LOGAN SQUARE — A plan to transform two under-used Logan Square lots into public green space is moving forward.
The City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday to redevelop two city-owned lots at 2550 N. Milwaukee Ave. and 2420 N. Sacramento Ave. on either side of the 220-unit apartment complex Logan Apartments, the former home of the Megamall flea market.
If everything goes as planned, the neighborhood will gain a pair of parks: one on Milwaukee Avenue with an amphitheater and a plaza, and another on Sacramento Avenue with food truck vendors.
Community groups and Ald. Scott Waguespack’s 32nd Ward office aim to reactivate land they say hasn’t been used effectively for years.
The Milwaukee Avenue lot is a roughly 14,000-square-foot grassy area next to Greek restaurant Andros Taverna that sometimes draws people with dogs. It has sat empty for many years. The city bought the site in 2008, a few years after the site was recommended for public use in the Department of Planning and Development’s Logan Square Open Space Plan, but it was never redeveloped.
The Sacramento Avenue site, which is about half the size, was most recently being used by an auto repair shop as an illegal parking lot, according to Waguespack’s office. The CTA used it for its own operations for decades prior to that.
Waguespack on Wednesday said the park project will make the busy area more pedestrian-friendly, according to The Daily Line.
The food truck park is expected to open this year, said Andrew Schneider, whose group, Logan Square Preservation, is spearheading the project.
Schneider said his group has secured about $53,000 in state capital funds for the project, which will cover a large portion of the work, though they hope to bring in more funding, possibly from the city. A city spokesman didn’t answer questions about the project Wednesday.
Before construction can begin, the city needs to do environmental testing of the site, Schneider said.
The northern lot likely won’t be redeveloped for another year or longer, Schneider said. Logan Square Preservation, Logan Square Neighborhood Association and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning will be gathering input from neighbors on the project’s design, he said.
Community leaders hope to secure city funding for this project, Schneider said. The site sits in a tax-increment finance district.
The City Council also approved two other major Logan Square developments on Wednesday: the massive Encuentro Square affordable housing campus and the Project Logan apartment complex.
The Encuentro Square project will bring nearly 200 affordable apartments and a public park to the old Magid glove factory site at 3745 W. Cortland St., near the western end of The 606’s Bloomingdale Trail.
Developer Wilmot Properties is building a 56-unit apartment building at 2934 W. Medill St., a site that has been home to four-sided graffiti wall Project Logan for more than a decade.
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