This page is where NP-02's GIS working layers become a decision record. Nothing here is a finished boundary. The formal decision layers stay empty until the sequence below is actually worked through — the same discipline the underlying GIS package itself insists on: “No empty layer in this package should be mistaken for an absent feature. It means the geometry has not yet been defensibly established.” A Candidate 1 draft of the proposed boundary is sketched on the live map below, now extended to two committee-pinned control points (N-01, S-01), purely so the working boundary controls can be tested against what's on the ground — it is not an adopted decision.
The sequence
Five steps between the mapped assets sitting in the GIS package today and a boundary CPD could actually be asked to act on.
Verify remaining safety assets
The one category that can't be resolved from open data alone. Still needed, via CPD asset export or field verification:
- Exact Life Ring #025 cabinet location
- Lifeguard chairs and guard stations
- First and third distance-swimming buoys
- Swim-zone boundary markers
- Rescue equipment, AED, and emergency vehicle access
- Beach wheelchair route and storage point
Set the operational-footprint limits
Determine whether the present beach operation includes the entire Beach House, both dune sections, the entire parking lot, both underpasses or only their lakeward entrances, the boat launch and access route, Lakefront Trail portions, the swimming area extending into Lake Michigan, and the southern buoy/distance-swimming area.
In progress — see the western-boundary decision belowEstablish stable boundary controls
The Bongo boundary should follow durable features — the DuSable Lake Shore Drive right-of-way, Hayes Drive or another western access line, underpass centerlines or portals, parking-lot edges, path centerlines, harbor or pier structures, fixed coordinate lines across the water — not the moving wet/dry shoreline, which remains evidence, not the permanent boundary.
Two north/south anchors are now pinned: N-01 at the 59th Street Harbor pier and S-01 at the S. Coast Guard Drive bridge/neck by Jackson Park Outer Harbor — see below. The Candidate 1 polygon has been redrawn to reach both. North of the old tie point it follows Jackson Park #19's own official boundary; south of it, both sides now follow four paired committee pin-drops (road side and harbor side) rather than a placeholder line.
In progress — western line proposed below; N-01/S-01 pinned and fully connected into Candidate 1 v6Draw two separate polygons
The existing 63rd Street Beach operational footprint, and the proposed Bongo Beach administrative boundary. These may overlap heavily, but they are not automatically identical — the operational footprint records what CPD already runs today; the proposed boundary is the ask.
The Candidate 1 polygon on the live map has been redrawn (v6) to reach N-01 and S-01: Jackson Park #19's real boundary for the north extension, and four paired committee pin-drops (G14) for both sides of the south extension. No placeholder segments remain, though the south stretch is built from four cross-sections, not a continuous survey.
In progress — Candidate 1 v6 drafted for both (Exhibit B still reflects the v4 acreage; live-map boundary overlay updated), neither adoptedCreate the transfer matrix, then calculate the result
Once the polygons are settled: Bongo Beach land acreage, water-area acreage (calculated separately), total administrative acreage, boundary perimeter, acres removed from Park #19, remaining Park #19 acreage, a coordinate schedule, and a legal-style metes-and-bounds description.
Pending — depends on steps 1–4The boundary-control decisions
Three boundary-control choices that can be made now, ahead of the safety-asset verification: the western line, and the two north/south anchors that fix how far the proposed boundary reaches up and down the lakefront.
N-01 and S-01 replace an earlier informal north/south line with two exact, verifiable anchors
The committee re-examined the northern limit and judged the boundary used in the Candidate 1 draft (pulled back to roughly 41.7857N to avoid a marina/tennis-court junction further north) wasn't far enough north. Working from Google Maps satellite imagery, the committee pinned two physical structures as fixed control points:
- N-01 — North Boundary Control Point:
41.788158, -87.577448, on the south side of the pier at 59th Street Harbor, east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive. - S-01 — South Boundary Control Point:
41.776037, -87.574900, at the S. Coast Guard Drive bridge/neck between the Inner and Outer Harbor basins, just north of the Jackson Park Outer Harbor docks.
Candidate 1 has been redrawn to N-01 and S-01 (v6), not just anchored to them. North of the old v4 tie line, the polygon follows Jackson Park #19's real boundary out to N-01 on both sides. South of the old tie, the placeholder line has been replaced: the committee dropped four paired pins between the tie point and S-01 — a road-side (S. Coast Guard Drive) point and a harbor-side point at each of four cross-sections, including the Fuel Dock at Jackson Park Outer Harbour as one harbor waypoint — and both sides of the polygon now run through those points instead of Park #19's full harbor-encompassing boundary or a straight guess.
The old placeholder is gone; the south stretch is now four real cross-sections, not a continuous trace
Jackson Park #19's own boundary in this stretch wraps around the entire Inner and Outer Harbor complex, including the marina docks west of S. Coast Guard Drive — more than a straightforward reading of Bongo Beach's footprint, so it wasn't used here. Instead both sides of the polygon between the old v4 tie and S-01 now run through four committee-pinned cross-sections (road side and harbor side at each). That's real, verifiable geometry at those four points, but the line connecting them is still a straight interpolation between cross-sections, not a continuous shoreline trace — more in-between pins would sharpen it further if the committee wants that level of precision before this goes to CPD.
Committee decision (2026-09-03): the corridor stays road-to-waterline — a narrow sliver from S. Coast Guard Drive to the water's edge, not extended out to capture the Yacht Club or Docks A–D. An independent OpenStreetMap cross-check (G16) confirms the current v6 polygon already does exactly that: those harbor facilities test outside the boundary, as intended.
The western-boundary decision
The one boundary-control choice that was made first, ahead of the safety-asset verification.
Use the lakeward edge of DuSable Lake Shore Drive as the principal western boundary
Expanding west only where necessary to capture the Beach House approaches, parking, underpass portals, and operational access. That gives Bongo Beach a coherent lakefront jurisdiction without carving deeply into the interior of Jackson Park.
One refinement worth deciding now, not later: the underpasses. Recommend including only the lakeward portals of both pedestrian underpasses in the operational footprint and proposed boundary, not the full tunnel structures. A pedestrian underpass running beneath a state route like DuSable Lake Shore Drive is very likely a CDOT/IDOT-maintained structure. Pulling the entire tunnel into Bongo Beach's boundary risks pulling CDOT/IDOT jurisdiction into what should stay a purely CPD administrative action — the same reasoning that favors the DuSable Drive line itself, applied one level deeper. This is a proposed working position, not yet confirmed with CDOT/IDOT — flagged here as a decision to make deliberately rather than default into.
Live map
Every verified layer from the GIS package, plotted together. Toggle layers on the right, including a Street map / Satellite base-map switch; each marker and shape is styled by how solid its evidence is — solid fill and full opacity for CPD-confirmed facilities, dashed outlines and lighter fill for candidate or generalized positions. Use this to test the DuSable Drive line and the underpass-portal call against what's actually on the ground before either gets drawn as a real polygon.
Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (Street map) and Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics (Satellite, toggle in the layer control). Layer data: Chicago Park District / City of Chicago Data Portal, Illinois State Geological Survey, and OpenStreetMap — see Sources below.
Transfer matrix
Every value below is genuinely pending — this table exists to make that explicit and trackable, not to imply a decision that hasn't been made.
| Asset | Inside proposed boundary? | Transfer to Bongo? | Shared access needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beach House | Pending | Pending | Possible |
| Dunes | Pending | Pending | Environmental coordination |
| Parking lot | Pending | Pending | Likely |
| Underpasses | Pending | Pending | Yes |
| Boat launch | Pending | Pending | Possible |
| Swimming area | Pending | Pending | Aquatics coordination |
| Life rings | Pending | Pending | Safety responsibility |
| Paths / Lakefront Trail | Pending | Pending | Likely shared |
Downloads
The complete GIS starter package, version 3, and its exhibits.
Naming update: the exhibit-lettering collision previously flagged here has been resolved. Exhibit B now refers to the Existing 63rd Street Beach Operational Geography above; the ISGS shorelines document that formerly held that letter has been relettered as Technical Appendix 1.
Pending update: Exhibit B's acreage figures and the GIS starter package still reflect Candidate 1 v4. The live map's boundary-overlay layer (G13, G14; boundary_control_points.geojson and the updated bongo_beach_proposed_candidate1_draft.geojson) already reflects v6, extended to N-01/S-01 with the harbor-side stretch built from real pin-drops, at an approximate 34.97 acres — the downloadable exhibits and starter package have not been regenerated to match yet.
beach_operational_footprint, bongo_beach_proposed) stay empty by the package's own convention until steps 1–4 above are actually completed and a candidate is formally adopted.Sources
- G1 — Chicago Park District property boundaries. City of Chicago Data Portal / Chicago Park District. Published vintage 2016-11-04 (portal metadata). Source link
- G2 — 63rd Street Beach shoreline surveys. Illinois State Geological Survey / IDNR Coastal Management Program. Wet/dry lines digitized at 1:250 from UAS drone imagery, 2021–2024.
- G3 — 63rd Street Beach facility page. Chicago Park District. Beach House, parking, boat launch, ADA beach walk, 64th Street distance-swimming arrangement. Source link
- G4 — 63rd Street Beach Dunes. Chicago Park District. ~12 acres in two sections, paved paths toward the pier and pedestrian underpass. Source link
- G5 — Beaches / Life Ring Locations. Chicago Park District. Life Ring #025, 59th–63rd Street Beach segment; no published cabinet coordinate. Source link
- G6 — OpenStreetMap contributors. Building, natural-area, path, and infrastructure geometry for the mapped facility layers, with Chicago building ID, GNIS, and Wikidata cross-references where present. Source link
- G7 — Formation Process Benchmarking, Step 10 (Transportation: distinguish CDOT, IDOT and FHWA). This project's own research, cited above for the DuSable Lake Shore Drive boundary reasoning. Source link
- G8 — Boat launch facility inventory. Chicago Park District. Lists Jackson Boat Launch – 63rd Street Beach (non-motorized) and Jackson Boat Launch – Inner Harbor (motorized) as separate facilities with distinct addresses — the basis for excluding the Inner Harbor and its motorized slipways from the proposed boundary. Source link
- G9 — 63rd Street Beach House Special Event Venue page. Chicago Park District. Establishes Fountain Courtyard, Serenity Courtyard, and Promenade names, dimensions, and banquet/cocktail capacities. Source link
- G10 — 63rd St. Beach House official facility layout (Promenade/Balcony level plan). Chicago Park District. Source for the 8 mapped architectural subspaces and 7 entrance/access points; original CPD layout also calls the Serenity Courtyard "Town Square Courtyard." Source link
- G11 — Park Capital Projects 2011–2024 (table format), Chicago Park District, as of April 2024. Confirms, under JACKSON (ANDREW) – Park No. 19: 63rd St. Beach dune restoration (complete, 2011), 63rd St. Beach House electric upgrade, 63rd St. Beach House assessment (2014), 63rd St. Beach Spray Feature rehab (complete, 2013), 63rd St. Beach House emergency water/sewer main (2014), 63rd St. Beach House sump pump (2021), 63rd Street Beach parking lot rehab (2022), 63rd St. Beach fountain restoration (complete, year not recorded in this table), and a new basketball sport court (2022). Corrects an earlier version of this citation, which misstated the Spray Feature rehab year as 2017 and the fountain restoration year as 2023 — this table gives 2013 and an unrecorded year, respectively. The same table also independently corroborates the Maggie Daley Blueprint case file: under GRANT (ULYSSES) – Park No. 24, it lists "Park development – Maggie Daley Park" (complete, 2015), plus later "Maggie Daley – park improvements" and "Maggie Daley – pickleball courts" (both complete, 2018) — capital-project accounting tracks the project under the parent park's number (24), distinct from the separate operating/budget cost center (1303) documented on that case file. Source link
- G12 — Pavilion interior asset register (CSV). Project working file, cross-referencing CPD's official Beach House layout (G10), the 63rd Street Beach House Special Event Venue page (G9), and OpenStreetMap points (G6) into the 20 individually mapped Beach House subspace, entrance, concession, amenity, and access-control features. Source link
- G13 — Boundary control points N-01 and S-01. Committee-selected, pinned directly on Google Maps satellite imagery, 2026-09-03: N-01 at the 59th Street Harbor pier (41.788158, -87.577448); S-01 at the S. Coast Guard Drive bridge/neck by Jackson Park Outer Harbor (41.776037, -87.574900). Pin-drop coordinates, not yet field-verified or confirmed with CPD.
- G14 — South-stretch cross-section pins. Committee-selected, pinned directly on Google Maps, 2026-09-03, at four cross-sections between the old v4 tie point and S-01, each with a road-side (S. Coast Guard Drive) and a harbor-side point: (41.776806,-87.575417)/(41.776861,-87.575116); (41.778528,-87.575556)/Fuel Dock at Jackson Park Outer Harbour (41.778403,-87.575117); (41.779611,-87.574806)/(41.779528,-87.574139); plus confirming pins at S-01 itself (41.776011,-87.575073)/(41.776013,-87.574688). Pin-drop coordinates, not yet field-verified or confirmed with CPD; the line between cross-sections is a straight interpolation, not a continuous trace.
- G15 — Public art. Google Maps listings, pinned 2026-09-03: "A Remembrance" (by Carolyn Ottmers), a Chicago Park District sculpture near 6259 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. (41.780865, -87.574089); "Next Wave," near the 63rd Street Beach House (41.7815974, -87.5738425); "Fishing Eagle" (41.7795912, -87.5747614), from G16. Informational only, not part of the boundary or transfer-matrix questions.
- G16 — OpenStreetMap Overpass API query, run 2026-09-03, for all named features in the bounding box around the proposed boundary. Cross-checked against the Candidate 1 v6 polygon: confirmed inside are the Fishing Eagle sculpture and Jackson Harbor Station (boathouse, not previously in this package) plus the already-mapped Beach House/Pavilion, parking, beach, and Reggies On The Beach (agreement with existing layers). Confirmed outside the v6 boundary: the Flock sculpture, Docks A–D, and Jackson Park Yacht Club — consistent with the committee's road-to-waterline scope decision (see below).