RiverEdge Park ready for early site work
With a series of land swaps Tuesday night, the first dominoes have fallen to begin construction of the Music Garden portion of RiverEdge Park, which is being developed along the Fox River in downtown Aurora.
Tuesday night aldermen signed off on a partnership with the Fox Valley Park District to facilitate work anticipated to be done on the site this summer.
Fox Valley commissioners approved the agreement last month.
The agreement includes a commitment by the park district of about 4.33 acres to be combined with property owned by the city to create the nearly 10-acre riverfront Music Garden as well as a commitment of up to $3 million toward construction of the approximately $12 million park.
The city also signed off on a $1.3 million contract for ComEd underground utilities along Broadway Avenue within the next 16 weeks.
"With the ComEd agreement in place and with the intergovernmental agreement with the Fox Valley Park District, this will allow us to go on-site and begin construction,"said City Planning Director Stephane Phifer. "The ownership of the Fox Valley Park District sites allow us to utilize a state grant in order to do any environmental remediation and once those utilities are out of the way, we have a clean slate to begin constructing the park. These really are the first two milestones and from here we're looking to move as quickly as possible."
RiverEdge Park has been a public-private partnership since the idea was conceived in the Seize the Future Master Plan in 2006.
Plans were refined further in the 2007 RiverEdge Park Master Plan and the 2009 design and engineering plan for the Music Garden.
Phifer said Tuesday that the elements funded by the park district include those which are in keeping with its mission, such as land acquisition for the expansion of existing Fox River shoreline; creation of park, open space and natural areas; Fox River shoreline restoration and enhancement projects; Fox River Trail expansion and improvements; enhanced and increased Fox River access; and playground development.
"The Fox Valley Park District is looking forward to working with the city of Aurora on the RiverEdge Park project as we continue to work toward building a green city along a blue river," Fox Valley Park District Executive Director Steve Messerli said in a statement released when the park district signed off on the agreement.
The park district will also be allowed to use the park for as many as eight events a year for their contributions.
"We want the park to be used so this is a good thing to get people in there using it," Phifer said. "After we have set our calendar they would be able to choose their dates for the site."
The vision for the 30-acre park includes an expanded Wilder Park on the west bank, a pedestrian bridge linking the east and west banks, a new garden market and event space, a 6,000-seat outdoor performance venue, and an environmental education center overlooking the Indian Creek Wetland.
The first phase of the RiverEdge Park project will focus on an outdoor music venue to house the city's annual concert series, Downtown Alive, beginning in 2009 before major road construction displaces the event from its current location on Stolp Avenue.