Bill Text: IL SR0891 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Expresses support for the legitimate Community Preservation Plan for Promontory Point, Burnham Park, Chicago.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-09 - Referred to Assignments [SR0891 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SR0891-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, In August 1993, a Memorandum of Agreement
(Agreement) was executed to recognize that the Illinois
Shoreline Erosion Interim 3 Project (Project) would affect
portions of the Chicago shoreline that are historic properties
listed or eligible for listing on the U.S. National Register
of Historic Places (NRHP); and
WHEREAS, The Agreement prioritizes the preservation of the
historic properties and elements on the shoreline, with repair
and rehabilitation to be performed consistent with the
Secretary of the Interior Standards for the Treatment of
Historic Properties and Guidelines for the Treatment of
Cultural Landscapes (SOI standards), and aims for a design
plan that would lead to a finding of No Adverse Effects (NAE)
by the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO); and
WHEREAS, The Chicago District of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE) has consulted with the Advisory Council on
Historic Preservation (ACHP) and SHPO pursuant to 36 CFR Part
800 and Section 106 of the 1965 National Historic Preservation
Act to define the Agreement and prioritize the protection of
the historic properties at Promontory Point so that the
designs and planning for the shoreline management developed
for Promontory Point would allow for a finding of No Adverse

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Effect (NAE); and
WHEREAS, The Agreement requires amending because the
construction and rehabilitation of the Promontory Point reach
of the original Project was not completed; and
WHEREAS, A major component of the uncompleted Project is
Promontory Point, a 40-acre peninsula at the south end of
Burnham Park, Chicago, comprising the Area of Potential
Effects (APE), herein referred to as the "Undertaking"; and
WHEREAS, The scope of the Undertaking includes the
pre-design, review, design planning, construction, and
maintenance of the step-stone limestone revetment and
promenade at Promontory Point for erosion control and storm
damage management, and it specifically includes the repair and
rehabilitation of the step-stone limestone revetment and
promenade at Promontory Point, approximately 3,200 linear feet
of shoreline between East 54th and 56th Streets; and
WHEREAS, The step-stone limestone revetment and promenade
at Promontory Point is now subject to the continuation and
funding of the Project consistent with the Agreement and the
SOI standards; and
WHEREAS, Section 8336 of the Water Resources Development

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Act (WRDA) of 2022 in the National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2023 appropriates funding to finish the
uncompleted sections of the shoreline Project, including
Promontory Point; the 2022 Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law,
Public Law 117-58, funds an internal, third-party review of
Promontory Point; also, a City of Chicago (City) 2023 capital
bond funds a $5m design and planning contract for Promontory
Point; and
WHEREAS, The Agreement also necessitates amendment because
of the 24-year history of commitment and involvement by the
local and City-wide community to seek a genuine preservation
outcome at Promontory Point; and
WHEREAS, On June 21, 2002, SHPO issued a letter providing
its refusal to issue a finding of NAE in regards to proposed
activities at Promontory Point for the Lake Michigan Shoreline
Protection, as recorded under IPHA log #109170043WCK; and
WHEREAS, The Agreement and SHPO's June 21, 2002 letter
specify repair and rehabilitation to match the existing
step-stone limestone revetment and promenade and to minimize
impacts to the historic resources at Promontory Point under
the SOI standards; and
WHEREAS, Discussions led by then-Senator Obama with the

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USACE, the City of Chicago, the Chicago Park District (CPD),
SHPO, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP),
and the consulting parties led to the 2006 Obama Scope of Work,
which provided an agreed-upon path forward for a preservation
approach and community engagement process to design planning
and construction at Promontory Point; and
WHEREAS, Section 5072 of the WRDA of 2007 directed but
never funded a third-party, unbiased, independent preservation
feasibility and cost analysis study of Promontory Point to be
supervised by the Buffalo and Seattle offices of the USACE but
was not deemed an element of the Project; and
WHEREAS, Other third-party, independent marine engineering
studies in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2024 all demonstrated that
Promontory Point remains functioning and operational for storm
damage and shoreline protection, and that a preservation
approach to repairing the step-stone limestone revetment and
promenade can meet erosion control and storm damage protection
requirements; and
WHEREAS, Promontory Point was listed in the National
Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on January 19, 2018, and it
was designated a City of Chicago Landmark on April 19, 2023;
and

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WHEREAS, The significant historic features of Promontory
Point are identified as the pavilion field house, including
its pathways, the meadow, and original plantings, four council
rings, the step-stone limestone revetment, the promenade, the
55th Street underpass and its porticos, and the David Wallach
Fountain; and
WHEREAS, There are multiple conditions for the several
elements of the structure of the revetment at Promontory
Point, including the immediate parkland, the step-stone
revetment, the promenade, the promenade sub-grade, and the
timber cribbing; and
WHEREAS, The SOI standards provide for numerous treatments
and solutions to address the multiple conditions of the
limestone revetment and its structural elements at various
locations and sections of Promontory Point; and
WHEREAS, Preserving the step-stone limestone revetment and
promenade preserves the multi-generational, racial, and
economic class community that has gathered at Promontory Point
for almost 100 years; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support the
legitimate Community Preservation Plan for Promontory Point,

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Burnham Park, Chicago; and be it further