A prospective timeline presented to the Winnetka Park Board during its Feb. 9 meeting outlines steps toward having the board finalize action on Elder Lane Beach in March with a plan for Centennial Beach to be discussed the following month.
“The Elder piece we’re trying to get locked down so that we can look at it in March and have board action at the end of March,” Board President Warren James said. “(We would) lock in on Centennial’s ADA and dog beach in April and any further discussion of the exchange would be after that. We’re not coupling those two things together.”
James said members of the public have made their desire for Elder to be reopened very obvious. Feedback from the Jan. 21 lakefront workshop shows that some residents who attended are eager to have access to the beach that has been closed since 2020.
The beach initially closed due to high lake levels and in the three years since, damage to the beach’s gabion baskets, which create a retaining wall, has created dangerous conditions.
James said sharp wires could seriously harm an unsuspecting beach user.
“We don’t know when the sand moves, but we do know that there are exposed wires that are like pongee sticks that could injure someone if people use the beach, and we don’t know if there’s enough sand cover,” James said. “We need to address that. We need to get the broken concrete out of there before we can safely open the beach.”
The board is considering hosting another open house on March 18 to allow residents to see the progress made on Elder renovation plans with hopes to have designs and prospective costs available. Feedback on Centennial would be accepted at the open house to guide the board to take action during its second April meeting.
Thomas Burke of Christopher B. Burke Engineering suggested during a design meeting that the curve of the proposed northern breakwater at Elder could be softened for aesthetic purposes. Matt Wright of Red Barn Design and Engineering, a firm with tentative plans to work alongside the district, said that the village’s stormwater pipe could curve with the breakwater and turn 90 degrees to extend out into the lake to reduce water velocity.
Proposed plans for Elder do not require finality on the ongoing controversial land swap with Justin Ishbia, owner of the property at 261 Sheridan which splits Park District property in two. The board decided in September to focus on getting Elder open, leaning toward plans for a northern breakwater. Some board members wanted to get Elder open for the summer 2023 swimming season, but timelines for permits wouldn’t allow it.
The board still wants to work with Ishbia along Centennial’s southern border to create a plan that benefits both parties. Ishbia has submitted a lakefront design for his property at 205 Sheridan Road to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Army Corps of Engineers. The plans include a stone breakwater at the northern end with elevated native plants south of the structure, another stone breakwater parallel to the shoreline with a cable safety railing along the steel connecting it to land and a boating ramp south of the northern breakwater. Stormwater discharge would be placed at the northern breakwater.
The Park Board, as a direct neighbor to Ishbia, submitted its comments to the IDNR and Army Corp
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on the permits before the comment period ended Jan. 2.