CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Civic group Friends of the Parks is expressing mixed feelings about proposals to overhaul DuSable Lake Shore Drive and even make way for more park land.
Transportation Agencies for Chicago and the state of Illinois have been crafting plans to Redefine Lake Shore Drive since 2013.
Proposals include possible bus lanes, reconfigured on and off ramps and more green spaces.
But Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said these are complicated plans with complex responses.
“Friends of the Parks certainly are excited about additional park land that goes along the straightening of curves on Lake Shore Drive where there are a lot of crashes and mitigating impact on the Drive of water coming up on the Drive, right,” noted Irizarry. “We think those are real important concerns but unfortunately the neighborhoods further to the north which are not as high income communities don’t get more park land out of the deal.”
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Irizarry is also concerned the proposals don’t consider current climate change evidence.
“What happens when we lose trees? What happens when we lose nature and park land, and how that relates to the climate change that relates to our lakeshore erosion problem, right? So, there may even be some revettings that need to happen,” Irizzary said.
But her group is still talking.