A decade after five Winnetka governments won a national award for cooperation, two can't agree on a dog-beach fence — and residents are paying for the standoff.

A decade ago, five Winnetka governments buried enough stormwater beneath the parks to win a national award. This decade, two of them can't agree on a dog-beach fence — and residents are paying for the standoff.

For more than thirty years, dogs ran off-leash at Centennial Beach. They don't anymore. After complaints, Cook County told the Park District the off-leash area no longer met its rules without a barrier. The Park District's own ordinance now requires leashing until a fence goes up. The fence needs Village approval. And four Village bodies in a row — the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Plan Commission, the Design Review Board, and on May 19 the Village Council, 5–1 — have said no.