Skokie Park District pitching $53 million referendum to support new park, field house, lighted fields and more

A new bandshell and all-accessible playground. Outdoor restrooms, walking paths, lighted soccer and cricket fields. A field house with two golf simulators, and a gymnasium for pickleball and basketball courts.

These are just some of the facilities the Skokie Park District hopes to build by issuing $53 million in bonds in what would be the largest capital program the district has undertaken since the 1990s.

But the plan needs the approval of voters first. 

The Skokie Park District Board is set to vote in July on whether to add a referendum asking for approval to issue the bonds to the ballot of the Nov. 3 midterm election.

If voters approve, the district will improve Skokie Sports Park, 3459 Oakton St., and transform a largely vacant industrial site nearby into a brand new park called Channelside Park South. 

The two sites, which cover a total of approximately 46 acres, would likely reopen in 2028, said Michelle Tuft, executive director of the Skokie Park District. 

Approving the bond, however, would also hike Skokie residents’ property taxes over the next 20 years. If the sale is approved, owners of a Skokie home worth $400,000 would pay, on average, an additional $137 a year, according to a park district analysis.

Approximately 30 people gathered at the Skokie Park District’s headquarters on Saturday, June 6, for an informational presentation and the chance to ask questions about the proposed project. 

Residents expressed concerns the slated designs lack opportunities for teenagers and that Channelside South might smell given its proximity to a sewage treatment plant. They also wondered if the parks have an easily accessible entrance off the main arteries of Oakton Street and McCormick Boulevard.

Park district staff addressed the concerns and said the plan provides more space for programming (a resident request in a 2025 survey and allows the district to expand in an otherwise landlocked area. 

“We just have very few opportunities in Skokie to acquire more parkland, so this is a unique opportunity for us. We’ve done a lot of surveying and research on what folks might want in those spaces and I think we’ve done a good representation of capturing what they want,” Tuft said.

“It’s also a great opportunity, especially at Channelside South, to take that big concrete industrial property and turn it into something everyone can use.”

Skokie Sports Park

The Skokie Sports Park is the district’s “most heavily used recreation areas,” a park district webpage states. It features a two-story heated golf range, 27-hole mini golf course, an indoor golfing simulator, batting cages, and a large grass field on its east side. 

A Skokie Park District report states 724,000 golf balls were hit on the driving range in April, which was recently featured as one of the Top 50 Golf Ranges in America,

The Sports Park, however, “lacks certain amenities that residents have identified as priorities,” according to the plan’s dedicated website.

If the referendum is approved, the renovations would replace the existing clubhouse near the driving range with a new recreation center featuring private rooms for rent and a multipurpose gymnasium large enough to fit two basketball courts or six pickleball courts. 

The renovations to the large field east of the driving range — referred to as Sports Park East — would reportedly fix its grading and drainage. The field would then be repainted to accommodate two cricket fields and two soccer fields equipped with sports lights, the proposal shows.  

Sports Park East would also apparently gain outdoor restrooms, a playground, shaded bleachers, fitness equipment and concessions. Nothing else would change near the Sports Park’s driving range other than adding a new golf practice green, patio and rain garden, Tuft said.

The improved amenities, which would cost about $37.4 million, could support new sports leagues, community events, summer camps, evening cricket and soccer games and more youth and adult programs, according to the park district. 

Channelside Park South 

The site of what may become Channelside Park South, according to the Skokie Park District, is currently a “long, narrow site consisting largely of asphalt and concrete along McCormick Boulevard. It has historically functioned as an industrial property and is underused and disconnected from the surrounding community.”

If a referendum is approved, the park district will transform the property located near Oakton Street and McCormick Avenue by adding a bandshell and stage, a fully inclusive playground, a 1-mile-long asphalt walking path, and a  “multipurpose facility” with a patio and bathrooms. 

The current design of the all-inclusive playground shows it would include a splash pad, a children’s maze, a “rock scramble,” a “kinetic sculpture,” and a dual-track track ride. The park would have approximately 150 parking spaces. 

Both the Sports Park East and Channelside Park South sites reportedly have been remediated, and environmental studies show the latter property “is clear,” Tuft said. 

The improved amenities, which would cost about $15.8 million, would improve park accessibility, expand opportunities for concerts and events, create new space for outdoor programming and extend walk/bike path trail connections, according to the district.

Acres, taxes and leases

The Skokie Park District’s public presentation on June 6 noted that the district primarily serves more than 63,000 residents across portions of Skokie, Evanston, Morton Grove and Chicago. The district maintains 45 parks across 247 acres of park land. 

The district currently is underserved with its two gymnasiums, the presentation stated, and should have 398 acres of land according to “national benchmarks for open space.” 

Its share of local property tax bills is 3.88%. For comparison, the Village of Skokie is 4.35% and Skokie Public Library 3.86%, while school district, like Niles Township High School District 219 (28.61%), are much higher.

The Skokie Park District has few if any other opportunities left to expand, Tuft said, and the referendum’s proposal is only possible because the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is prepared to lease out the Channelside Park South property. 

The MWRD already leases the park district the land under the Skokie Sports Park, Hamlin Park and Channelside Park, but Tuft anticipated the agency renewing a 50-year lease sometime this month that will include those properties and Channelside Park South for $1.

The last time the Skokie Park District undertook a capital campaign of this size was when it first acquired the land for the future Sports Park and Channelside Park (North) from a lease with the MWRD in 1993, said Jim Bottorff, a park district spokesperson. The Sports Park was developed in 1998.

‘The Cost Is Worth It’

According to a community survey the park district circulated in 2025, residents expressed desire for a recreation center at Skokie Sports Park, an inclusive playground at Channelside Park South and more walking paths in both the proposed renovations.

Tuft said the district is confident its two full-time staff members at the Sports Park and two other full-time athletics staff members will be able to operate the two improved sites without needing to hire any more full-time positions. The parks would bear no membership fees. 

While the $54 million bond is expected to cover the cost of the project, the district will also be applying for grants. Skokie Park Board President Elsa Fischer said excess funds could go toward purchasing more native plantings and other enhancements. 

Skokie resident Karen Hayes expressed concerns that the park district would be building its sole fully ADA-accessible park in “one of the hardest places to get to,” as Channelside Park South’s entrance on Oakton Street won’t be at a stoplight. 

Matin Sajid, a Skokie resident involved in the local cricket community, said there are only two cricket fields with sports lights in the greater Chicago area, so Channelside Park South would offer the village’s large South Asian population a special opportunity to play the sport.

“I hope it goes through and I think the cost is worth it for the community,” Sajid said of the referendum.

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