Centennial Beach plans may be on Zoning agenda in September — but project timeline now stretches into 2026

Plans for the long-anticipated renovation project at Winnetka’s Centennial Beach may finally appear in front of the Village’s commissions after a tentative meeting date was scheduled with the Zoning Board of Appeals.

A special meeting of the ZBA is tentatively set for Sept. 24, reported Costa Kutulas, director of parks and maintenance for the Winnetka Park District, during the Park Board’s regular meeting on Aug. 22.

Kutulas told commissioners that the Centennial plans are expected to be the only item on the meeting’s agenda; however, he and other park district staff members stressed that the meeting date could change.

The plans to refurbish both Centennial and Elder beaches have been in the works for years, and at one point included a property exchange agreement between the Ishbia family, who own property in between the beaches and to the south of Centennial, and the Winnetka Park District.

The property exchange agreement was unpopular with both members of the public and some commissioners, leading a narrow majority of the Park Board to withdraw the original permit applications in 2022.

Since then, the property exchange has been classified as “dormant” by both the Ishbia family and park district. In April, plans for Centennial were submitted to the Village of Winnetka, with Elder’s plans expected to be submitted in mid-September.

The plans for Centennial mark the first time the Village’s new lakefront construction regulations, which were passed earlier this year, have been applied.

At the time of the Aug. 22 meeting, Kutulas said the park district was answering a third round of questions from the Village, an ongoing process that has been happening since May. He said park district staff were expecting to submit those answers by the end of the week.

The tentative meeting on Sept. 24 will mark the first time the park district can present its plans for Centennial in front of the Village.

Kutulas said the initial hope was that meetings with the ZBA could be held simultaneously with the two other Village commissions — the Plan Commission and Design Review Board — before which the park district must appear.

That won’t be the case, however, and the park district will have to appear in front of each board one at a time.

“Once we complete and close out (the ZBA) meeting … we get a recommendation from that board to move forward with the plan or whatever is determined,” Kutulas said. “Then once that’s closed out, we can get on the docket for the following meeting.”

Commissioner Jeff Tyson asked Kutulas how the new meeting schedule will impact any groundbreaking at Centennial.

Kutulas said that depends on many factors.

“If we can get through each one of the (commissions) with a single meeting, then, in theory, we should be able to get in front of (Village Council) either in December or January,” he said.

In what he referred to as a “best-case scenario,” Kutulas said if the Centennial project is approved by the Village, the park district will then submit permit applications to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Illinois Department of Natural Resources. There will then be a period for public comment and questions, and for questions from the regulatory agencies.

While this is going on, Kutulas said the project will go out to bid.

If the project receives the needed permits and no additional public meetings are needed, he said work on Centennial should begin in the summer of 2025 and last a year, with a projected completion date in the summer of 2026. The timeline is stark difference from the projections given back in late 2023, when Kutulas estimated the entire project (both beaches) could be finished by summer 2025.

Tyson then asked what would happen if more meetings are needed and how much that would delay the current plans.

Kutulas said that if an additional meeting needed to be held two weeks after the first one, it would add that amount of time to the project.

Commissioner Cynthia Rapp asked how soon the public would be notified about any meetings, specifically referring to the ZBA meeting on Sept. 24.

Executive Director Shannon Nazzal said the Village is responsible for publishing notices about any meetings, but that the park district will make the meeting dates known once they are confirmed.

“We can do our own outreach once we know that the information is available and we know that that’s finalized,” she said.

Elder permit application to be submitted soon

While the Centennial permit application is underway, the one for the Elder Beach project is expected to be submitted within the next few weeks.

The Park Board had previously agreed to submit the applications separately.

Kutulas said final designs for Elder have been completed and will be submitted to the Village in mid-September pending staff review.

He anticipates the Elder permit process taking less time than Centennial based on what the park district has learned this year and now knows what to expect.

“That should help streamline that process and then we’ll be able to move forward,” he said. 

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