After hearing from residents who don’t like proposed Langdon Park improvements included in the Wilmette Park District’s $14.5 million lakefront master plan, park board commissioners may decide to split their bonding request into two referendum questions.
The board’s lakefront committee will recommend doing so when the full board meets Dec. 8. If commissioners agree, district staff will prepare two separate questions to be put on next April’s ballot.
The division decision could improve the chances of getting approval for both segments of the project; even if it doesn’t do that, committee chairman Bryan Abbott said Dec. 4, “we increase the chances of an accurate read from the public.”
“We always want to be responsive to our residents. People were showing general support for Gillson improvements, but had reservations that the Langdon proposal was not a judicious use of funds,” he said. “We felt the differences were big enough that they needed to be separately considered.
“It seems to me to be a win-win in terms of being responsive. We have a long history of the district consistently representing what the residents have asked for. This is a continuation of that tradition.”
As recommended by his committee, one referendum question will ask for approval to issue bonds for the estimated $1.3 million in Langdon Park improvements, including a beach house at the previously undeveloped beach in the small park just south of the Kenilworth border and improved beach access, for about $650,000, as well as landscaping and Americans with Disabilities Act-required upgrades for $100,000.
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District residents, including several neighbors of the park, attended lakefront committee meetings in November and on Dec. 1, largely to voice opposition to the beach house aspect of Langdon improvements, saying the building is not needed, or that its current design is too large and intrusive to the park’s nature.
The second, larger, referendum question could cover the remainder of the $14.5 million plan, which would pay for Gillson Park improvements.
Those include up to $4.1 million to replace the Gillson Park beach house, $2.8 million for road, sewer and lighting improvements, $1.6 million for ADA improvements at Gillson and almost a million for landscape improvement there. The plan also includes roughly $3.4 million, comprising about $980,000 in assorted architectural and consulting fees, plus potential contingency fees.If one or both of the referenda pass, the park district would issue bonds, with an eye to beginning projects in fall 2015.
Both Abbott and District Director Steve Wilson said Thursday that many district users and residents have previously supported putting in a building at Langdon, in order to provide permanent washrooms. The beach now makes use of portable toilets. Conceptual designs call for the beach house to include some storage space for staff, and to be built into a beach bluff to minimize its visual impact.
“The challenge for our board is that we’ve heard a lot of positives, but now we’ve heard a lot of negatives, and they are all valid to consider,” Wilson said.
“Since one of (opponents’) concerns was that the Langdon work would pass by default because people do support Gillson Park improvements, commissioners said ‘Let’s let the voters make the decision. Let each pass or fail on its own merits.'”
The park board meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Ave. For information on the proposed lakefront master plan improvements, visit www.wilmettepark.org/lakefrontmasterplan.