Neighbors not singing praise about proposal

By Yuxing Zheng

The Daily Northwestern

Evanston resident Peter Demuth loves the beach.

He loves it so much, in fact, that it moved the musician — who has never written a protest song before — to write one.

“Down in Southeast Evanston” is Demuth’s ode to the South Boulevard lakefront area, a place he calls “very pristine and very beautiful.”

The area also happens to be the site of a possible marina suggested by the Evanston City Council — an idea Demuth rejects in his song.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will present the findings of a preliminary study today at a closed meeting of the city’s marina task force. The Corps looked into the feasibility of placing a marina directly across from Calvary Cemetery, 301 Chicago Ave. The study also examined the need for a marina in the area, possible environmental and transportation effects, and potential cost and revenue figures.

As part of the study, the Corps surveyed 1,600 people: 800 boat owners who live within a 30-mile radius of Evanston, 400 random individuals who said they were interested in purchasing a boat and 400 random Evanston residents. The responses were used to gauge attitudes and perceptions about a possible marina.

“There is no proposed marina at this point,” said Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd), whose ward includes the South Boulevard lakefront area. “But I do want to see what the study says.”

Demuth is not the only Evanston resident to express concern about the possible traffic congestion and aesthetic and environmental harm such a marina could create. Many worried citizens and neighborhood groups, including the one-year-old Citizens for Lakefront Preservation, already have joined in opposing the marina.

“This is not a good place for the marina,” said Ramona Meher, who co-founded the group and has spent more than $1,000 of her own money on it. “There’s no parking and it’s already high-density and there’s already a lot of traffic. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Her group collected an estimated 600 to 700 signatures last fall and hosted a public forum in February in opposition to the possible marina.

“The community that builds the marina pays the price in water quality, air quality and so much congestion in this area between the cars and the boat,” said Janice Loughlin, a member of the group.

The organization requested that Evanston resident and Kellogg School of Management Prof. Therese McGuire conduct a preliminary study about the cost and revenue of a possible marina for 500 boats.

McGuire found the marina would cost $18 million to build and would bring in $1 million in profits annually. In comparison, the city received $3.5 million a year from parking fees in a recent budget, she said.

“If the point is to raise revenue, (the marina) doesn’t strike me as a particularly productive or smart way to go,” McGuire said. “I was surprised the revenue potential was so small.”

Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th), who initially proposed the idea of a marina to raise money for the city two years ago, moved to allay any citizen fears of hasty marina construction.

“My guess is that we will need a far more in-depth study,” he said. “We’re not going to go forward blindly on the basis of just a minimal study … we’re going to study it, and if it looks to be a detriment to the City of Evanston and it’s going to hurt people and provide no benefit, then nobody’s going to vote for it.”

Wynne said public hearings would be held on the issue before the city takes any action.

“We don’t want any degradation on our beaches or lakefront or the beaches of Chicago,” Wynne said.

But that’s exactly what musician Demuth thinks a marina would do to the beach.

“I think of all these people that bought their cemetery plots in the 1890s and early 1900s,” Demuth said. “They probably thought, ‘I want to be buried right here looking out at the lake,’ and all of a sudden they’re going to put in this big mess of a landfill.”