Temporary fence could be back at Winnetka dog beach — but not before Village signs off

The Winnetka Park District will need to look for approval from village officials to move forward with plans at Centennial Beach that will put the district in compliance with a current county ordinance.

Park Board members during their Thursday, March 20 meeting instructed district staff to advance plans to install a temporary fence at the Centennial Park dog beach. Officials say installing that fencing is necessary for the district to comply with the current Cook County Animal Control Ordinance.

Winnetka Park District Executive Director Shannon Nazzal told commissioners that the district had recently received a call from Cook County Animal Control regarding what Nazzal characterized as “public concerns” about dogs being off leash in an on-leash dog area.

History of dog-beach management

According to a memo from Costa Kutulas, director of parks and maintenance for the Winnetka Park District, Centennial Dog Beach opened in 1995 and has operated as an off-leash dog beach since its inception.

The park district, for roughly a two-decade span, managed the facility with a “secured single gate at the western entrance at the top of the bluff,” the memo says.

But in 2007 the village of Winnetka adopted an ordinance requiring all dog owners to “have control of their dogs to prevent them from running at large.”

The park district subsequently in 2010 installed what Kutulas describes in the memo as a “single row of four-foot fencing along the northern edge of the beach to prevent dogs from wandering beyond the designated area and onto the public swimming beach at Elder Lane, located just north of Centennial Beach.”

According to Kutulas and additional park officials, that fencing remained intact for “many years,” but was removed due to damage caused by lake conditions. Officials did not reinstall the fencing at that time.

Park officials in the winter of 2023, however, did install temporary fencing along the northern and southern property lines of the beach. The dog beach and fence bordered the property of Justin Ishbia, a billionaire involved in multiple deals with the district over the past five years.

But, according to Kutulas’ memo, that effort was “halted due to the lack of permitting approval.” Fencing was later removed and the project was tabled, per Kutulas, who added that the Park Board subsequently voted to shift Centennial Beach from an off-leash to an on-leash dog beach.

Nazzal said that the district has typically not enforced the ordinance that requires dogs to be on leashes at the Centennial Beach dog park, but the issue then came to the attention of the county and “they are requesting that we remedy that,” Nazzal noted during the March 20 meeting.

“This is something that was brought to our attention and as staff we have an ordinance in place that we need to figure out a way to either enforce that or change what we have on policy,” Nazzal said.

The district’s executive director said the county did not provide the number of complaints that it received but noted that she did receive a phone call from the county’s deputy director of animal control.

Park administrators presented the board with two options to resolve the complaints: install temporary fencing to ensure the district is in compliance with the current animal control ordinance or enforce existing code through measures such as added security to continue operating the facility as it currently runs.

Park Board members quickly reached a consensus on fencing as the preferred option. Kutulas said during the meeting that he expects the cost for this option to be approximately $6,000.

Kutulas estimated the cost enforcement option would have cost more than $34,000 as the district would have needed to hire an additional third-party vendor to provide enforcement at the beach. That estimate would have covered 28 weeks (late April to mid-November).

More Village-Park district turbulence

The park district’s solution of fencing will be temporary, Kutulas said during the meeting, while noting that the district’s plans for a permanent solution at Centennial Beach are currently in special-use review with the Village of Winnetka.

Village officials, however, determined the park district’s plans to install the temporary fencing will also require special-use approval and will need to go through the zoning process, adding another set of district plans that need Winnetka’s stamp of approval.

Several Park Board commissioners expressed their frustration regarding its ruling that zoning approval is necessary.

Commissioner Colleen Root argued that the use should be grandfathered in given that the district has previously had fencing there before.

Board member Warren James was again critical of the village saying that it is “stymying the public’s interest.”

“Why should we be compelled to go through another zoning process where clearly the community and the park district wishes to allow people and their dogs to enjoy the beach in conformance with the Cook County rabies and animal control ordinance,” James said. “It’s a very simple, cost-effective solution.

“Any animus directed toward the park district in this matter should rather be directed to the village who seems to be unnecessarily stymying the public’s interest to operate an off-leash dog park at Centennial.”

An exact date as to when the park’s permit application for the fencing will be submitted to the village was not made clear during the meeting. The park district is currently attempting to advance its plans for a series of other updates at Centennial through the village’s special-use approval process.

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