Why Chicago Park Advocates Want to Preserve a Parking Lot

In a post on Streetsblog, John Greenfield looks into Friends of the Park' decision to oppose plans to build George Lucas's planned Museum of Narrative Arts, which would "replac[e] a 1,500-car parking lot with a world-class cultural amenity, plus four acres of new green space." Although the proposal has been subject to criticism, FOP’s apparent defense of a parking lot didn’t sit well with Greenfield, either. 

FOP says there are good reasons for their decision: They see a building as a greater obstacle to future open space than a parking lot, which could be converted to a park more easily. And in other cases, they’ve advocated to increase surface parking in order to address public concerns about accessing a particular park or beach.

As of mid-April, Greenfield writes, a new site has been proposed for the museum, with 12 acres of new parkland to boot. But it would require the city to raise $1.165 billion—likely through a process that would involve state legislators and take several years. 

One thing is clear: As FOP told Greenfield, "The issue of parking lots in parks is a complex public policy issue, not just a simple sound bite."