The Champaign County Forest Preserve District is building a new nature center at Homer Lake.
After opening in 1974, the Homer Lake Interpretive Center has served as a home to many of the district’s educational programs. However, it doesn’t have a classroom to host these events, Executive Director Lorrie Pearson said.
“It’s a building that is supposed to be providing educational experiences for the public,” she added. “This building has no classroom, so one of the biggest needs for an educational area, an educational building of course is a classroom.”
The district’s 2022 needs assessment showed that 45% of respondents prioritized educational opportunities, and 42% of respondents favored renovating or adding to the existing interpretive center rather than building a new facility.
That’s what the district is tackling now: adding an expansion to the building that will be home to a new classroom and renovating the rest of the building.
The project recently received a $600,000 state grant from the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development program to develop the area around the center.
“We’re very thankful for that,” Pearson said, “because things like expanding a parking lot are very expensive.”
The state funding will also go toward new trail signs and activities, according to Pearson.
“It will also allow us to provide a number of recreational opportunities that people in the community have been asking for,” she said. “Things like a disc golf course is part of the grant.”
The Forest Preserve Friends Foundation is currently raising $500,000 in additional funding. Pearson expects the project to be completed in stages.
“The hope is that the exterior of the building will be constructed later on this year. At the same time, we can be working on the parking lot expansion and the disc golf course,” she said. “That leaves next year an opportunity for our internal construction crew to do.”
Pearson hopes the nature center will reopen in 2028.
“While the interpretive center has served us wonderfully for 30 some years, it’s time,” she said. “It’s time to be able to offer more space for the public, to offer better programming, and we’ll be able to do that with some of the incredible amenities that will be part of the nature center.”