Alexis Maislen
Special to Inside
After 11 years of arguing with private homeowners about what should be done about unsafe north side docks, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) finally made a decision on August 14.
"I remember another meeting like this 11 years ago and the issue is the same as it is today. Nothing is resolved," said Terrence O'Brien, president of the board of commissioners for the MWRD, at a August 12th public meeting in Brands Park.
The primary reason for the MVRD's concern about the docks is that they encroach on 180 feet of property (90 feet both ways from the center of the N. Branch of the Chicago River) that they have owned for almost a century. A 1903 legal covenant suggests that homeowners may build docks and other structures along the banks of the river. Today, the water district does not recognize this covenant.
However, the swift decision comes also in part to end a long brewing squabble between property owners and North Side residents, who want to reclaim more of the Chicago River for public access, and part in light of the Wrightwood Ave. porch collapse in June that claimed the lives of 13 people. The MVRD, which treats 1.4 billion gallons of waste water each day for Chicago and 124 suburbs, wants to avoid more costly lawsuits from accidents that may occur on some of the older rapidly deteriorating docks.
The decision the Board of Commissioners made would prohibit new docks from being constructed in the North Branch area of the Chicago River from Belmont to Montrose avenues. As for the fate of existing docks, the board decided to require that the dock owners purchase a $4 million insurance policy, as well as have a licensed structural engineer inspect the dock. (Property owners would pay anywhere from $800 to $1000 a year.)
"Any existing docks that do not meet an engineer's approval and do not receive certification as being structurally sound will be immediately removed," said Commissioner Patricia Young.
Commissioner Frank Avil knows of a few docks by Montrose that definitely will not make the cut.
"We took a walk up there last week with a civil engineer and some docks are nice and some are deteriorating," said Avil. Two weeks earlier, Avil acknowledged that the decision would be a hard one to make because the board wanted to be fair to everyone.
The city would also require owners to sign a lease on the dock and pay a fee to the MWRD. Young said that the fee had yet to be determined and the MWRD should know sometime in September.
"Any revenues from the leases would be put into a special fund for river beautification for use to improve the public areas of the river," said Young. Young added that at the board's Aug. 14th meeting lease fees were discussed and leases could be as high as $3,000 to $5,000.
At the public meeting Aug. 12, the commissioners met with North Side neighborhood organizations to discuss the options they had. They could ban all decks and patios all together, permit existing structures as long as they had integrity and enact a moratorium on new ones, or only allow docks to be built by owners with a special permit from the city.
Residents from the Riverbank Neighbors, the Ravenswood River Neighbors Association, and other North Side neighborhood organizations expressed concern that the river is overtaxed by motor boats. If additional structures were added it might lead to further traffic congestion on the river. Others were concerned that public access to the bike and walking paths in the Montrose Ave. portion of the river be protected.
Laurene von Klan, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, said, "The Friends' view is that the River belongs to the people of Chicago and at some point it needs to go back to those people."
Jenny Peterson, who owns a condo with a dock, came to the meeting to support the Friends mission.
"I moved there because I wanted to be part of the community. If any of you are worried about what will happen if the river that is inaccessible to the public becomes accessible... it's fine. Usually, it's just families with kids and old people and it's the most wonderful place to live," she said.
Ald. Gene Schulter (47th) along with Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) support opening up the North Branch river front.
"We focus on the Lake but not enough on the Chicago River," said Schulter. "I believe we should work out a compromise to allow existing docks to stay and under no circumstances allow new ones to be built."
Mell agreed and commended the community for their hard work cleaning the River and building the bike path. "This is a unique part of the city. We have put a lot of sweat and hours into that River," he said.
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