Winnetka plan commissioners have given their approval to Winnetka Park District plans to extensively update Dwyer Park, but that doesn’t mean that the district’s proposal to build a gazebo at Dwyer as part of those plans was universally popular.
Commissioners who met Wednesday to review the project’s conformity with Winnetka’s comprehensive plan generally liked what they saw, but several who voted to send the case on to the village council told park district officials they thought the gazebo didn’t belong in Dwyer.
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“I think it does change the nature and uses of the park,” Commissioner Louise Holland said, agreeing with a number of Oak Street residents whose homes face Dwyer, which sits at 856 Elm St., between Elm and Oak.
Park district officials at the meeting billed the structure as somewhere park patrons, many of whom bring their young children to play at Dwyer, could find shade or shelter. In the future, it might also be where the park district could host low-profile events like string quartets or wine and cheese tastings, Executive Director Robert Smith said.
But Oak Street neighbors including Brenda Kessler and Jack Snyder questioned the need for it, with Snyder worrying that it might be an attraction to vagrants.
Others, like Commission Chair Tina Dalman and Commissioner Paul Dunn were more open to the structure.
“I think I can live with it. It’s relatively small and, while there is shade in the park provided by trees, there’s a need for structural shade,” Dunn said. The entire proposal was, he said, “pretty darned good on a macro level.”
The 1.23 acre park, which sits just west of Winnetka’s central business district, has not been updated in 17 years, much longer than the 10 to 15 year cycle the park district tries to maintain, Smith said, before outlining what he said was a comprehensive, months-long outreach effort to get input from park neighbors, patrons and other Winnetka residents.
Based on that input, initial proposals that centered around updating Dwyer’s playground equipment and making the park meet ADA-accessibility standards expanded, according to Smith and Costa Kutulas, the park district’s superintendent of parks.
The park district initially budgeted $500,000 for its project, Smith said, but that estimate grew as the proposal grew beyond its initial parameters. Estimates now range between roughly $590,000 and $885,000 for the district’s preferred plan, depending on the level of amenities, according the park district’s website.
In addition to the gazebo, which would sit roughly at the center of the park, the park district’s proposal includes:
* New and updated playground equipment at the park’s north end, adding to play areas by about 50 percent, according to Kutulas and Smith;
* A picnic patio and fieldstone terrace near the gazebo. Several commissioners were wary of both, worrying that it added too much to Dwyer’s small space;
* Also at the north end, enlarging the existing butterfly garden and adding seating, sculpture and a crushed granite path through the park;
* New plantings and games to the south. The games could include a concrete ping pong table, a site on the park’s southeast corner for “baggo,” an outdoor version of bean bags, and a so-called “GaGa Pit,” which Kutulas described as a “condensed version of dodge ball” in a slightly-walled area. Teens involved in the outreach effort wanted the pit, he said.
* The plan also includes lighting. Kessler and other nearby residents objected to the idea of lights, saying the park is currently unlit, which naturally shuts down activity there at night. Some commissioners agreed, and Smith said the district could work with the village to minimize light shining into neighbors’ homes.
The park district proposal must go to the village’s zoning board of appeals on Oct. 10 and to the design review board on Oct. 20. The earliest village trustees could hear the case would be in November, according to Brian Norkus, Winnetka’s assistant community development director.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy