Public Outside Plaza Project to create space for Roseland community

A Community Park, along the South Halsted Corridor, is set for this fall. The project is led by Far South Community Development Corporation, in partnership with Sheldon Heights Church of Christ. RENDERING PROVIDED BY FAR SOUTH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.
A Community Park, along the South Halsted Corridor, is set for this fall. The project is led by Far South Community Development Corporation, in partnership with Sheldon Heights Church of Christ. RENDERING PROVIDED BY FAR SOUTH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION.

 Public Outside Plaza Project to create space for Roseland community

By Tia Carol Jones
A new park will be built in Roseland as part of the City of Chicago’s Public Outdoor Plaza (POP!) program. POP! Heights Park will be located 11227 S. Halsted.  POP! Heights Park is one of 10 new public plazas that will create spaces for performances, gardening, pop up shops and recreation in communities on the South, West and North sides. It is part of $1.2 billion Recovery Plan.

POP! Heights Park project is led by the Far South Community Development Corporation, in partnership with Sheldon Heights Church of Christ. The $500,000 grant from the POP! Program will support construction of the 21,780 square feet multi-use outdoor space.

Katanya Raby, Far South CDC’s Director of Planning, and Far South CDC thought having a POP! Plaza in Roseland would be a good way to bring new attention to the South Halsted Street Corridor. This corridor has the potential for economic development activity, and it brings more vibrant options for people to enjoy green space in the community. “To be able to lead the effort to bring that kind of community asset was really amazing,” Raby said.

Sheldon Heights Church of Christ donated the vacant lots for the project. These lots have been vacant for a considerable amount of time. Raby believes the addition of this park will be catalytic for the community. The Bringing Communities Back Initiative from the Far South CDC started to re-engage people and invite people to return to Roseland, West Pullman and Morgan Park. These communities in recent years, have lost population. “It’s really important, in order to support economic development, we have to have people living there, to be able to build that up,” Raby said.

As part of the Bringing Communities Back Initiative, the Far South CDC is developing new housing opportunities, which includes homes for sale and rental homes. There is a multi-use development set for 115th Street and Halsted, the site of the former Jewel-Osco. There will be more than 260 units of housing, with the first phase being 80 units of rental housing. The Far South CDC is hoping to break ground next year on the project. There also is a project to develop single family homes around the Roseland Medical District.

“Those homes are really to re-populate that area, restrengthen that area, bring more homeownership opportunities to the area, and tackle the vacancies. There’s a lot of blighted out homes and we’re really trying to do our part to make it a safer and more attractive space for folks to want to come back to and thrive,” Raby said.

The Far South CDC is looking to encourage more anchor tenant businesses to come into the community to support the medical services and amenities for the existing and future residents. Currently, there is not a large-scale grocer in the immediate area. The community is advocating and has a great desire and need for a new grocer in the area, which is something the Far South CDC is working on as part of the Bringing Communities Back Initiative. In the meantime, the Far South CDC is supporting smaller grocers that are already in the area.

“We are really looking at this from a larger perspective and how we can connect the dots, along the Halsted Street Corridor, because its an important corridor. Many of us from the Far South side use that corridor to get across the area,” Raby said.

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