More than a century ago, a writer named Everett Chamberlin predicted a prosperous future for Arlington Heights.
In an 1874 book, he noted that the community had everything one could ask for: churches, a “fine brick school building,” cheese factories, mills, carriage shops, and grocery, drug and furniture stores, among other things.
“It extends every inducement to persons seeking suburban homes, supplying at its very doors every article necessary to make home comfortable,” Chamberlin wrote in “Chicago and its Suburbs.”
A century and a quarter later, Arlington Heights’ future still looks bright, for many of the same reasons.
With a recently revitalized downtown, the northwest suburb is once again a self-sustaining community where residents can buy a car or clothes, take in a movie, see a play or visit a cabaret, watch a horse race, dine out, take a class or visit a doctor.
But as the dust settles from the construction that had become as familiar to downtown mainstays as Flaherty Jewelers at 2 N. Dunton Ave., the village is looking ahead to other issues, ranging from the affordability of housing to traffic.
The Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce is readjusting its programs to meet the needs of its burgeoning membership and the Arlington Heights Park District is continuing efforts to obtain green space. Meanwhile, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library is focusing on ways to meet residents’ needs in the 21st Century while some of the school districts that serve the community are monitoring increasing enrollments.
It may sound like a lot to tackle, but Arlington Heights is not a community known for standing still. “In my opinion the town’s greatest asset is going to be the planned growth,” said resident Mary Ellen Hogan, who opened a gourmet food store–Urban Harvest at 4 S. Vail Ave.–in the downtown last year with resident Samantha Mesrobian. “The town isn’t growing for the sake of growing. They have a plan.”
Foresight has been a trademark of the village since the 19th Century, when William Dunton persuaded the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad to route a track through the community. Later, in the 1870s, the Dunton family and others worked to lay out a subdivision, grade streets, construct sidewalks and plant large shade trees, according to Chamberlin.
The work done in the 19th Century is still attracting people to Arlington Heights, whose nearly 80,000 residents make it one of the largest suburbs in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The Metra rail line, which has two stops in the town, is a major draw for people who work in Chicago but want to raise families in the suburbs. And those now-old shade trees lining the streets remain an attraction.
The village continues to look forward. Planning was the key to the revitalization of its downtown, which now has chain stores such as Panera Bread and Gap, and boutique shops such as Design Toscano Gallery, which sells historical reproduction European furniture as well as tapestries, statuary and paintings and Metamorphosis, a gift shop. More than 300 new condominiums and the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, which exceeded its first-year membership goals in three months, help create a downtown district that stands out from other northwest suburbs.
The economic rebirth of the village’s Central Business District is not only enticing shoppers but is creating a “very hot community” for prospective homebuyers, said Tom Stengren, a village trustee and a Realtor with Starck and Co., 300 E. Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights.
“Your downtown tends to establish your curb appeal, and people judge a community by what kind of downtown it has,” Mayor Arlene Mulder said.
In addition, residents find good value for their dollar, Stengren said.
“You could get a lot more for your money,” agreed Carolyn Nopar, who moved here with her husband 10 years ago and has taken advantage of everything from youth soccer to dog obedience classes. “It’s kind of how we ended up here.”
Another attraction was the schools. Nopar’s daughters, ages 6 and 8, attend Dryden Elementary School in Arlington Heights School District 25, the main one of four districts serving the village’s elementary school population.
The solid reputation of the schools has drawn other young families as well, prompting officials in some of the school districts that serve Arlington Heights to monitor enrollment figures.
Township High School District 214, whose 12,000 students come from Arlington Heights and seven other communities, believes its six high schools could reach capacity within 5 years if the student population continues to increase at its feeder schools, said Venetia Miles, the district’s community relations coordinator. The district’s school board already is discussing ways to accommodate the students, such as constructing additional classrooms at existing schools, she said.
“That is one of the major issues facing our district right now,” Miles said. “How will we accommodate these students?”
While schools and Park District programs are drawing young families like the Nopars to the town, longtime residents are turning their back on the Sun Belt states to stay in the village near family and friends.
“It seems like from what I hear, more and more people are deciding to stay in their homes and not move to Arizona, Texas or Florida,” said Jack Schimpf, chairman of the Senior Citizens Commission.
“They like their churches. They like their parks. They like their facilities. And now with our big changes in the downtown area . . . it just makes people stick around.
“Why go somewhere if you don’t have to?” he added.
That trend along with the aging of Baby Boomers has helped boost the residents’ median age from 25.8 in 1970 to 32.2 in 1980 and 36.7 in 1990, according to the village’s 1997 comprehensive plan.
“We have an aging community that’s going to present some issues that Arlington Heights has never faced before,” Trustee Steve Daday said.
One concern is housing affordability. The landlocked village’s popularity with old and young alike has boosted the median price for a single-family home to $209,102 in 1996 from $185,786 in 1990, according to the comprehensive plan.
Charles Witherington-Perkins, director of planning and community development for the village, estimated it may have increased to the $235,000-$240,000 range since then.
In recent surveys, the elderly have raised concerns about taxes and also whether they can afford to stay in their homes or even afford a smaller residence in the town. In response, the village hired consultants to assess housing needs of the elderly. A July 2000 report found there is a need for different types of senior housing, particularly for low- and moderate-income seniors, said Nora Boyer, the village’s housing planner.
“The higher end appears to be fairly well taken care of,” Boyer noted.
Various commissions are working to implement a plan to address the issue, such as making more favorable financing options available to a developer, she said.
Seniors are not the only ones concerned about being priced out of town.
Longtime businesses in the downtown, such as Drummer & Thumbs Bookstore, have experienced substantial jumps in rent as property values increased. Rob Baker, who opened his East Campbell Street store 14 years ago and thinks the downtown is more interesting today, said any new business from the revamped downtown was “immediately absorbed just in paying the rent.”
Baker added: “I think the people who planned all this were thinking of other things besides if it was a realistic place for small businesses to survive. Only time will show. . . . In the long run, who knows what it will come of it all.”
Downtown business leaders acknowledge that a handful of businesses have closed or relocated in the last six months, though only one appears to have been directly connected to the rent increase, they said. At the same time, another handful of stores has opened.
Mulder said the city is talking to businesses, such as the Trader Joe’s chain grocery store, which have expressed interest in moving into the village.
The need to drive business to stores hasn’t been lost on the Chamber of Commerce or the Central Business District Association, which are working to hold events that will draw people downtown.
This summer, the chamber will help sponsor “Hats Off to Arlington,” another event like Ponies on Parade, a public art show that attracted residents and people from other suburbs to the downtown last summer. From Memorial Day (May 28) through Aug. 17, businesses, organizations and families will be able to celebrate their town, and they are encouraged to display their hats on their property so that residents and visitors can tour the entire town.
At the same time, the chamber, whose membership increased by 23 percent last year, hopes to expand some of its downtown business promotions to shops in the north and south business areas. For instance, it will offer a Mother’s Day promotion in the outlying shopping areas, Executive Director Sharon Romack said.
The promotions reflect the chamber’s recent efforts to expand its programs to meet the needs of its membership, which has shifted to retail and consumer-service-based businesses from service and manufacturing. The group also is developing programs to help businesses run more efficiently, something that should help if the economy experiences a major slump, Romack said.
Long-term plans could include a shuttle between the town’s three business districts to businesses, similar to Schaumburg’s Holly Trolley, she said. The bus could ease traffic in the village and possibly address concerns about parking. Although merchants say there are plenty of spaces in the downtown garages, many shoppers are accustomed to parking in front of a store and become discouraged when a space is not available.
Automobile congestion is another issue in the village, which has experienced an increase in “cut-through traffic” as people use local roads to move from one suburb to another.
Mulder believes a major contributor to this problem is Illinois Highway 53, which ends on the north side of town. Consequently, village officials are continuing their campaign to encourage the Illinois Department of Transportation to finish the highway.
“Frustrated motorists on that road turn off and cut through not only our secondary arterial streets, but also our neighborhoods,” Mulder said. “It’s not acceptable.
“I know that there are some people in Lake County whooppose [the Illinois 53 extension], but why they are opposed is they want to protect the quality of life in their neighborhoods. But they are affecting ours, and that’s not fair.”
Traffic is not the only transportation issue grabbing the attention of village officials.
Mulder also is concerned about the Federal Railroad Administration’s proposal to require trains to blow their whistle at grade crossings. There are eight crossings in the village. Noise from O’Hare International Airport is another longstanding concern that village officials are working on with the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission. Mulder is the commission’s chairwoman.
Meanwhile, the library is finding ways to make its services more flexible so it can keep up with the busy pace of people’s lives. The library, one of the largest in Illinois, has enrolled in a pilot program that will enable residents to access a live reference librarian online. The program, offered by the North Suburban Library System, is expected to start later this year.”One of our concerns, certainly, is that people’s time is very precious these days,” said Kathleen Balcom, the executive librarian. “Their schedules are very difficult, and we try to provide as many things in a flexible way as we can.”
For example, the library has a drive-through window, which is staffed. Among other window services, patrons can call to see if something is available. If it is, it will be brought to the window and the patron can zip in, check it out and go. Patrons also can pay fines or return items. On a recent afternoon, Nancy Radler watched two of her three sons, ages 3 and 5, play in the children’s section of the library. The facility is one of the many amenities in the village that prompted Radler and her husband move to Arlington Heights five years ago.
“It has good schools. It’s safe. There’s a train [and] lots of shopping,” she said, while her 5-year-old son showed her books that he wanted to check out. “I live within three minutes of three grocery stores.
“For the northwest suburbs, it pretty much has everything you need.”
Judging from her comments, Chamberlin’s 127-year-old predictions were right on target.
