Improvements in store for Winnetka’s golf service center

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Updated: November 2, 2011 1:18AM

A planned renovation of the Winnetka Park District’s golf service center will add parking spaces and public restrooms to Skokie Playfield.

The Park District Board of Commissioners last week reviewed a concept plan for the project, which could cost as much as $1.5 million. The work will be done in phases that could start next spring.

Restrooms would be built on the east side of the building for park district employees to use during the workday, and for the public to use during the evening and on weekends.

More parking spaces also will be added on the east side, that is, the Hibbard Road side, of the service center. Park officials think both the additional parking and the restrooms would be more convenient for people going to the baseball diamonds at the north end of Skokie Playfield, as they will be closer than those in the park district administration building.

The footprint of the renovated golf service center will not be any larger, but the layout will be designed to make better use of the space, Robert Smith, superintendent of parks, said. One goal is to be able to store more equipment inside, out of the elements and out of the hands of vandals.

Other improvements proposed are new lights and a heating and cooling system that will be more energy efficient. The building’s exterior will get a facelift, although nothing fancy is envisioned.

“What we are looking for is something that is neat, clean and durable, and better-looking than what is there now,” Colin Marshall of the architecture firm, GreenAssociates, based in Deerfield, told the park commissioners July 14.

The bins where park district materials, such as gravel, sand and the mix for the baseball diamond, are stored, will be downsized and relocated from along Hibbard Road to the northwest section of the site, where they will be more secure.

“Right now, we have more bins than we need,” Smith said.

Before construction begins, the project will be subject to a public hearing and review by the village’s Design and Review Board.

The scope of the work will start out small, because the building is in a floodplain. FEMA regulations dictate that expansion of existing structures add no more than 50 percent value to the building’s current market value.

As each phase is completed, the assessed value of the property probably will increase, and thus the scope of the next phase of improvements could be more extensive.