‘Ready to go’: Ambitious Lakewood Forest Preserve improvements entering home stretch
The transformation of the core area of Lake County’s largest forest preserve is expected to be substantially complete by the end of the year.
A four-season shelter facing Taylor Lake and a second shelter are main features to be built this season, largely completing the first phase of an ambitious master plan for Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda.
Forest commissioners next week are expected to approve a $3.9 million contract with Premier Design + Build Group LLC for work in the area south of the main entrance off Route 176 just west of Fairfield Road.
Other features to be built this year are a new parking lot, evaporator toilet — an eco-friendly toilet — and sidewalks to connect the shelters, a children’s natural play area and the looped trail around Taylor Lake.
“This was a high priority,” Executive Director Ty Kovach told the forest board’s planing committee Monday. “We’re already mobilized. We’re ready to go.”
Elements in this third year of work will substantially wrap up a new vision for the core area, a former dairy farm that once housed a museum and other buildings.
Also planned is removing additions and returning an existing 1920s-era dairy barn to its original configuration on the south and east sides.
The barn is structurally sound and a good example of that era’s timber and peg construction, according to forest preserve officials.
Work to date at Lakewood has resulted in a noticeable difference as the main entry and various parking lots and buildings have been removed or reconfigured and utilities upgraded.
A fishing pier and 1.6-mile asphalt looped train connecting with the 41-mile Millennium Trail and Greenway has been built around Taylor Lake.
Other improvements include a net-zero forest preserve maintenance facility that opened in 2024 and the children’s nature play area expected to open around Memorial Day.
Recreational facilities and public access improvements at Lakewood were included last fall by the forest board as part of its 2026 Capital Improvement Plan and are considered among the district’s largest projects.
Located in the southwest part of the county, the sprawling Lakewood Forest Preserve has been expanded in several acquisitions over decades and now spans 2,967 acres.
A comprehensive master plan approved in early 2020 outlined changes to improve public access and reduce operating costs.
“It’s a right-sized site,” Kovach said. “A lot of study went into where we’re at now.”
A future trail connection from Ivanhoe Road to Milton Road is the last piece of the original master Lakewood plan but is on the not-funded project list.