New Village direction may help paused beachfront plan move forward

Could a revised renovation plan for Elder and Centennial beaches finally lead to collaboration between the Winnetka Park District and the Village of Winnetka?

That’s what the Winnetka Park Board wants to find out and gave direction at its most recent meeting to park staff to utilize the feedback generated from the Village’s review process of the Centennial Beach plans to develop a revised plan that they hope will gain Village support.

During the Park Board’s nearly five-and-a-half-hour meeting on July 23, commissioners spent an hour talking about the plans for Elder and Centennial beaches, which have been in development for years but have to date not received the proper approvals to move forward.

Those plans at one point included a now-inactive property exchange agreement with the Ishbia family, which owns the property separating both beaches and the one just south of Centennial Park.

In 2023, commissioners approved their beachfront plans, but after multiple negative Village reviews, the Park Board in 2025 paused the review process prior to a hearing in front of the Design Review Board.

Earlier this year, a slim majority of the Park Board (4-3) voted against unpausing the Village review process.

But during the July 23 meeting, Costa Kutulas, the park district’s director of parks and maintenance, said staff was interested in hearing the Park Board’s further thoughts on how to move forward.

He explained that The Lakota Group, one of the consultants on the project, had successfully come to an agreement with Matt Wright, with Red Barn Design & Engineering, to work with their team as an engineer and “changing the scope of their services not only from a design firm, but design and engineering to work through this scenario.”

As previously reported by The Record, last year the park district was able to come to an agreement with all of their project consultants regarding potential changes to the plans except for Red Barn. Kutulas said on July 23 that the impasse came “due to questions and concerns around liability.”

The Park Board put out a request for proposal for a new project engineer, but ultimately decided not to go forward with those plans.

With Wright now working with Lakota, Kutulas said staff was interested in hearing where the Park Board wanted to go from here.

After considerable discussion among commissioners, Park Board President Elise Gibson shared that she recently had a conversation with Winnetka Village President Bob Dearborn and reportedly learned that the Village wants the Park Board to come to them “with the beach breakwater protection and bluff protection plans.”

Once a framework has been decided upon, Gibson said the Village may consider a joint meeting with the Park Board or an intergovernmental agreement.

Responding to a question from Commissioner Colleen Root, Gibson said Dearborn didn’t provide details on what he wanted to see in a framework, but she believes it would be a plan that more closely matches the park district’s Lakefront 2030 plan.

Gibson also noted that the Village would like to see the plans come to the Village Council separately.

Summarizing the Park Board’s discussion, Kutulas said his impression was that commissioners wanted staff to go back, take the feedback from the review boards to the consultants, and come up with a plan that meets the six special use standards that the boards look for when considering recommendations.

“If we can come up with a plan, or in this case a conceptual design that meets those standards, I think at that time you take that conceptual plan to the (lakefront) liaisons … sit down and say, ‘OK, here’s the concept. The components are X, Y, Z,’” Kutulas said.

He added that while there was plenty of feedback on the plans, it included “misinformation,” which “drove a lot of frustration in the audience because they thought it was untruthful, which wasn’t the case.”

As for the plans for Elder Lane Beach, Kutulas said because those plans didn’t appear in front of the Village review boards but had been reviewed by Village staff, comments by the Village would be incorporated into the new plan.

Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Cynthia Rapp also suggested that a summary of the feedback from the review boards be prepared.

“There were a lot of comments and feedback, and I just have not seen them collated in some meaningful way that we can try to action and digest them,” she said. “And I think that would be a helpful exercise.”

Commissioner Christina Codo volunteered to go through the recordings of the review board meetings and prepare a summary of the feedback. Additionally, Park District Executive Director Shannon Nazzal said she took extensive notes at the review board meetings from both the boards and the public, and that those could be utilized in the summary as well.

While the board expressed openness at revising the plans, Commissioner David Seaman cautioned that, in his opinion, the Park Board was “making the same mistakes” as it did with the plans that were paused.

“Listen, I believe a priority for capital dollars should absolutely be spent on our most important jewel asset — that’s the lakefront,” he said. “But there is significant public disagreement on how we should go about that. So I am not in favor of a change order (revising the plans). We have a lot more to discuss on this.”

Seaman was also concerned that, while Dearborn shared his thoughts with Gibson, those thoughts may not be aligned with Village trustees’.

“We need to talk, engage with the Village trustees. I don’t know how it happens,” he said. “I am pleading with them to somehow sit down with us and figure out a framework together.”

Kutulas said he will return to the Park Board at its Aug. 27 regular meeting with change orders to the Elder-Centennial project.

District engages with PR firm

To assist with its lakefront plans, the Park Board on July 23 unanimously approved an agreement with Public Communications Inc., a public relations firm.

According to the motion commissioners approved, Public Communications Inc. will assist with “strategic communications, public education and community outreach services regarding the Elder and Centennial lakefront.”

The agreement is for $28,000, which will be used over four months, according to a memo from Nazzal. She noted that money is available in the budget under the Elder/Centennial account.

Should further services be necessary, Nazzal wrote in her memo that any additional funding would have to be approved separately by the Park Board.

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