If a well-rounded community were described as one that offers enough residential development to satisfy the housing demand, enough commercial development to supply those residents with the goods and services they need and enough industrial development to broaden the tax base and provide jobs for residents, then the village of Addison is heading in the right direction.
The community boasts the largest industrial area in Du Page County and the fourth largest in area in the state; business districts on Lake Street, Addison Road and Army Trail Road that include five main shopping centers; and a boom in residential development, primarily on the northwest side of town.
”If a community has all three of those factors, it`s well balanced,”
says Mary Yetsky, the village`s planning and zoning administrator for 13 years. The village`s goal is to ”retain” that balance while allowing for continued expansion, she says.
”The village has already underscored the areas that are set aside for each of these–residential, commercial and industrial”–through its comprehensive plan, Yetsky says. The plan, developed about 17 years ago and last updated in 1983, designates certain general zoning uses for areas in and near the village that are still undeveloped.
”The comprehensive plan tries to provide a balance between the various land uses needed by a community,” says Joe McDermott, chairman of the plan commission. ”It is a guide to where we`re going,” he says, but ”it`s a plan that we also update.”
When the village annexed 140 acres 17 years ago near Swift Road and Ill. Hwy. 53, the plan`s suggested use for the site was commercial, McDermott says. The proposed developer at that time then scrapped the idea of putting a shopping center on the property, possibly because of nearby Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and other area shopping centers, and the property remained commercially zoned, he says.
Addison residents defeated a proposal in an advisory referendum in November on whether the property could be used as the site of a new stadium for the White Sox, and the property has since been purchased by Hamilton Partners, an Itasca-based developer that plans to use the land for a business park.
The business park would fall into the office-research zoning category, which McDermott describes as a ”campus” of office buildings or light industries in a ”park-like setting, very heavily landscaped and attractive.” That is the ”favored use” of the property, he says. But, he adds, the developer has not yet informed the village of its plans.
The ”planned office research/industrial” zoning district was created in 1983 as part of the comprehensive plan update, Yetsky says. The village has since been successful in attracting one such development–a 78-acre corporate business park at Swift Road near Fullerton Avenue–that was started in 1986 but is ”not totally developed yet,” she says.
Other revisions of the comprehensive plan may come with the proposed development of the Du Page County tollway. ”The tollway is going to encourage industrial or commercial development so property now scheduled for residential use may go industrial or commercial,” Yetsky says, adding that Addison would probably lean more toward industrial use in that case.
”In its entirety, the village has 8.2 square miles that are developed and we have potential to develop 3.56 more,” she says. But much of the property left for development could be ”problematic,” she says, referring to some undeveloped parcels as ”the old maids.”
There`s room for all categories of development in Addison, says Dale Dunteman, chairman of the zoning board. ”We`ve already got a mix of development and there`s no reason we should put a stop to it,” he says.
Dunteman says that residents and industrial and commercial business people are attracted to Addison because ”we`re close to O`Hare Airport, and we have excellent access to highways” (Ill. 53; Ill. Hwys. 83 and 64, known as North Avenue; and Int. Hwy. 290). The proposed addition of the Du Page County tollway ”will give us even better access to the world,” he says. The village is also cooperative, he says, adding ”we`re willing to talk to developers and work differences out.”
Although Dunteman says that the village experienced a lull in single-family residential development in the late 1970s and early `80s (as well as in industrial and commercial development, as did the entire U.S.), that drought ended when interest rates and economic conditions improved.
Single-family developments are booming in northwest Addison. North of Lake Street and south of Int. Hwy. 290, the Farmwood North and Foxdale developments are under construction, Westridge has just been approved by the village, and Medinah Highlands is in the final planning stage.
”We seem to be doing quite a bit of first-class ($150,000 and up)
residential development,” Yetsky says. ”There seems to be a lot of word-of- mouth advertising among residents to get other people to live here.”
Yetsky says that the village`s schools (Elementary School District 4 and High School District 88) and its park district, which has taken ”a very strong approach to compiling lands” to provide residents with recreational space, help draw home buyers to Addison.
Addison also offers villagers a broad tax base and job opportunities from its huge industrial area. The area is composed of a variety of businesses
–”everything from high-tech to the little ma-and-pa business,” Yetsky says, but is generally home to smaller firms with an average of 30 employees each.
The industrial area–bordered basically by Addison Road on the east and North Avenue on the south, and extending beyond Lake Street on the north and to Swift Road on the west–includes about 1,000 industrial and service-oriented firms, 400 of which belong to the Addison Industrial Association, says Marie L. Perry, the association`s executive director for 13 years.
The industrial area has ”steadily grown” since it was first developed almost 40 years ago, and it has had ”a very low vacancy rate” in recession years when other communities saw a dip in industry, Perry says. She also notes that accessibility to major roadways and O`Hare is key to its success.
”We`ve been building industrial property here since 1965,” says George Durante, who owns Durante Bros. Inc., 925 S. Westwood Ave., with brothers Louis and Frank. ”We feel there`s a tremendous market here,” he says.
Addison has been very cooperative in providing municipal services such as sewers and water to the industrial area, Durante says. ”The village has been very receptive to industrial development. When you get a town that`s receptive to your operation and a good location, what else do you need?” He adds that it was one of the first western suburbs to accept industry.
”We felt the location was right” for industrial development, Durante says. His firm has built about 60 buildings in the industrial area. It has developed property in Wood Dale, Bensenville and Carol Stream, but ”Addison is my bread-and-butter town,” he says. ”We`ve been very successful. There is always someone looking to locate a business in Addison.”
Commercial business people also like the proximity to a vast network of roadways. The village is conveniently located relative to the airport and Chicago, says Marie Schulte, president of the Addison Chamber of Commerce and owner of Marie`s House of Flowers, 505 W. Lake St. ”We`re smack dab in the middle of things,” she says.
Schulte says that Addison`s commerce has been strong for the last three years and that it should stay healthy for at least another three: She cites improved economic conditions and an increase in residential development as reasons for the improvement in Addison`s businesses. Businesses ”need people to buy their goods and services,” Schulte says. ”The more residents there are, the more customers there are.”
Although regional shopping centers such as nearby Oak Brook Center, Yorktown in Lombard, Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and Stratford Square in Bloomingdale ”are competitors of the small businesses,” Schulte encourages smaller firms to advertise ”to constantly let people know what they have to offer.”
As far as future commercial developments in Addison, McDermott says that property on the west side of Addison Road south of Lake Street is available. The land was left vacant for many years because railroad tracks blocked businesses` access to Addison Road, he says. The tracks, which had fallen into disuse, were removed a few years ago, opening the site to development.
Commercial development is underway on the east side of Addison Road south of Lake Street, McDermott says. Vacant lots are being developed there, but
”once we run out of land, we`ll try to do some redevelopment there.”
Dilip Patel is one store owner who found Addison a fertile ground for his business. Patel says he`s glad he chose the village to open shop. The co-owner of Addison Liquors, 130 W. Lake St., Patel has sold two winning lottery tickets, one for $6.5 million in December, 1986, and one for $2 million this February. Those sales proved to be a boost to his already hearty business, he says, because people started saying ”there`s a store that`s a lucky place”
for lottery tickets.
The winning lottery tickets, which returned 1 percent of the prize money to the store, made everything ”more wonderful,” Patel says. But ”it was already a good business when we got it” about a year ago, he says of the former Cardinal Liquors.
Patel says that he has found ”very friendly people” in Addison and that he`s ”really happy with everything here.”
Gertrude Erickson Hausermann seems to feel the same way. When Hausermann started the village`s first florist, Erickson`s Flower Shop Inc. in 1959, there were only 800 people in the village, she says. She has been at her current location, 2N134 Lake St., since 1961. Her husband, Erwin, and his four sons own Elmhurst Flower Growers Inc. (known around town as Hausermann Orchids), which is adjacent to Erickson`s.
Honored as businesswoman of the year by the Rotary Club of Addison (1984) and the chamber of commerce (1986), Hausermann says she appreciates the community. ”I love Addison,” she says. ”The people here are great.”
Hausermann sold her business to Elmhurst Flower Growers in 1961, but still manages the shop. She says she`s ”very, very busy”–maybe a little too busy. ”Sometimes I sit back and think, `What kind of a monster have I created?` ” she says.
