As a child growing up in Round Lake Beach during the late 1940s and ’50s, Ralph Davis had some part-time neighbors, Chicagoans who spent summers in the place he called home but returned to their city homes when the warm weather faded.
Those days are long gone, the victim of suburban sprawl. New homes are sprouting everywhere, and Round Lake Beach and the neighboring villages of Round Lake, Round Lake Heights and Round Lake Park are no exception.
Round Lake Beach, for instance, was once a summer retreat; now, it is a full-fledged bedroom community. With a population hovering at 24,000, Round Lake Beach’s population has nearly doubled since 1980.
“My first four years as mayor, it’s like I was grabbed by a runaway freight train,” said Davis, who is still mayor. “Only this past year have we slowed down.”
Housing developments have fueled the dramatic growth, including Country Walk, with 1,200 homes. Country Walk was approved in 1991 and is on Cedar Lake Road north of Rollins Road in Round Lake Beach.
In February, the Round Lake Village Board approved Valley Lakes, a proposal by Penguin Group–owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago–to build 1,828 homes on an 857-acre parcel on the west side of town. About 456 acres will remain wetlands or open space.
Ray Wolfel, the Round Lake building inspector, said the Valley Lakes plan will prompt construction of a new Village Hall, new sewer and water mains, and a water tower on the west side, with the Penguin Group paying for all of it.
“Yeah, we cut a pretty good deal,” Wolfel said.
Round Lake has seen its population explode over the last four decades. The U.S. Census Bureau showed Round Lake to have 997 people in 1960 and 3,550 in 1990.
Many people living in Round Lake use public transportation, and Metra has seen ridership surge on its Milwaukee District North line, which stops in Round Lake. In 1985, an average of 333 people boarded trains on weekdays at the Round Lake station. Ten years later, that number is up to 487, said Metra spokesman Frank Malone.
The growth spurred Metra to start a new line, the North Central, in August 1996, running from Union Station in Chicago to Antioch and including a stop in Round Lake Beach. A Metra survey on Oct. 30, 1996, showed 49 people boarding trains at that stop, Malone said. On March 12, 1997, the number had risen to 65. And the most recent count–done about three weeks ago–showed 100 people boarding trains there a day, Malone said.
The influx of new residents has spurred an economic boom, with an increasing number of stores opening. In Round Lake Beach, an 18-screen movie theater is under construction, as is a Hollywood Video store and an Applebee’s restaurant. Even more commercial space on Rollins Road stands to be developed, and the Valley Lakes development includes 30 acres for retail establishments, said Round Lake Beach trustee Rich Hall.
New business also means more traffic. The number of accidents in Round Lake Beach jumped to 784 in 1996 from 695 in 1993, according to the Round Lake Beach Police Department.
The Round Lake Beach police force has grown to 35 officers from 27 in 1994. The number includes Chief Edward Sindles.
“Any time you have growth, you have a greater need for services,” Sindles said. “One of the major changes I’ve seen is the village being upgraded–better homes, more professionals coming into the community, and a lot more business. But there’s more of a workload for police. There are more neighborhood issues, and police are usually the ones called to resolve neighborhood issues.”
A large number of people moving into Round Lake Beach have children. The increase in students over the years has crowded the halls and classrooms of Lake Villa Community Consolidated School District 41, one of the districts to which Round Lake Beach residents send their children.
In Round Lake Area Schools Community Unit District 116, all classes are at capacity, said Supt. Mary L. Davis. The district is building an Early Education Center that will add 10 classrooms for early childhood, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, and an addition to Indian Hill Elementary School that will add 12 classrooms to house 1st- through 6th-graders on the north side of the district, Davis said.
Further proof the area is growing? In 1962, the Ace Hardware store in Round Lake was a 4,000-square-foot business. Today, it covers 72,000 square feet.
