With PR firm, design firm and more, Winnetka park officials ready to restart beachfront plans

After spending the past few months discussing how to move forward on the long-in-development plans to refurbish Elder Lane and Centennial Park beaches, the Winnetka Park Board at its most recent meeting approved a multi-step process that could create new designs and plans.

Commissioners unanimously approved a change order on Thursday, Aug. 27, that canceled previous change orders and set forth a process for a team of consultants to develop plans for the beachfront that take into account feedback that was received on the publicly reviewed plans.

The plans to refurbish Elder and Centennial beaches has been a yearslong process that has seen multiple iterations, including a now-dormant property agreement with the Ishbia family.

More recently, the Park Board approved plans for Centennial Beach to move through the Village of Winnetka review process, but that process was paused following negative recommendations from two Village commissions.

Over the past few months, commissioners both voted against restarting the public review process and expressed an interest in potentially revisiting the plans after The Lakota Group, one of the project consultants, negotiated an agreement with Matt Wright, of Red Barn Engineering, to serve as the project’s coastal engineer.

At the August meeting, Costa Kutulas, director of parks and maintenance, presented a proposal that suggested a path forward to continuing the Elder and Centennial work.

Those plans include what Kutulas called a “five-track system.”

The first track would include the scope of work, which Kutulas said is expected to consist of four meetings between staff and Lakota, Wright, and Spaceco Civil Engineering and Surveying. Those meetings reportedly would include discussions about the plans and design scenarios.

The second track, Kutulas said, would include working with Public Communications Inc., a public relations firm the Park Board approved a contract with in July, on how to conduct public engagement and bring any potential plans back to the board. It would also be where the preliminary designs would be created.

This would lead into the third track, which Kutulas said includes public outreach “to truly vet this out at a more granular level versus getting direction from the Park Board to proceed with the designs,” and the final two tracks, which Kutulas did not discuss in detail, reportedly would include engagement through the special use permitting process.

Kutulas estimated that Tracks 1 and 2, with expenses, would cost just over $140,000. Track 3 is estimated at approximately $112,600.

Commissioners support increasing public engagement, share concerns

Much of the discussion centered on the placement of public engagement within the new proposal. As proposed, public engagement would have begun in Track 3. Multiple commissioners said they wanted to see that happen earlier.

Commissioner Cynthia Rapp said she even thinks public engagement should be used to help determine the mission and goals.

“Otherwise, we’re going to set the goals, and then we’re going to have the designs, and then we’re going to have the public engagement, and then we’re not going to have the buy-in that we need to be able to be successful at advancing the plans,” she said.

Commissioner Colleen Root agreed with Rapp, and further suggested that PCI get involved earlier.

“This has gone on for nearly six years,” she said of Elder-Centennial. “There’s so much confusion. And perhaps with (PCI’s) involvement early, we might be able to kick start this in a very positive fashion.”

Utilizing public engagement throughout the process was also supported by Scott Freres, of The Lakota Group, who participated in the meeting via telephone.

“I believe the best plans are when you engage the public and let the public see that you heard them,” he said, adding that it’s also important to “very clearly define what we are trying to achieve and how to get there.”

Freres suggested that since the Elder-Centennial plans have seen so many iterations, it would be beneficial to have what he called “welcome to the process again” sessions, “and let’s start talking about specific issues so that we can get some engagement.”

He also said that moving engagement up in the process would not delay the schematic designs.

“We need to get people engaged early,” Freres said. “We need to listen to them and then we need to show them that we’ve heard what their thoughts were and what their ideas (were) by coming back. If we go through this whole schematic Phase 2 again, and then decide we’re going to move to engagement, it puts us back to kind of where we were before.”

Although all six present commissioners voted to move the change order forward, some did express reservations.

Commissioner David Seaman repeated his request to work with the Winnetka Village Council to come up with a plan that everybody could agree on.

“I do not want to go down the road for a year and a half and get turned down by every recommending board and the Village,” he said.

Commissioner Jeff Tyson also admitted he was feeling “pessimistic” and said residents need to be on the Park Board’s side and voicing support for the plans.

“We could go through all these steps and we can come out with a beautiful document and we can give it to the Village. I don’t know if that’s going to get us into the end zone unless there are people who support what we come out with and support a plan, and who are willing to come to the Village and speak,” he said. “That’s the only way because we’ve seen that the Village is swayed when people come and speak.”

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