Park Avenue Beach Automatic Gate Wins City Council Approval

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The Highland Park City Council approved an agreement with the Park District of Highland Park to install an automatic gate at the Park Avenue Boating Facility, formerly known as Park Avenue Beach.

The gate can be opened via a key fob by those with boating passes, although pedestrians are able to walk around it. The key fob is separate from the new lakefront parking decal introduced by the park district this year.

"Our goal for installing this gate is, essentially, to provide safe access control to the Park Avenue Boating Facility, and this system, we believe, allows us to do this with both integrity and with adaptability," Brian Romes, executive director of the park district, told the council.

"This gives us the ability to open and close whenever we need to, to open and close it remotely, the city has access to open and close it for emergency purposes as well, so it has a tremendous amount of flexibility, and it is very user-friendly, and it will, we believe, benefit the community, the boaters, the city and the park district," Romes said.

The area that will be restricted by the gate, he said, was always intended to be used for boating.

"All the infrastructure there at that facility that is operated by the park district, the barge, the yacht club, those are all for the purpose of boating," he said.

Romes said park district staff expected the increase in use — which began during the summer of 2020, when the district added a gate with an attendant who opened it for those that had decals — will likely continue.

"It was overcrowded, and there were safety issues, and so this year we're still in the pandemic and so there are still capacity guidelines, there are still social distance guidelines," Romes said. "So at this point we are operating with the intention that we are in Phase 4 and if we change and if usage changed, we have the ability to adapt, versus last year, we couldn't adapt very easily."

The City Council voted 5-2 in favor of the agreement Monday after postponing a vote at its previous meeting. Following a meeting between city and park district officials, a new section was added to the agreement.

It calls for the park district to operate the gate and manage access to the lake "in a manner that is mindful of the needs of the community while consistent with the safety of the facility and the users and in accordance with Park District of Highland Park policies and procedures."

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Councilmembers Kim Stone and Michelle Holleman voted against the revised deal. They expressed concerns about shutting off the area to the public during off-peak times.

"I don't have a concern with putting in an automated gate, versus the manual gate that we had previously, but what I am concerned about is closing off access from May to September," Stone said.

Stone said she recognized the matter was within the park district's purview.

"But I have been concerned that as more and more people have come to use our natural areas that our reaction has been to close those areas, rather than to try to figure out how to better manage people and allow them to be outside, where it is one of the safe places during this pandemic," she said.

Holleman called for the park district to provide numbers about how many boaters use the ramp during weekdays.

"Because the numbers in the past were so low that the park district was considering closing the facility entirely. So now we've gone from, 'We hardly have any use of this area' to, 'We have to gate it off and make it for the exclusive use of boaters.' I think there has to be a compromise," Holleman said.

She noted the city had paid to improve the access road with the intention of improving beach access for the general public.

"I do not believe that the number of boats launching during the weekday could possibly justify closing off this property to the general community," she added.

Councilman Tony Blumberg, the council's liaison to the park district, voted in favor of the agreement, though he said he appreciated the concerns of his fellow councilmembers.

"Having been involved in the effort to retain power boating at the beach, it is somewhat difficult understanding that that is going to reduce access to non-power boaters," he said.

Blumberg said he was confident that park district officials would seek to maximize public access. He noted the spending by the park district to address the barge, and the hiring of a consultant to improve the beach as a whole.

"They're going to make their best effort to open it as much as possible, keeping in mind that this is the only beach that power boaters have access to a boat launch," Blumberg said.

"They want to make as much of this beach accessible as possible," he added. "But the only place that boats can be launched in Highland Park is past the eastern face of the water plant, using that ramp."

Additionally, Blumberg said, automating the process will ease potential tensions between motorists and gate attendants.

"The people who used to work there often suffered a great deal of abuse and they were required to call the city of Highland Park to relieve some of that conflict," he said. "So whether there is a person there or a gate there, yes, access will be restricted."

Blumberg recalled having to have metal tokens sewn into swimsuits to access the beach in the past.

"Limitations on access, historically, are nothing new," Blumberg said. "I understand that residents are frustrated. A lot of that comes because everyone is trying to get down to the beach at the same time."

City Manager Ghida Neukirch told councilmembers she would provide regular reports about the use of the gate and whether the facility had reached capacity, and Mayor Nancy Rotering said she supported a re-evaluation in the middle of June.

Under the terms of the agreement, the city can terminate the agreement for any reason with 30 days notice. If the city does so before 2036 and without reasonable cause, the city will have to reimburse the park district for all costs associated with the gate's removal.

Park district officials recently announced a new lakefront parking decal for residents who plan to park at Rosewood, Moraine, Park Avenue North or Millard beaches.

"That's just to control the parking lots from being overcrowded and to be able to safely monitor the access and safety along the lakefront," Romes said.

The parking decal is $30 for residents or $285 for non residents.

Launch passes for the Park Avenue Boating Facility range from $510 for residents with sailboats to $970 for non-residents with power boats and motorized watercraft.