OAKLAND — The Chicago Park District has cut islands and a sandy peninsula from a plan to remake the south lakefront in Kenwood.
The Chicago Park District and Chicago Department of Transportation have revived a 2006 plan to remake a section of lakefront from 45th to 51st streets, but eliminated a controversial portion of the project that would have destroyed the South Side’s only shipwreck.
“We would like to preserve what’s there,” said Bob Foster, the senior project manager on the proposal.
About 100 yards out from shore at 49th Street are the remains of the Silver Spray ferry, which crashed on the submerged rocks of Morgan Shoal in 1914. The ship’s boiler and propellers are popular among swimmers willing to venture into the water off the beach of round stones washed up from the shoal.
“It’s a dynamic section of the shoreline unlike the rest of the shore,” said Woodlawn artist Dan Peterman, who celebrated the 100th anniversary of the wreck with a swim out to the remains in July.
The 2006 plan from the Park District would have built a sandy peninsula over the wreck and surrounding shoal. The proposed infill was slowly cut back until two small islands were eliminated after an October meeting where residents said they wanted to preserve the shoal.
At a meeting Monday at the Mandrake Park Field House, the Park District proposed extending the shoreline out into the lake by up to 100 feet in spots, putting it right at the northwest corner of the shoal six feet beneath the waves.
The shoreline would also be raised up by three feet, cutting off views of the lake from the bike trail at 47th Street and along sections of Lake Shore Drive.
Foster said the Army Corps of Engineers sets the height standards to protect Lake Shore Drive from storms like the one that hit on Halloween and pushed 20-foot surges up onto the lakeside lanes along northern sections of Lake Shore Drive.
Some residents questioned why views of the lake were being sacrificed when South Lake Shore Drive rarely ever floods.
“We’re being told that the shore needs to be built up to protect Lake Shore Drive, but this section might be OK,” Hyde Parker Joy Clendenning said.
Foster said the height might be flexible after a wave study is done and he expected lakefront access would be maintained along the shore at 49th Street.
“We know we can go a little bit lower,” Foster said.
Plans for the revetments for the shore remain undecided. Unlike other stretches of the south lakeshore, the bedrock is close to the surface and the Park District cannot use the corrugated steel retaining walls used on sections from 41st to 45th streets repaired in 2013.
Foster said another public meeting would be held in late January to further hone the project plan. He said construction would not start for at least 2½ years.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
