Opponents of dog-beach fence address Winnetka Village Council

Only weeks before officials are slated to begin formally reviewing the Winnetka Park District’s pitch to install fencing at the Centennial Beach dog park, a pair of residents took to the lectern in Village Council chambers Tuesday night to suggest the well-worn plan may be barking up the wrong tree.

Two locals during the public comment portion at the Jan. 6 regular meeting of Winnetka’s Village Council argued that the park district’s hopes for erecting temporary fencing on a portion of the Sheridan Road beach are “overdone and unnecessary” and an ill-advised use of taxpayer dollars.

Winnetka resident Linda Welsh told the council she believes that the village “really needs a dog beach” or what she describes as a “people beach that allows dogs.”

Welsh continued to say that the dog beach “offers a great way for the community to connect” and is the “only lakefront property that is utilized year-round.” But she later continued to say she feels it should be left “as it is.”

“I would like to say in summary, the controversy that exists I don’t think is really about dogs running on the sand, but how we (fairly manage the space),” she said. “I believe we should leave Centennial dog beach as it is and only spend our tax dollars on upgrading Elder (Lane Beach), which is not broken and probably should not be fixed.”

Kim Marsh, who said she’s a daily user of the dog beach, took her critique of the plans further.

“I’m opposed to the construction of fencing at Centennial dog beach,” she said, later calling the proposal “overdone, unnecessary and improper under the public trust doctrine.”

Marsh even suggested that officials should “consider or explore alternative” locations for a dog beach in town. She continued by stating her assertion that “there are many more suitable locations that we should explore and they would require less infrastructure.”

The lifelong Winnetka resident concluded her remarks with a strong rebuke of the proposal, while arguing that installing fencing is not in residents’ best interest.

“(The dog beach) does not need to be at Centennial and there is currently a proposal of a huge fence to run into the water and it’s a total violation of the public trust doctrine and it’s not appropriate,” Marsh told trustees. “The park district has been pushing it for years and it’s a terrible idea and it’s kowtowing to a particular resident who lives adjacent to Centennial.”

As previously reported by The Record, Winnetka Park District officials in late 2025 announced that the district’s pitch to install temporary dog beach fencing at Centennial Beach would go before village advisory boards in late January of 2026.

The park district in 2025 submitted an application for a special-use permit that, if approved, would allow the district to erect the fencing on a portion of the signature beach.

Doing so will allow the district to continue operating the off-leash dog park at Centennial. Park officials have previously stated that the off-leash beach has operated for more than 30 years.

Fencing at the Centennial dog beach has now been a point of contention among various entities for several years.

As previously reported by The Record, the park district installed a temporary fence at the dog beach along the northern and southern property lines in the winter of 2023; however, that fence was removed and the project tabled “due to a lack of permitting approval,” park district staff said at the time.

Then, in March of 2025, Winnetka park commissioners directed staff to produce new plans for a temporary fence at Centennial after park officials said installing that fencing is necessary for the district to comply with the current Cook County Animal Control Ordinance.

Shannon Nazzal, the park district’s executive director, said during a Park Board meeting that the district earlier in 2025 had received a call from Cook County Animal Control regarding what Nazzal characterized as “public concerns” about dogs being off leash in an on-leash dog area.

Park commissioners subsequently agreed to move forward with temporary fencing at Centennial to alleviate the concerns.

The park’s proposal will need to make its way through Winnetka’s special-use review process and plans will first start with a Jan. 28 hearing from the village’s Plan Commission.

From there, the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals is set to hear the case on Feb. 9. An analysis from Winnetka’s Design Review Board will follow on Feb. 19.

The park’s vision for fencing consists of two rows of chain-link fencing along the northern and southern boundaries of the dog beach.

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