I’m glad I wasn’t writing this article last week. The past month has been an abject lesson in the ups and downs of the ordinary political process, but as of this writing we’re on an “up” note.
At the beginning of last month we were digesting and largely celebrating the release of the Park Board’s “preferred park concept” for Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake, which was a grounded, principled, practical improvement over the scattershot and pointlessly disruptive initial park concepts. There was much to celebrate, and there were some areas to tweak, as I outlined in my July article for Hill & Lake Press.
Then came the July 28 CAC meeting at my church, featuring a set of bicycle centric proposals from a putative “circulation working group” that deviated significantly from the preferred park concept and the substantial public input that drove it. A boardwalk was back. The much-disputed proposed pedestrian path on southeast Cedar Lake returned. There was mountain biking in Burnham Woods. And, while parkway closures remained off the table, there was a proposal to narrow the entirety of Lake of the Isles Parkway by 40% to accommodate two-way off road way bike trails. It was a raucous meeting, and I don’t think anyone felt very good about it.
I’m pleased to report the pendulum has now swung back, and we appear to be moving again towards a more unified, positive position. What changed? At the end of the July 28 meeting, the CAC elected to form an actual circulation subcommittee, comprised of most of the CAC members, now chaired by the indefatigable Craig Wilson. Its first meeting, on August 10, was a model of effective civic debate. It was efficient, respectful, and featured reasoned, fact-based decision making throughout.
While particular thanks are due to Craig Wilson for crafting a structured, sensible agenda and running a structured, sensible meeting, the subcommittee as a whole deserves great credit as well. These were (and have been) potentially divisive issues, but rather than bunkering down in their corners, the members were responsive to new facts, respectful of differing opinions, and generally willing to move in new directions. The highlights:
- Two-way biking around Isles: The subcommittee unanimously rejected the two-way bike sections in the current preferred park concept as impractical and unsafe, meaning the current one-way format will remain unchanged. This will be satisfying to our many neighbors (most bikers themselves) who wrote in with safety concerns. The proposal to narrow the parkway by six feet to allow off-street, two-way biking around the entirety of the lake was deferred until the next regularly-scheduled rebuilding of the parkway, anticipated to be 20-30 years from now (it was last redone in approximately 2009). This makes eminent sense: why make such a decision now when it can be done later with more certainty as to what the actual needs will be? I thought this was an excellent resolution, driven by new facts and flexible thinking. In the here and now, the existing parkway will be striped for counter-clockwise bike traffic, which appropriately emphasizes the current right of bikers to use the parkway and be safely accommodated by car traffic.
- Southeast Cedar Shoreline/Public Access: This was another thorny issue effectively resolved by fact-gathering and a flexible exchange of views. The subcommittee recommended ending the existing private encroachments along Park Lane within ten years and restoring that shoreline (now a riprap wall) to a more naturalized state. The issue of public trail access will be revisited after restoration, but only if feasible. The major concern here is that some of the parcels in question are so narrow they likely cannot accommodate both a naturalized shoreline and a trail at the same time. Because water quality and ecology are primary goals, the subcommittee prioritized shoreline naturalization unanimously (with two abstentions).
- Bike access on the Kenilworth Channel: The subcommittee voted to retain the proposed new bike access from the Kenilworth Trail to Lake of the Isles on the north side of the channel. After a robust discussion about the ecological impact of this new access point, and whether it is basically duplicative of the existing Dean Parkway access, a supermajority voted to endorse this aspect of the preferred park concept as-is.
- Access on the south side of Isles: In separate votes, the subcommittee unanimously asked the board staff and consultants to make relatively light changes to the Midtown Greenway access point, which would include moving the restroom a short distance, and also to shift the proposed new pedestrian access trail from the west side of the dog park to the east side, where it would be more direct and have less impact on existing tree cover.
So what’s next? The next Circulation Subcommittee meeting, on August 18, will likely have been held by the time this issue goes to press. Once again, there will be proposals discussed of great importance to many of us, including multi-modal transportation on the northwest portion of Cedar Lake (i.e., the new boardwalk proposal), and mountain bike access on the east side of Cedar. While my crystal ball does not tell me how these matters will be resolved, the August 10 meeting certainly underscored the importance of fact gathering and open-mindedness. If this group can take the same approach to this new set of issues, I’m guessing reasonable solutions will emerge.
What I do know right now and does not require a crystal ball is that all of us who care about these concerns and the health of our parks should be very grateful to this CAC. Every member is a volunteer, donating hours and hours of time, willingly wading into thorny, potentially divisive issues. While we can criticize specific positions, no one should doubt the sincerity of this group or its commitment. What we saw on August 10 was a model of civic process, and I was thoroughly impressed with both the quality of the discussion and the quality of the decisions. This CAC has been a commendably consensus-driven group, and that is something we should strive for in our local decision-making. This isn’t abortion, guns, or taxes—it’s our local parks—and I’d like to think that reasonable minds can coalesce around reasonable solutions when the facts are gathered and reasoned positions are aired. That appears to be precisely what’s happening here, and it’s something we should all be grateful for.
