Some Council members want next dog park to be at Lincoln Street Beach
Acknowledging the Town was at a crossroads on the issue, Evanston officials turned to Council members at their Sept. 20 assembly for course on in which the City’s 2nd canine park must be situated.
The Metropolis is down to just one puppy park, aptly named Pooch Park, on a 2.5 acre tract that operates along the North Shore Channel south of Principal Avenue and north of Oakton Street, in a room shared with the Skokie Park District.
A puppy beach front operated for yrs just south of the Clark Street Seashore, but substantial lake degrees put it out of commission quite a few yrs back.
Officials held a few well-attended virtual conferences starting up in the spring, talking about selections for a second pet park, with $110,000 in capital enhancement money established apart to be utilized for the venture.
In online voting, puppy house owners and other people overwhelmingly supported parks together the City’s lakefront as their choice for a new park.
Five possibilities for a new puppy park
At the lakefront, Burnham Shores/Elliot Park, Dawes Park, Centennial Park and Clark Sq. all obtained “support” or “strongly support” rankings. The fifth web-site – much from the lake, in northwest Evanston – was Lovelace Park.
At the exact same time, people in each individual of those people parts strongly opposed a pet park, increasing worries about sounds, odor, parking, pet squander and other matters, stated Town Engineer Lara Biggs in a presentation on the concern at the Council’s Sept. 20 assembly.
Also, she claimed, “there was issue that [establishing a dog park in any of those areas] would in some way disrupt the character of the historic nature of the lakefront.”
Biggs also pointed out that officers experienced obtained a large amount of tips about developing dual-use web-sites, to be utilised “partly for puppies element of the day and partly for people the rest of the working day.”
Workers, nevertheless, did not come across all those recommendations feasible for lawful causes, she stated, which stipulated that canine parks need to be fenced off completely and obtainable only to permit holders.
“And so we’re sort of at a crossroads,” she instructed Council members, “where the team is genuinely searching for path about how to commence.”
She introduced the Council numerous achievable following measures:
- Locating a puppy park in an present park with no City programming.
- Locating a pet park in an existing park and displacing other Town programming.
- Getting a new house to build as a doggy park.
- Not continuing with one more canine park and as a substitute allocating that income somewhere else.
Lincoln Street Seashore an solution
In Council discussion, Melissa Wynne, 3rd Ward Council Member, right after disclosing that she grew up as a pet dog proprietor and at the moment owns a pet dog, prompt the Town could contemplate one more solution – setting up a doggy park at Lincoln Beach front at the east close of Lincoln Road.
The Metropolis and Northwestern University have been in dispute in excess of possession of the seashore, which was created for the duration of the 1960s as aspect of the University’s expansion on the north conclusion of its lakefill.
The Illinois Department of Purely natural Resources stepped into the situation two decades in the past, declaring the seashore belonged to the State, and advising the Metropolis and the College to enter into a memorandum of comprehending acknowledging that point.
Wynne proposed – “in the spirit of Barbara Janes,” she stated – that the City take a look at the possibility.
Barbara Janes, who died Sept. 3, was a regional activist and doggy operator who strongly advocated that the Town create Lincoln Seaside as the City’s new canine seashore.
Responding to the suggestion, Biggs stated she would like to get additional info from the City’s Legislation Section.
Nevertheless, she claimed of Wynne’s proposal, “It is a theoretical likelihood.”
“I’m not certain it’s 1 Northwestern would agree to, simply because they also use Lincoln Beach front periodically,” she said.
In addition, “The only completely ready accessibility to it proper now is by means of Northwestern’s house so there are some logistical obstacles that would have to be triumph over that are not $110,000 well worth of cost.”
“Well, I even now believe that is truly worth pursuing,” Wynne responded.
Many people today adore the canine seaside when it did exist for their canines.”
Clark Square neighbors object
As for opposition by residents to other lakefront web pages, Wynne referred to Clark Sq., off Sheridan Highway and Kedzie Road, in the southeast ward, where, she mentioned, opposition was powerful.
“And it was not automatically because they did not want to live in the vicinity of a puppy park …” she claimed.
Instead, “It’s for the reason that that park is just one of the number of open up spaces alongside the lakefront that is genuinely, genuinely passive. And I experienced 1 of the neighbors deliver me a checklist of all the strategies that Clark Sq. Park, especially because the pandemic, is now made use of.
“There is an early morning Tai Chi class that fulfills there each individual working day for seniors there is a yoga course that satisfies there,” she mentioned.
“There is a women lacrosse [team] that takes advantage of that open house, because it’s tricky to find significant open up area in the 3rd Ward. There are people today who come and love it simply because it is not a picnic space, so you can truly have some quiet. I was astounded at the number of various approaches that men and women use the park.”
Clark Sq., Twiggs, Lincoln Beach front reviewed
Council member Cicely Fleming, whose Ninth Ward is west of Clark Sq., stated she disagreed with Wynne about the site and considered Clark Square would make “great practical pet seashore.”
“That is not my space of know-how, but it appears like the park could be gated off, as you described for a puppy park,” she claimed to staff members, “and however have some wonderful house for folks.”
As issues stand now, nevertheless, she said she could assist Twiggs Park as a site. Twiggs runs along the Metropolitan H2o Reclamation District land, at Dodge Avenue and Simpson Road.
Fleming reported the parking there is “probably not adequate for all the people today who have puppies who want to use it, but it does at least have some parking.”
“And I imagine, once again, it can be made use of for quite a few items, particularly for puppies,” she reported. “In a gated place there is continue to heading to be a good deal of room for folks to do other pursuits.”
“I realize the neighbors may not appreciate it, for a large amount of factors,” she stated, “but then once again, this is a city of 75,000 people today, and people today don’t appreciate a ton of factors and we have to make challenging options.”
Initial Ward Council member Clare Kelly backed Wynne in on the lookout at discovering Lincoln Street Beach.
“I know a lot of people go [there]. … For quite a few motives folks like the beach front, for the reason that, definitely, there’s the drinking water there,” Kelly explained.
She explained without having residences urgent up against that beach, “you won’t get the very same pushback on a lakefront space. I know lots of, several people today go to Wilmette to use the doggy seaside there and now they let everybody out – it’s proper next to their swimming seashore,” she claimed.
If a doggy park had been situated at Lincoln Beach front, she mentioned, “I imagine that [site] could be accessed right at the end of Lincoln Road. It looks like it would not have to be too challenging, developing an entrance.”
Council associates took no vote on the challenge, which experienced been set for dialogue only. Metropolis team will explore the suggestion of Lincoln Beach as a probability.
