For the first time in 25 years, Winnetka Village Council directed staff to study public signage at all seven lakefront street ends during a special meeting.

On Tuesday, June 9, Deputy Village Manager Hannah Lipman told trustees the seven street ends — Fisher Lane extension at Sheridan Road, Tower Road, Spruce Street, Elm Street, Oak Street, Cherry Street, and Willow Road — are all platted rights-of-way that terminate at Lake Michigan.

All except Oak Street have stormwater outlets draining into the lake, and some provide road or driveway access to private homes.

The central question: who can walk where? Of the seven, only some provide public beach access.

Elm Street, Oak Street, Willow Road, and the Tower Road right-of-way are not open to public beach access. Elm and Willow are restricted to Village maintenance personnel.

Tower Road drew the most discussion. Village attorney Peter Friedman told the council that when the land was platted, seven nearby properties received their own private beach access through what Lipman called "finger lots."

Ownership at Tower Road beach is split between the Village and the Winnetka Park District, and public access to the right-of-way was closed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"If we want to do something in that area, then we should talk to those property owners and see if there can be an agreement," Friedman said. "Without one, inevitably there's going to be a dispute."

Friedman noted that a previous village attorney concluded in the 1960s that the public-versus-private access question at Tower Road "is entirely unclear."

Trustees coalesced around one immediate priority: standardized signage across all seven locations to distinguish public from private property. Trustee Scott Myers said the Village should be "more consistent" in indicating where people can walk.

Trustee Kirk Albinson called for signage standards to avoid "a hodgepodge of signs just sort of attached to various points." Other options discussed included landscaping and wooden posts with ropes.

Trustees also expressed support for a potential public overlook at the Elm Street street end, which has no beach access. Trustee Kim Handler called the idea a "nice exclamation point" given Elm Street's central location in town. Village President Bob Dearborn directed staff to explore options.

At the close of the two-hour session, Dearborn directed staff to prepare a public memo summarizing the discussion and the council's direction. No cost estimates for signage improvements or the Elm Street overlook were presented at the meeting, and no date has been set for the memo's release.

The street-ends review follows other lakefront disputes in Winnetka. The Village Council voted 5-1 on Tuesday, May 19, to reject the Winnetka Park District's fencing plan for the Centennial Beach off-leash dog area.

The Park District subsequently voted to pursue an intergovernmental agreement with the Village, though Village President Dearborn has indicated the Village does not have early support for a broad beach-related IGA.