CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A group of historical preservationists want the Chicago Lakefront to be designated a national park.
The group Preservation Chicago is calling for the national park designation to prevent future private development along the lakeshore.
Preservation Chicago said developments along the lake from the now canceled George Lucas Museum in Burnham Park to the proposed 20-acre Obama Presidential Center on the Lakefront in Jackson Park fly in the face of a 1909 Illinois Supreme Court ruling that the lakefront "remain forever open, clear and free.”
The group is particularly alarmed by proposed plans for revisioning and an overhaul of North Lake Shore Drive. Preservation Chicago said the overhaul plans would rethink the lakefront from Navy Pier near Grand Avenue at the south to Hollywood Avenue at its northernmost border. The project is called “Redefine the Drive: North Lake Shore Drive,” has the potential to "destroy and ruin many of the unique characteristics of this world-class boulevard and drive."
Preservation Chicago said the national park designation would recognize the many acres of parkland along the lakeshore, protect it from development, and provide federal dollars to maintain the land and buildings.
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