Two left at The Breakers in Rogers Park
Posted 6/12/2008 by Mark Boyer
Joe Zekas and I shot a video with Connie Abels at the adjacent beach on an overcast day a couple of weeks ago, but this photo from the veranda of The Breakers in Rogers Park tells a different story.
"Nobody knows about this. Nobody knows it exists," Yvonne Carns from Re/Max NorthCoast Realty says of The Breakers. We shot our video from the neighboring public beach, but residents of The Breakers have access to one of only three private beaches in Rogers Park. The other two don't have parking, and one of them doesn't permit dogs, Carns says.
Bringing dogs isn't the only thing that condo owners can do at The Breakers' beach that would be forbidden at public beaches. They can also make bonfires, drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes - all without the supervision of a lifeguard. (Spring break!) Carns says that residents can even drag small sailboats onto the beach and keep them there.
When I posted our video, I mentioned that one of the remaining units was a three-bedroom / 4.5-bath duplex listed at $1.29 million. The other one is a three-bedroom / two-bath condo listed at $725,000. It's on the first floor and faces the lake. The Web site says the unit has radiant hydronic floor heating, which isn't something that I've seen in too many condo conversions. A floor plan for unit 1-O is below:
Comments
6/12/08
UptownR said:
Wasn't there a court ruling a few years ago that basically challanged the existence of "private beaches" in Illinois? I know that a public righ-of-way exists in the water itself…
Mark Boyer said:
UptownR:
I think you're right, but I haven't seen much about the so-called "private beaches" in Illinois. I know that the courts in other Great Lakes states have been dealing with that quite a bit, and as I understand it, property rights only extend to the water's edge, or specifically, the "ordinary high water mark."
The thing that's interesting about that is that water levels in Lake Michigan have been receding pretty dramatically in recent years. So given the laws that govern our waterways and hold them in the public trust, I'd expect the beach property between the ordinary high water mark and the actual water's edge to be public property.
If you can find a link to a court ruling, please post it.
6/13/08
Carter said:
all it takes is the Army Corp of Engineers building some new breakwaters in the lake, then after a few years enough sand/beach eventually is built up outside of the property line and presto, goodbye private beach.
It's just a matter of time, IMO. The dead-ending of the lakefront path at Hollywood is a logistical nightmare, at some point you'll see that lakefront path extended to Loyola Beach, and then that connected all the way to Evanston, bank on it.
take a look at the fairly crappy "Fargo St Beach" to see an example (it's notorious as a "dog beach," which means people feel free letting their dogs poop there, apparently), I lived in that 13 story building with the gargoyles for a few years in the mid 90s.