There has been tremendous outcry from Antioch residents over plans to redevelop Centennial Park, an 8.6-acre facility that features picnic tables, a pavilion, a baseball field, tennis courts and — most importantly to some residents — an extensive wooden playground that serves as the park’s most unique feature.
Last week, the village unveiled its new renderings for a redeveloped playground, as part of a $1.2 million project that’s partially covered through grant funding.
“The village is well aware of the sentimental attachment that the community has,” Antioch Assistant Village Administrator Jim Moran said. “It’s a very special park.”
The wooden playground was built in 1992 through the efforts of more than 2,000 community members. The playground, which features wooden castles, towers, and tunnels that only children can fit through, was produced by Leathers and Associates, a playground construction company based in Ithaca, New York, that specialized in coordinating community-led construction of large, wooden playgrounds, primarily throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
“It’s a big deal for the community because that playground … not only is it very unique, but it’s community-built,” village resident Kevin Korecek said, adding that his father, Laddie, who owned Johnson Jewelers of Antioch, helped to build the park. “It was a huge community effort that got that playground built in the first place, so when I saw all of these ideas of what they’re going to do with the playground, it was kind of like a slap in the face.”
Plans to redevelop the park started in 2023, when Antioch hired the Hitchcock Design Group, a landscape architecture company, to create a comprehensive master plan for the village’s park system, Moran said. The master plan called for improvements at the 34-year-old park, and the Village Board adopted it in 2024.
“Part of the master plan outlined improvements throughout our park system that it recommended making,” Moran said, adding that the expected lifespan of the playground was approximately 20 years.
The village had the group apply for an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant (OSLAD) through the state of Illinois.
“Hitchcock felt that the Centennial Park project would be the project that most aligned with the OSLAD requirements,” Moran said.
A $600,000 matching grant was awarded to the village for the renovations in December of 2024.
In October of last year, the village presented different options for the playground’s design and heard overwhelmingly negative comments about every design from residents. A new rendering of what the new playground will look like was released on Jan. 21, which Director of Parks and Recreation Katie Kotloski said will be the design the village will use.
“This park is a part of Antioch and its history, and it’s so disappointing that this current administration is willing to knock it down and put in a cookie-cutter park,” former Antioch resident Austin Adams said.
Adams was so dismayed by the redevelopment of the park that he circulated a petition to save Centennial Park, which has more than 3,800 signatures.
“A lot of people have a strong opinion on this matter, but I felt like not a lot of people were being heard,” he said.
Some residents suggested the park will lose its unique qualities.
“It looks like every other park that’s around,” Korecek said, referring to the latest renderings. “I’ve lived in Antioch for my entire life, and my dad instilled a sense of community in me. Antioch is an important town to me.
“It’s been changing a lot, and it’s taking away a lot of the charm of the town,” he continued. “This is just another thing that will take away from that charm.”
Village officials said that another reason they have to renovate the playground is that accessibility laws and codes have changed since the playground was built.
“When you make significant changes to playgrounds, you have to adhere to the latest accessibility and laws that govern playgrounds,” Moran said. “It basically made it cost-prohibitive and unrealistic to be able to alter it in some fashion without a complete renovation.”
He said that if the village were to rebuild the same playground, the cost would exceed $1 million for the playground itself, which the village could not afford.
“This entire park renovation, which deals with a new pavilion, a fitness station, bag toss, and other features, has a pricetag of $1.2 million, with the village paying half and the state paying half,” Moran said.
Other residents said that while they have fond memories of the playground, they acknowledge that the accessibility of the new park will be more inclusive for more children.
“Nostalgia is nice, but I think people need to remember that that needs to be put aside so we can do what’s best for kids now,” former village resident Jordan Palmer said. “We loved it when we were little, but let’s give kids now the opportunity to have those same feelings.
“You never want to see something that you have fond memories of go away, but you also have to be realistic,” Palmer said.
The village plans to recognize the 1992 community-led effort to build the playground through “a plaque, or a remembrance piece,” according to Kotloski, but plans to move forward with the new design for the playground.
Antioch will solicit bids in March, and construction is expected to start the following month. Plans call for the park to reopen in September.
