Last Four Miles Plan Released
LAST FOUR MILES PLAN WOULD CREATE AN UNBROKEN STRING OF PARKS ALONG CHICAGO’S LAKEFRONT
Nearly 500 acres of New Parks Would Complete Vision of Burnham Plan as City Celebrates its 100th Anniversary
One hundred years after Daniel Burnham first envisioned the concept, Friends of the Parks unveiled a plan to open Chicago’s entire lakefront to the public, by creating an unbroken string of public parks with a continuous lakefront trail hugging the shoreline from Evanston to Indiana.
Former industrial sites on the south side would be transformed with almost 400 acres of new parks and beaches, and on the north lakefront nearly 100 acres of new parkland would connect currently isolated small parks and beaches. The new green parkland would improve the environment by reducing air pollution, creating habitat for wildlife and protecting the shoreline from storms and erosion.
If adopted, the proposal, known as The Last Four Miles: Completing Chicago’s Lakefront Parks, would culminate generations of work to achieve one of the core aspirations in Burnham’s century-old Plan of Chicago: a lakefront park system entirely open to the public. The Last Four Miles proposes to remove the last barriers to that commitment by creating public parks along the four miles of lakefront that currently exclude the general public.
“The lakefront in Chicago, unlike other waterfront cities in the U.S., is public and was created with much sacrifice for all to enjoy,” said FOTP Executive Director Erma Tranter. “The notion that the lakefront belongs to all of us has been deeply imbued in our character from the time of the city’s incorporation. Burnham solidified the vision of a public lakefront in his iconic Plan of Chicago. One hundred years after Daniel Burnham set us on a course to provide full public access to the lakefront, we are just a few miles short of completion. Burnham’s plan is not about the city’s past. It’s about creating a future with better opportunities for city residents to walk, swim, bike, fish, gaze at the lake and enjoy the recreational spaces provided by Chicago’s lakefront parks.” Under the Last Four Miles plan, two miles of new parks, totaling nearly 500 acres of additional recreational space, would be created on both the south and north lakefront at the following locations:
Between 71st and 75th Streets
Between 79th Street and Calumet Park at 95th, encompassing the former U.S. Steel manufacturing plant.
North Side:
Between Ardmore and Loyola Park
Between Touhy Ave. and the Chicago/Evanston border
The proposed parks would include a mosaic of beaches, recreational fields, a continuous pedestrian/bike trail, natural areas and landscaping to promote aquatic and wildlife habitat. These features reflect input voiced by residents of neighboring communities during a series of public meetings FOTP conducted to shape the proposal. The additional public parks and beaches would reclaim existing landscapes that include the former U.S Steel and Youngstown Steel plants, a waste disposal facility for contaminated sediments and waterfront monopolized by private residences.
Completion of the Last Four Miles proposal would help offset the dire shortage of park space that plagues city neighborhoods, according to the CitySpace Study. The South Chicago, Edgewater and Rogers Park neighborhoods which border the proposed Last Four Miles lack a basic minimum of 2 acres of park space for every 1,000 residents, not even close to the 10 acres per 1000 residents, the standard of the National Recreation and Park Association.
The concept plans for the Last Four Miles were developed in collaboration with residents of the communities neighboring the sites. FOTP conducted a series of design charettes with community residents to gather input on their vision for the future of the lakefront parks. That feedback was factored into architectural plans with the professional assistance of architects Joanne Bauer & Julia Burns, BauerLatoza Studio; John Buenz, Solomon Cordwell Buenz; Thom Greene, Greene & Proppe Design; and Peter Kindel and Kareeshma Alli, Topografis; which were then reviewed by the engineering firm, AECOM
“This plan would help the Southeast community achieve equality with the rest of the city by providing South Chicago and surrounding communities with increased access to Lake Michigan and a continuous lakefront park system,” said Neil Bosanko, a resident of South Chicago who supports the Last Four Miles proposal.
Meanwhile, it also would perpetuate a tradition of public lakefront parks that hearkens back to the city’s origins, when the original township plat designated that the land east of Michigan Avenue should remain “forever open, free and clear.”
“There are areas on the north lakefront where public access along the lake is blocked – and that is the antithesis of Burnham’s call for a lakefront entirely open to the public,” said North Side resident Ken Surdin. “It is time to build on Burnham’s bold dream of public access along the lake. It is our charge as citizens to complete Chicago’s lakefront park system with a continuous lakefront trail from the Chicago/Evanston to the Indiana border.”
After decades of efforts to uphold that principle, public parks now span 26 of the city’s 30-miles of lakefront, forming a scenic tapestry of green spaces that serve as the proverbial postcard image of Chicago across the world. That tableau is due to consistent support from our earliest citizen activists, to city leaders who fought to protect the lakefront in court, and city residents who supported park expansions at the ballot box.
“Chicago’s lakefront is regarded around the world as a civic treasure,” Tranter said. “The Last Four Miles would enrich that asset, enhancing Chicago’s scenic front yard, which has been instrumental to the city’s cultural life, international appeal and economic development.”
