Evanston moves forward on long-delayed ADA path to Dog Beach

For Evanston dog owners who plan their day around a hard run and a long swim, the problem has never been Dog Beach itself. It has been getting down to it, and the city is now moving again on a long-delayed ADA route that could finally make the sand reachable for more people.

The latest push came when the city issued RFP 26-33 for Evanston Dog Beach ADA Access Design/Build on May 21, with bids due June 23 and a non-mandatory virtual pre-proposal meeting held May 28. The project is being handled as a design-build solicitation, which means the selected firm would both design and construct the route. The current estimate puts completion at the end of summer 2027, a timeline that keeps the finish line well out ahead even as beach season continues.

That wait has been years in the making. Dog Beach was closed in 2018 after rising lake levels submerged the beach and flooded lakefront paths and parks, then reopened in March 2023. On October 10, 2022, City Council directed staff to reopen the dog beach and get pricing for a permanent ADA-accessible route, but the plan has since moved through redesigns, rebidding and public debate. In July 2024, council voted to rebid the original nearly $700,000 design, and in September 2025 the Evanston Preservation Commission backed a version meant to minimize impact on the natural area around the beach.

That technical back-and-forth matters because the users waiting for the path are not abstract. The new access would help older residents, families with strollers, wheelchair users and dog owners who cannot easily manage the current route. For people with high-energy dogs, the delay can shape the whole day at home: if a dog cannot get to the beach safely, the exercise plan shrinks, the after-work routine gets harder, and the energy has to go somewhere else. The city’s own materials say that since the council first directed staff to reopen the beach, there have been meetings with council, commissions, stakeholders and the public about how to build the access without damaging the shoreline.

Even now, Evanston Church Dog Beach remains open and monitored by the Evanston Health Department in the Illinois Department of Public Health’s BeachGuard system. The beach is already back in use; what remains unresolved is whether the path to it will finally match the community that depends on it, instead of keeping the toughest part of the trip off limits.