Dealt the newest wrinkle in its quest to fence in its dog beach, the Winnetka Park District must wait for further review of the plans that have opened up a new front in the village’s long-running saga over its lakefront.
The implications run much deeper than enclosing a space along Lake Michigan for dogs to roam freely. Already the proposal has spurred the district to consider whether to wind down a controversial donation pact with a billionaire resident and neighbor.
Still, the dog beach plan itself has drawn intrigue and critiques aplenty.
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After the village’s Plan Commission recommended in January against its original designs for building fences jutting into the lake from Centennial Beach, the Park District quickly devised two new options.
The Park District Board adopted one of those two options at a special meeting on Thursday, Feb. 5. The decision boosted anticipation for a Winnetka Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on the following Monday, Feb. 9, even though that Board was set to consider the original designs, and the village would not have enough time to review the new ones.
Just as they acknowledged that full consideration would need to wait, however, district leaders nonetheless tried to tee up an initial review of their new plans in order to “keep the process moving forward,” as Director of Parks and Maintenance Costa Kutulas said Feb. 5.
Indeed, come Feb. 9, Hal Francke, an attorney representing the Park District, told the Zoning Board of Appeals that while he could support continuing the discussion at its next meeting, the district wanted to present its new plans anyway.
“Our hope would be that we would get input from you tonight,” Francke said. “Again, from a very high level, we’ll present to you the issues, how we tried to address what we heard at the Plan Commission and from the public, get high-level review from you based on what you hear tonight.”
Despite Francke’s entreaties, the Zoning Board’s chairman, Matthew Bradley, quickly poured cold water on his efforts.
The Zoning Board of Appeals should not stray from its usual procedure of considering projects that village staff have reviewed, Bradley said. Indeed, at the beginning of the meeting, he said the new plans hadn’t even been filed with the village.
“We haven’t had the opportunity to review, and frankly the public hasn’t had a chance to review,” Bradley said. “This is a public hearing. This needs to be done deliberately and soberly and with much aforethought, not on haste and expediency.”
The Board members agreed with Bradley in the brief discussion that followed and subsequently voted unanimously to put off consideration until the next meeting. The Zoning Board of Appeals meets next on March 9.
The Park District long operated an off-leash dog area at Winnetka’s Centennial Beach, but in early 2023 it tried to put up fences in order to comply with county regulations. However, the village ordered the Park District to stop because it lacked permits, as Pioneer Press reported then.
Since that incident, the Park District has required that dogs be leashed until it can build a fence enclosing the beach. Originally called a temporary solution — in light of an eventual overhaul of Centennial and Elder Lane beaches —the Park District no longer calls it such, as the fencing lacks an end date.
Yet even building a temporary fence would require the permission of the village, as well as other bodies. The Village Council will have the ultimate say on the project, but Winnetka’s Plan Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals and Design Review Board would vet the project beforehand.
Francke argued Feb. 9 that the Park District needed to move swiftly because it plans to reopen the long-closed Elder Lane Beach, which lies adjacent to Centennial Beach, in the summer. Given the lengthy approval process, that timeline could be in flux.
“The Winnetka Park District respects the decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals to continue the discussion of the dog beach project at Centennial and appreciates the Board’s time and consideration in reviewing the application,” Park District Executive Director Shannon Nazzal told Pioneer Press in a statement.
Under the new plans, the Park District would build a chain-link fence along 265 feet of Centennial Beach. That fencing would extend on both ends along existing metal piles into Lake Michigan and create a fully enclosed area where people can let their dogs roam off-leash.
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In addition, a portion of the beach farthest from the lake would be outside the fence, so people could walk along the beach without having to go around the dog area. The two options proposed by the Park District only differed in the layout of the fencing at the southern end.
During the Park District Board’s Feb. 5 meeting, occasional infighting arose among the commissioners. At the beginning, Commissioner Colleen Root sought to give the audience a chance to weigh in on the new plans, as the public comment session would come near the end of the meeting.
“This is not controversial,” Commissioner David Seaman responded, eliciting several guffaws from the audience. The board did not move up its public comment session.
The board approved one of the options. Root dissented, while Commissioner Cynthia Rapp abstained. Seaman had left the meeting before the vote.
The dog beach project comes with the backdrop of a years-long saga along Winnetka’s lakefront. After approving the new design, the Park District Board discussed whether it should consider terminating a $3 million donation from Justin Ishbia, the billionaire building a mansion next to Centennial Park.
The pact, which the Park District Board approved in 2024 after much controversy, would place a 50-year restrictive covenant on the rebuilt Centennial and Elder Lane beaches, meaning the district could not modify certain features of the beach. The district has yet to receive the donation.
The dog beach plans conflict with what the donation agreement spells out.
The Park District Board agreed unanimously on a motion to consider terminating the donation pact once the dog beach fencing project completes its review and approval process. While Root pushed the board to terminate the agreement sooner, other commissioners disagreed.
“I think it’s premature,” Commissioner Christina Codo said. “I’d like to see us make progress on these permits. I’d like to see us to have something concrete before we walk away from an open conversation that we need to have.”
Root had opposed the agreement in 2024, while Codo, then the Board president, supported it.