Schaumburg moving forward on first phase of urban-style park
Schaumburg trustees Tuesday unanimously endorsed a more detailed concept plan for a 12-acre, urban-style park that would be gradually developed at the heart of the 225-acre Veridian development on the former Motorola Solutions campus at the southwest corner of Algonquin and Meacham roads.
They also recommended bidding the first phase of the project later this summer. When completed, this early phase would allow the entire park to be used for at least passive recreation.
But the long-term plans are much more ambitious than that, envisioning the entire park as a "house" with a distinct purpose to its individual "rooms," said Schaumburg Landscape and Design Planner Todd Wenger.
More specific details have been added to those "rooms" since the village board approved the earliest concept plan for the park 13 months ago, Wenger said.
The park's style and amenities would be unique not only to Schaumburg, but to the entire region, he added.
"This is an opportunity that really comes along once in a municipality's lifetime," Wenger said.
The first phase, expected to cost about $2.05 million, would furnish the park with its basic infrastructure, landscaping and distinctive crisscrossing walkways.
But later phases would include tilted lawn panels, water features, a plaza, a sculpture garden, a hammock grove, a dog park, a summer stage and winter ice rink, and a performance venue.
Wenger said the pace of the park's development will be based on the economy and the growth of the area's tax-increment financing district.
The commercial areas of the Veridian development would have to be much further along for a performance venue with a 2,000-square-foot stage to be feasible, Wenger said. That amenity could be a decade away, but only the pace of the overall Veridian development can determine the time frame for certain, he added.