work continues, and we’ll be bringing you more stories about specific projects that were completed in 2024 and are on track to be finished in 2025. Have a question? The answer is likely on our website.
Until next time… See you around the parks!
