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Bongo Beach PAC › Formation › 63rd Street Bongo Beach Park (Track A)
Track A · Creating the Park

63rd Street Bongo Beach Park

Before there can be a 63rd Street Beach Park Advisory Council in the fullest sense, there has to be a 63rd Street Beach Park for it to advise on. This is the case for that — recognizing 63rd Street Beach as its own distinct Chicago Park District park, separate from Jackson Park.

Right now, the Chicago Park District administers 63rd Street Beach — its historic 1919 Beach House, swim zone, dune habitat, non-motorized launch, and the beach's longstanding drumming tradition — as a facility inside a much larger property: Jackson (Andrew) Park, Park No. 19. It does not have its own park number, and CPD's current guidelines recognize only one registered Park Advisory Council per park — a park that already has one, the Jackson Park Advisory Council (JPAC). Track A asks CPD, in writing, to change that.

Current classification63rd Street Beach → facility inside Jackson Park, Park #19
What we're asking forDistinct park status, or a CPD-defined equivalent, for the beach complex
Where this standsRecognition case being assembled; formal petition not yet submitted to CPD

History

How Jackson Park itself came to exist — and the record of the Chicago Park District dividing, renaming, and reclassifying park land before, including cases directly comparable to what we're asking for here.

Read the History →

Path to Formation

The detailed dossier of evidence, letters, and records requests the organizing committee needs to assemble to formally ask CPD for distinct park recognition — tracked item by item, honestly marked as started, partial, or not yet begun.

See the Checklist →

Three government questions, not one

  1. Classification — Can the 63rd Street Beach / Beach House complex be recognized as a distinct park or administrative park unit? This is the question Track A exists to answer, owned mainly by CPD's Planning & Development department, with Law weighing in on the mechanism.
  2. Governance — What CPD action is actually required to accomplish that: a staff determination, a Superintendent action, a Board resolution, a policy amendment, or some combination? Owned by CPD's Law Department, the General Superintendent, and ultimately the Board of Commissioners.
  3. PAC recognition — Once the site is separately eligible, how does the 63rd Street Bongo Beach Park Advisory Council get formally created and registered? That's Track B — CPD's ordinary, well-documented PAC-formation process, tracked in the Document Library.

The three outcomes we're asking CPD to choose among

Preferred · Outcome A

CPD designates 63rd Street Beach, its Beach House, and its defined grounds as a distinct park unit. Once it's a separate park, the "one PAC per park" rule works for BBPAC instead of against it.

Outcome B

CPD determines that a sufficiently distinct major facility within a very large park may have its own registered facility-specific PAC, without full park separation.

Outcome C

If existing policy doesn't permit A or B, CPD's appropriate authority amends the policy to accommodate unique large-park facilities like major beaches or cultural centers.