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The Winnetka Park District Board voted on March 23 to approve updated plans for the Elder/Centennial beaches with input from the new engineering firm on the project, Red Barn Engineering Inc.

The updated plans bring back a small breakwater at the southern end of Elder Beach that had previously been considered and removed. Founder of Red Barn Engineering Inc. Matt Wright said it was added back to plans in order to prevent rip currents and minimize sand washout from the center of Elder Beach. New plans include an Americans With Disabilities Act-accessible boardwalk along the bluff with plans to connect it to a similar boardwalk along the bluffs at Centennial if the still incomplete land swap with Justin Ishbia, who owns the property at 261 Sheridan Road that separates the two parks, is finalized. It also adjusts the breakwater at the north end of Elder to curve more than previous plans and if the land is combined, would add a third breakwater in between the two beaches and parallel to the shore.

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Phase one of the updated Elder Beach project includes a small breakwater at the southern end of the beach, a more curved northern breakwater and an ADA accessible boardwalk along the bluffs. - Original Credit: Handout
Phase one of the updated Elder Beach project includes a small breakwater at the southern end of the beach, a more curved northern breakwater and an ADA accessible boardwalk along the bluffs.
– Original Credit: Handout

Plans are broken up into three phases — the first seeing the completion of Elder Beach, the second wrapping up Centennial Beach and the third, possibly, combining the two beaches. The hope of many residents for a full 1,000-foot lakefront is also being held up by a lawsuit brought against the Park District by resident Robert Schriesheim which argues the Park District doesn’t have the right to swap the land because of the state’s land trust doctrine. This states that the submerged lands under Lake Michigan belong to the people of Illinois and the government holds it in trust for residents.

Phase two of the project highlights proposed work on Centennial Beach with the dog beach on the south and swim beach on the north planned. - Original Credit: Handout
Phase two of the project highlights proposed work on Centennial Beach with the dog beach on the south and swim beach on the north planned.
– Original Credit: Handout
Phase three of the Elder/Centennial beach project envisions the combination of the two beaches but this prospect hangs in the balance of an incomplete land swap and a lawsuit by Winnetka resident Rob Shriesheim. - Original Credit: Handout
Phase three of the Elder/Centennial beach project envisions the combination of the two beaches but this prospect hangs in the balance of an incomplete land swap and a lawsuit by Winnetka resident Rob Shriesheim.
– Original Credit: Handout

“We’re focusing on Elder here today — phase one — we’re showing what we’ve looked at and talked about thus far for phase two and phase three of the full vision but not knowing what ultimately will happen with the one existing lawsuit and the property exchange agreement; we are just showing what we have in front of us and showing a full vision of what that looks like,” said Costa Kutulas, Winnetka Park District Director of Parks and Maintenance.

A timeline included in the presentation, which included information presented during the Park District’s March 18 Open House, says that construction for phase one would begin late this year and would last through most of 2024. The phase two timeline was said to be contingent on funding and phase three rests on the land swap and lawsuit.

Commissioners Cynthia Rapp and Colleen Root voted against going forward with the plans, stating even though the presentation was placed online it was not included in the meeting packet and that this was a transparency issue.

Root stated in an email to Executive Director John Peterson and Park Board President Warren James that the motion to move forward with permits was not included in the agenda by the deadline set before the meeting, meaning there wasn’t enough time for commissioners to consider the motion.

“I strongly object to ‘preparation of permit plans and applications for permits’ with ‘several agencies’ until a formal plan is presented as part of the Board packet, publicly presented at a Board Meeting, fully available for the public to see and subject to a formal Board vote,” Root wrote. “If the Board is to consider and vote on Thursday evening on an amended Ordinance 504, the draft amended Ordinance should have been added to the Board packet and should be available for the public to consider and review.”

Ordinance 504 formally amended the dog beach ordinance to include an on-leash rule while fencing is absent from the beach, which would put the amenity in line with Cook County standards. There was no inclusion of the amended ordinance in the agenda packet on the Winnetka Park District website.

Root’s attempt to table the beach plan motion was defeated with Rapp being the only other yes vote. Both commissioners abstained from the vote on the amended dog beach ordinance.

Resident Katie Stevens echoed Root’s transparency concerns.

“We do not agree that you are listening to any of us and the transparency, you guys don’t have it,” she said. “You are doing this with no referendum and no support from the public. It is wrong.”

The board also voted to move forward with permits to the village for temporary fencing at the dog beach and an updated media policy for commissioners. A vote on Tuesday by the Winnetka Village Council to adopt updated ordinances regarding the village’s role in lakefront regulation makes it so the Park District needs to submit permits for the fencing to the village before it can be placed. Park District staff had previously erected fencing but after residents contacted the village, they were told to remove it.