Council Green Lights Long-Awaited Bloomingdale Trail

The long-anticipated Bloomingdale Park and Trail is on track for a summer groundbreaking, thanks to agreements approved Thursday by the Chicago City Council.

Planned for the top of an abandoned, 2.7-mile railroad viaduct between Ashland and Ridgeway avenues, the $91 million linear park will be managed by the Chicago Park District through a $1 lease with the city of Chicago, which recently acquired the viaduct from the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The city will maintain the viaduct’s walls and bridges and the park district will maintain the trail and 13 acres of open space planned for the top, according to terms of the 25-year lease approved Thursday.

• READ: Public Gets a Glimpse of Bloomingdale Trail

“The Bloomingdale Trail will be one the most unique and user-friendly open spaces to be developed anywhere in the country,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “I am pleased that this project continues to make progress, and I look forward to the start of construction this summer."

Sprinkled throughout the elevated multi-use trail to connect Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park and Logan Square will be performance spaces, picnic areas, a skate park, dense forestry and public art, all created with nods toward sustainability.

The project is overseen by a handful of public bodies and nonprofits, but the vast majority of funding for development and construction, some $37 million, comes from the federal government.

Get more local stories like these delivered right to your inbox or smartphone with our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook.

Residents were surprised earlier this year to learn that the Chicago Park District would be kicking in $2 million to bolster $7 million already donated by blue-chip donors like Exelon, Boeing and CNA to get the project under way, according to Grid Chicago.

They were upset when they learned of a controversial billboard privatization deal that led to a bright LED sign on the Bloomindale Trail side of Leavitt Street and Milwaukee Avenue.

"The president of the (Wicker Park Committee), Teddy Varndell, and I both agree that we don't want these things in our neighborhood," Bucktown Community Organization President Steve Jensen said, when he first learned of the new sign. "Whether they're new static or new digital, we don't want them so deep in the neighborhood. They have a place near the expressway and busier thoroughfares, but not at Leavitt and Milwaukee."

• READ: 

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) said he originally hoped to have the long-standing billboard at that intersection—it was not an LED sign—torn down. 

The area's century-old railroad viaduct runs adjacent to Bloomingdale Avenue. Rail operations there stopped in 2001. Its redevelopment as a linear park and trail will build on the city's legacy for innovative open spaces by linking the four neighborhoods and five parks together.

Additional agreements approved by Council will secure public access along specific portions of the 16-foot-high structure.

One involves the city’s $95,000 purchase of vacant land at 1759 N. Milwaukee Ave., which will be used as one of a half-dozen planned entry points to the trail. The triangular, 2,700-square-foot site’s acquisition will be paid for with Open Space Impact Fees.

Another agreement involves easements and city funding for the creation of two new rail spurs on land near the viaduct’s western terminus.

The spurs, to be paid for with $2.9 million in Tax Increment Financing, will accommodate rail users who continue to use tracks at the end of the viaduct for car staging and switching operations. The spurs will be constructed near the Healy and Western passenger stations along Metra’s Milwaukee District North Line.

Approximately half of the Bloomingdale’s projected development cost is being financed through federal highway and transportation grant funding. The remainder is being raised through a partnership between the city of Chicago, the Chicago Park District, and the Trust for Public Land, the nation’s leading organization focused on creating parks and preserving land, which is serving as project manager.

The project could open to visitors by the end of 2014.

Follow us on Facebook!