Buffalo Grove's Parkchester Park will see extensive improvements

The “blue” park will remain blue, but just about everything else at Parkchester Park is being reinvented, Buffalo Grove Park District Executive Director Erika Strojinc told village board members this week.

Village trustees on Monday approved the park district's improvement plan for the 7-acre park at 851 Weiland Road.

The plan includes removing outdated playground equipment, basketball half-courts, tennis courts and a baseball field, and replacing them with a new playground, a full-size basketball court, tennis and pickleball courts, and a 19-stall parking lot with access off Weiland Road.

In addition, the trail system will be extended and two public fishing locations will be added along the pond, which takes up about three of the park's approximately seven acres.

The south end of the park will be turned into an educational walking path with interpretive signs educating the community about trees on the site.

Parkchester is known as the “blue park” for the color of its playground equipment. Village Trustee Joanne Johnson asked Strojinc if it would remain blue.

“We're keeping it blue,” she replied. “There will be some tonal changes. But there will be blue.”

“This park is walking distance from my house and was one of my children's favorite parks,” Johnson added. “It's very walkable for a lot of residents.”

Strojinc said neighbors disliked initial plans for the parking lot, saying it was located too close to their homes. But those plans, she said, were modified to place parking farther away from homes.

“Everything was satisfied from there,” she said.