Commissioner’s resignation letter magnifies Village-park district rift

The latest interaction between Winnetka’s Village and park district officials was the last straw for Park Board Vice President James Hemmings.

In the wake of the Village’s Zoning Board of Appeals vote on Dec. 10 against the district’s beachfront plans, Hemmings called it quits, saying in his resignation letter — sent to The Record by the park district — that Village regulations are stepping on the Park Board’s authority.

“Starting with the Village’s lakefront zoning ordinances, the purpose and impact of the (Park) Board’s work has been reduced significantly,” Hemmings wrote. “We are an independent taxing body that the Village has determined to regulate with, as it were, overbroad and haphazardly constructed zoning rules.”

The Winnetka Park District announced the resignation of Hemmings in a press release on Thursday, Dec. 12, and while the release gives no details on the resignation, Hemmings’ letter makes clear that his resignation is immediate, and he cannot justify more time and effort with the board.

The Record could not reach Hemmings, an attorney who was a caucus-slated candidate and elected in 2023, by press time.

Hemmings’ resignation letter, the entirety of which you can read at the bottom of this article, blasts the Zoning Board of Appeals for opposing the park district’s plans for Centennial Park Beach, citing Village officials’ lack of expertise to make such decisions. He also blamed Village of Winnetka staffers for a Zoning Board that he said was under-informed on lakefront issues.

Hemmings wrote that ZBA commissioners “appeared intellectually strained to appreciate the differences between public parks and traditional residential housing. Despite three sessions, the ZBA could not deduce the importance of structures in the water to preserve our beaches and bluffs and did not even understand basic concepts like littoral drift.”

A key point of concern for the ZBA was the park district’s plan to install a rock-based pier extending out from its beachfront, questioning its necessity and its potential dangers to swimmers.

Hemmings said the Village’s recently approved lakefront regulations have limited the Park Board’s power, and as such, “the ability of the board to do anything meaningful at this point is in doubt.”

He also took a jab at “certain” Winnetka residents who have challenged the park district’s beachfront project, saying that “they don’t appear willing to acknowledge that their own past lobbying efforts have hampered our ability to act.”

Hemmings’ resignation leaves an open spot on a divided board that has often engaged in tense debates, particularly on beachfront topics, over the past few years.

Hemmings was maybe the most flexible vote on the Park Board and has sided with both commissioner factions on different occasions. For instance, Hemmings voted alongside Commissioners Cynthia Rapp and Colleen Root against a $3 million donation package from the Ishbia Family Foundation, and with Board President Christina Codo, Eric Lussen, Jeff Tyson and former president Warren James to censure Root.

According to the park district, the board vacancy will be discussed during the Park Board’s next meeting on Thursday, Dec. 19, when officials will also call for nominations and encourage applications from community members.

The release says that the Park Board will review applicants but will not necessarily interview them. Commissioners, however, will vote to approve the new board member during an open session.

Resignation letter of former Winnetka Park Board member James Hemmings

“Dear Director Nazzal and President Codo,

I am resigning from the Winnetka Park District Board, effective immediately.

As you know, I have had a difficult time for many months justifying the continued pursuit of this role. Starting with the Village’s lakefront zoning ordinances, the purpose and impact of the Board’s work has been reduced significantly. We are an independent taxing body that the Village has determined to regulate with, as it were, overbroad and haphazardly constructed zoning rules. We can no longer do so much as clear invasive buckthorn at beachfront parks without a permit.

Perhaps nowhere has this misguided folic of the Village been more clear than in witnessing the deliberations of the ZBA, who appeared intellectually strained to appreciate the differences between public parks and traditional residential housing. Despite three sessions, the ZBA could not deduce the importance of structures in the water to preserve our beaches and bluffs and did not even understand basic concepts like littoral drift, demonstrating their abject lack of qualifications to mete out the ordinances that the Village has pushed upon them. For their part, Village staff supporting the ZBA appears not to have assisted in educating the ZBA on the Village’s own lakefront studies. Simply put, neither the Village, the Village staff, nor the ZBA has the expertise to do what is best for this community when it comes to the beaches and parks, and yet they have made themselves the ultimate arbiters of those projects. When fleeting moments of subjective and uninformed judgment can trump thousands of hours of considered and expert work, the system is not working for our community. Ironically, certain members of this community who now want quick action on Elder Lane Beach were front and center in creating this morass, but even they don’t appear willing to acknowledge that their own past lobbying efforts have hampered our ability to act.

Of course, there are myriad other concerns that I have and have expressed with regard to continuing in this role. Suffice it to say that many of the institutions established to serve as guardrails for this community have either failed or are failing, and it makes continuing to give time to the enterprise very difficult to justify. I did not volunteer to give time and energy to this Board to collect a title. The ability of the Board to do anything meaningful at this point is in doubt.

I wish the Board the best of luck going forward.

Sincerely,

James Hemmings

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