Friends Of The Parks pushes South Shore to Connect
Parks group has big plan for S. Side: Proposal would add island,Chicago Sun-Times, Dec 13, 2006 by Andrew Herrmann
Call it Southerly Island.
A "land bridge" that would feature an island off the city's lakefront between 71st and 75th Streets is part of an ambitious community proposal to make public access along the city's South Side shoreline clear to the Indiana state line.
The plan, developed by the influential Friends of the Parks citizen group, also calls for adding hundreds of acres of beaches and other park amenities on the South Side, including at the former site of the U.S. Steel plant at 79th, and expanding Calumet Park south of the Calumet River.
The island, connected to the shore by bridges, would serve as a kind of natural bypass of the existing lakefront stretch that is currently controlled by condo owners and which forces bikers and runners to detour.
CONDO OWNERS UNHAPPY
The island would be more than 100 feet away from the existing shore, said Friends of the Parks official Eleanor Roemer. Experts have identified a ledge in the water that could serve as a foundation for an island, she said.
Roemer acknowledged that some condo owners have already balked at the idea of an island, worried that their views would be disturbed. A parks alternative would be to use a path along South Shore Drive, she said.
A spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District, which has the final say in the matter, said Tuesday the district welcomed the plan. But spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said it was too early to say if the district would follow any of the plan's recommendations.
Friends of the Parks developed the proposal through a yearlong series of community meetings and with the help of professional architects and planners.
WOULD RETURN PUBLIC ACCESS
Activist groups have been trying to complete unfettered public access to the lakeshore for decades, an effort they say fulfills the promise of Daniel J. Burnham's Master Plan of Chicago, 1909. Burnham also envisioned a series of man-made islands south of Northerly Island.
Four of Chicago's 30 miles of lakefront are in private hands, including the stretch occupied by the condos between the South Shore Cultural Center and Rainbow Beach Park.
The plan also calls for doubling the 123 acres the city now controls at the former USX plant. Last year, parks Supt. Timothy Mitchell said he was interested in building a marina at the site. Roemer said community groups want the harbor to mimic Monroe Harbor with parkland and fishing.
The FOP plan also calls for acquiring land at the so-called Iroquois landing between the Calumet River and 95th from the Illinois International Port District, a state agency. Part of the new space would be parkland built on a covered landfill.
The plan did not carry a price tag.
The Friends of the Parks group will discuss the plan at the downtown Chicago Cultural Center at 12:15 p.m. Thursday.
aherrmann@suntimes.com
Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006
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