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player ready...While Mayor Richard Daley said Wednesday he supports the Park District’s unannounced razing of the Lincoln Park Gun Club, a North Side alderman wants to amend a city ordinance to prohibit such demolitions.
Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) said he’s angry the Park District did not inform the public before it knocked down the vacant clubhouse on the lakefront east of Diversey Harbor.
Hansen said he plans to propose an amendment to the city’s long-standing lakefront protection ordinance to ensure residents and the city’s Plan Commission have more of a voice in such decisions.
“I will make sure it is amended so the Park District can’t get around it,” Hansen said Wednesday.
But Daley said he supported the demolition because the clubhouse was vacant and the area ought to be used for joggers, bikers and walkers.
Tuesday morning, the Park District took a wrecking ball to the 76-year-old clubhouse.
The demolition surprised park activists, who had met with Park District officials last week to discuss the fate of the clubhouse. They were not told of the impending demolition.
Forrest Claypool, general superintendent of the Park District, said he decided late last week to raze the clubhouse after meeting with area residents and park activists. The Park District plans to landscape the area and turn it into a scenic overlook.
Claypool said he spoke to Hansen, “and I told him I was going to take it down this week.”
Hansen said he was “pretty much aware the building was going to come down.”
“But I told him (Claypool) that before he tears it down, he ought to issue a statement saying why he decided to do it,” Hansen recalled. “I’m a bit surprised he chose not to.”