ELGIN — Elgin recently acquired a piece of property that may eventually become a city park.
The Elgin City Council voted 4-0 Aug. 8 to accept property owner Debbie McDonald’s donation of the lot at 2 Misty Morning Lane.
The lot is too small to accommodate a neighborhood house, said Mayor JJ Francais.
“She could build a smaller house, but they’re choosing not to,” he said. “What they would like to do is donate that to the city.”
The agenda for the Aug. 8 meeting indicated that the land would be used for a public park, but Francais said the council should substitute the phrase “city use” for “public park.” He added that in time, the city could install a picnic table and a low-impact park on the property.
“In the short term, there is an amount of work that needs to be done in that neighborhood on headwalls, street repairs, so forth,” Francais said. “And in the short term, we could park the equipment there versus on the narrow city street.”