At 11 a.m., the picnic tables fill quickly at central Libertyville’s Cook Park. A warm and pleasant day has drawn a hodgepodge of sun-seekers, even during work hours.
Mothers chase after children on playground slides. Corporate workers munch on sandwiches bought at nearby eateries. Youngsters ring bicycle bells as they pedal between rows of roses that lead to the historic Ansel B. Cook house, which graciously overlooks the small park square. In the evening, the village orchestra will play.
The scene is portrait-perfect, with one exception: The muffled rumble and roar of cars tooling down Libertyville’s main thoroughfare, Milwaukee Avenue, which borders the picnic oasis.
The relentless traffic through this quaint, revitalized downtown in central Lake County represents Libertyville’s success–and its failings.
The traffic, juxtaposed with the serenity of Cook Park and refurbished historic homes surrounding it, reflects how Libertyville has grown and the challenges that loom.
Newcomers continue to move to Libertyville, a seven-square-mile town that is just about built to its borders, for its quality schools, strong neighborhoods and a vibrant, old-fashioned downtown that remains the envy of nearby communities.
The village of nearly 20,000 barely resembles the days when horse farms dominated the Libertyville landscape. And residents, for the most part, like it that way.
“It’s a great town to raise a family,” said Denise DeSanto, a school nurse who performs with the village band. “We moved for the schools and for the small town.”
Tom Bean, principal at Butterfield Elementary School, says he finds himself constantly bragging about his hometown to families considering moving to Libertyville. He is rearing his children in the house that he grew up in. Yet he cites a lingering concern:
“The downside has been the traffic. It is a very busy place in early evening and on the weekends. You just try not to rush.”
Other longtime Libertyville residents remember it wasn’t always so.
“I can remember times when I could have sworn tumbleweed could have tumbled down the main street, and that you could stand in the middle of Milwaukee Avenue, look both ways and not see a car,” said Fred Byergo, who since 1968 has served as director of the Cook Memorial Public Library, which adjoins the old Cook mansion.
“When I first came here, I could drive out of my driveway at the apartment building, turn left, put my car into neutral and drift (down a hill) all the way to my job and coast into my parking spot at the library.”
Today, Byergo no longer coasts, and neither do other public officials struggling to meet the mounting demands for services while facing a savvy, tax-resistant population.
The library, whose district encompasses parts of Libertyville, Vernon Hills, Mundelein, Mettawa, Green Oaks and Indian Creek, is bursting its seams at its 33,000-square-foot building. The library board, a separate entity from village government, is considering asking the voters for money to expand the facility and build a branch in Vernon Hills.
That proposal might not seem so daunting except that Libertyville Community High School District 128 has been grappling with space issues of its own. School officials have sought to ease overcrowding four times by placing four bond referendums on the ballot since 1991, the most recent in spring 1996.
All four times, voters rejected the proposals.
“It’s an issue that the community needs to resolve,” Mayor Duane Laska said. “Something has got to be done. Raising taxes is a negative issue with a lot of us. Another issue, frankly, is the school board hasn’t had a proposal they were buying into. I don’t think it has been all a dollar-and-cents issue.”
Meanwhile, development of 2,100 upscale homes across the village’s border in neighboring Vernon Hills threatens to pour thousands of students into the Libertyville high school system over the next decade.
The golf course community residents are expected to flock downtown and boost shop profits. But, as usual, the downside remains the considerable burden of more traffic.
Many residents are irritated over the development, which could have been annexed to Libertyville if village leaders had worked with the former owner, John Cuneo, when he first offered to sell the land 20 years ago.
Still, ask residents what they think of Libertyville, and most gush with pride, describing an active community where the citizens eagerly volunteer on civic, school and community projects.
In 1996, nearly 500 volunteers coordinated events including a summer Farmer’s Market, Libertyville Days carnival and the Oktoberfest Street Dance.
Despite its growth, Libertyville’s population remains 95 percent white. About 4 percent of residents are Asian, and fewer than 1 percent are black or Hispanic. Among major employers are the new Motorola Cellular Subscriber Group Facility on the north end of town, a massive 1 million-square-foot complex that employs more than 3,000. Other nearby major employers include Abbott Laboratories in Waukegan, Baxter International in North Chicago and Allstate Insurance Co. in Northbrook.
Most elementary students attend Libertyville School District 70, with some enrolled in Oak Grove School District 68 or the private St. Joseph’s Catholic School.
Over the last few years, however, Libertyville’s downtown has captured the most interest.
Business owners, distressed over the hit the downtown was taking during the economic slide of the 1980s, started an organization in 1989 called MainStreet Libertyville Inc. The non-profit group with two paid staff members launched a loan program to help businesses with renovations. Volunteers organize festivals and events throughout the year, such as concerts in the park. The group, along with the village, is credited with beautifying the downtown strip, Milwaukee Avenue, through architectural and landscaping changes.
Leaders say the efforts resulted in 40 new and expanded businesses. The organization was honored as one of five finalists nationwide in the 1997 Great American Main Street Awards.
“A lot of people never thought their town would be this way,” said Dan Timm, MainStreet’s executive director, who calls Milwaukee Avenue the “town’s front yard.”
“It had never been that active, with that sense of activity and ownership in the downtown,” he said.
The group played off of Libertyville’s turn-of-the-century design rather than demolishing the older buildings.
“We worked real hard to create a nice pedestrian environment where people can relax,” said Timm, whose challenges include finding ways to provide more downtown parking.
Marilynn Bruns, 30, is among those who enjoy the downtown’s friendly appeal. She brings her children to Cook Park regularly and meets with friends.
She and her husband moved to Libertyville more than two years ago after searching for an affordable house within a well-established neighborhood. She grew up in Lake Forest and rarely ventured anywhere near Libertyville, she admits.
“We never knew there was anything west of (U.S. Highway) 41,” said Bruns, who now enrolls her children in Libertyville parks department preschool programs.
“We have the kind of neighbors that, when we were out of town for two weeks, never once did I worry. It’s safe.”
Housing costs, though, are relatively steep and getting steeper. First-time home buyers find it nearly impossible to move to Libertyville.
M.J. Seiler, co-owner of Kreuser & Seiler Century 21 in Libertyville, estimates the average home sale at $300,000 these days. Some single-family detached homes can be found between $125,000 and $150,000, but the choices are limited, said Seiler, whose office often deals with corporate employee transfers.
The average tax bill on a $225,000 home is $5,300 a year.
The village also is financially healthy, with a row of auto dealerships on Milwaukee Avenue contributing 68 percent of total sales tax receipts in 1996. That revenue, at $5.7 million, was up 44 percent from $3.9 million in 1992.
Libertyville property values also have escalated. The equalized assessed valuations for property, about one-third of market value, more than doubled over the last decade, to $573 million in 1996.
“It’s really taken off,” said Steve Noble, village finance director. “I think the population since 1980 has grown 21 percent, and the number of housing units grew 30 percent. There’s been general growth all along.”
Today, most agree that Libertyville is content with its pace of growth, although Noble predicts that the village will annex land to the north and west for offices and light industrial use. Within Libertyville proper, there is little land left to develop. Several new subdivisions are sprouting up, including construction of 90 homes at Winchester and Butterfield Roads.
Libertyville once served as fertile hunting grounds for the American Indian tribes, Algonquin, Pottowatamie, Fox and Sac, before the government opened the land for settlement in 1836. The Indians beat a path through the area that white settlers later paved over and called Milwaukee Avenue.
Newcomers originally named the community Vardin’s Grove for its first resident, but changed the name to Independence Grove after George Vardin left town. When it was discovered that another town already carried the name Independence Grove, townspeople adopted the name Libertyville. The village also served a short stint as Burlington when being considered for county seat, but residents quickly restored the Libertyville title. Little Fort, or Waukegan as it is known today, was eventually made county seat.
In the early days, visitors flocked to Libertyville after hearing of its sparkling mineral water and rich farm land.
Today, residents also look to Libertyville for the basics, although priorities have changed.
“There is a genuine concern to make this a nice place,” Bruns said, gesturing toward the downtown from Cook Park. “Now if we could only get an underground road to take care of this traffic.”
