Winnetka Dog Beach Plan Threatens $3M Ishbia Pact

Winnetka Park District officials are considering scrapping an agreement with billionaire Justin Ishbia for a $3 million donation for park improvements after an outcry from residents over design plans.

The Winnetka Park Board, a separate body from the village government, last week approved a scaled-back version of a plan to install fencing on Centennial Park beach for an off-leash dog beach. Residents and village zoning officials had questioned the initial fence plans.

The new proposal violates the terms of a $3 million donation agreement reached in 2024 with the Ishbia Family Foundation. Commissioners also voted to revisit that agreement and potentially terminate it once they receive permits for the new plan. Ishbia, a founding partner of Shore Capital Partners and co-owner of the Phoenix Suns, is building a megamansion on his property directly south of the park.

The controversy is the latest in a string of feuds spurred by Ishbia’s goals for his 68,000-square-foot mansion spanning three lakefront lots. Ishbia, whose wealth Forbes pegs at $5.8 billion, has been engaged in controversial back-and-forth with the village and residents over privacy barriers at his property and a proposed land swap that would have extended his property into part of Centennial Park.

A spokesperson for Ishbia said he declined to comment.

The $3 million Ishiba donation is contingent on a number of improvements, including a fenced-off dog beach at the border between the park and his property, and a pier extending into the lake.

Residents argued the initial fence plan, which called for fences extending into the water on the north and south ends of Centennial Park beach, was intended to secure privacy for Ishbia’s home to the south by limiting navigation of the shoreline. The village’s Plan Commission rejected the proposal in a Jan. 28 meeting, citing the barriers the fencing would present to residents traversing the beach.

“It’s not hard to understand that only one person benefits from a fenced-in dog beach directly north of the property,” resident Peggy Martay told the Plan Commission at that meeting.

Commenters also argued the plan violated the public trust doctrine, an Illinois legal principle that requires submerged land to be open to the public.

Park officials have denied that the project is intended to enhance privacy for Ishbia.

In an email to The Real Deal, Winnetka Park District Executive Director Shannon Nazzal said the new plan does not eliminate public access and is intended “to safely define a designated off-leash area while maintaining lawful public access.”

During the meeting last Thursday, commissioner Christina Codo said the elements required by Ishbia’s donation were good for the general public.

The elements include “public access, which we should all want, the dog beach … the dog beach fence, which seems to be a necessary safety feature, the ADA access pathway, which seems to be really important for this community as we all age,” Codo said.

The new proposal to install the fence on existing steel groins that extend out to the lake addresses the access concerns, said Director of Parks and Maintenance Costa Kutulas at the Thursday meeting. It also reduces the length of the dog beach from 490 feet to 265 feet and is designed to allow beachgoers to walk around the dog park entirely.

The design mounts the fence on the steel wall to use “an already existing barrier in the lake instead of creating new barriers by installing new fencing,” Kutulas said.

But residents said during the Park Board’s meeting last Thursday that the new proposal still limits the ability to walk along the beach.

“It’s all designed to exclude people from that staircase,” resident Ted Wynnychenko told the board, referring to a staircase on the breakwater at the edge of Ishbia’s property. “It’s disappointing that we’ve gone back to that.”

Village commissions will review the new plans in upcoming meetings, and the Village Board of Trustees has the final decision over approving a special use permit for the project.

The fight over the dog beach is just the latest chapter, as Ishbia has pursued building his lakefront mansion since 2020, spending an estimated $77 million on land and construction.

In 2020, the park district agreed to a land swap that would have traded a portion of Centennial Park for Ishbia’s property at 261 Sheridan Road, which sits between Centennial Park and Elder Park. That proposal, which was intended to unite the two parks, spurred a lawsuit that ended in a settlement, with the park district agreeing not to hand over the land.

Ishbia also initially planned to build walls along the stone breakwater at the edge of his property, but the plan was scrapped after public criticism that the walls obstructed the view of the lake.