The Waukegan Downtown Association hopes a $5 million revitalization of Waukegan Municipal Beach would attract more people downtown, especially families.
Families spend money, behave themselves and tend to keep at bay people who don’t do much of either, the association reasons. So catering to families is a critical part of the overall strategy to revitalize the central area of Lake County’s largest city, association President Mary Walker said Friday at a meeting to discuss the beach proposal.
The long, narrow beach, behind the Outboard Marine Corp. complex, is home to the only Lake Michigan dunes in Illinois outside of Illinois Beach State Park, near Zion.
On a clear day, beachgoers can see the Chicago skyline. Officials believe the beach is an asset waiting to be utilized.
The revitalization plan was unveiled earlier this year by the Mt. Prospect planning firm, Leisure Concepts and Designs Inc.
The plan includes jogging and walking trails, athletic fields, new parking lots and areas for concessions.
The centerpiece of the plan is a $2 million water playground for children, a sort of shallow swimming pool with a soft rubber bottom that would have water slides and jungle gyms in the pool.
“Every time we build a new playground, kids come out of the woodwork. This will really attract families to the beach,” said Park District Supt. Michael Trigg.
The beach plan will be high on the list of $60 million in potential capital improvement projects city officials will debate during budget hearings next month.
The city recently refinanced its bond debt to take advantage of low interest rates and intends to continue to pursue low rates to finance a longer-than-usual list of capital projects for the next few years, said Ald. Ray Vukovich, whose ward includes the downtown and the lakefront areas.
“The city is definitely behind the beach project; we just have to decide how much we’re behind it,” Vukovich said.
The city-owned beach is administered by the Waukegan Park District under an agreement approved last year. Both sides had agreed the Park District would do a better job of providing recreational opportunities.
That partnership could slash the project’s price tag by at least $1 million, and maybe more, by using city and Park District expertise and capital equipment to do much of the engineering and construction.
“The city can demolish the old structures, for example, and the Park District can do some of the design and engineering work, all of which would save a lot of money,” Trigg said.
