Although housing costs are high and climbing, there’s no shortage of prospective homeowners who want to put down roots in Wilmette, Kenilworth and Winnetka.
“Because of the stability of this area, we’re having a very good winter,” said Mary Ann Haskins, broker associate at Koenig & Strey GMAC in Wilmette. “Buyers are out there and there’s not much available. We have never seen as big an increase [in housing prices] as we did in 2000-2001.”
Why are residential properties in these three towns so much in demand?
Haskins’ answer for Wilmette also applies to the other two villages. “The main plus is the schools, obviously, and it’s not too far from Chicago and convenient to get downtown,” she said.
David Youngerman, chairman of the Community Relations Commission in Wilmette, cites another reason. “The degree to which people care about this place is remarkable,” he said. “There’s a real sense of community spirit here. When we ask people to support our activities, they say, `Sure.'”
Winnetka Village President Michael Duhl has lived there since 1973. “It’s large enough to provide most of the kinds of services someone would want, and still small enough so that you know a lot of people in the community,” he said. “It also has phenomenal schools and recreation facilities.”
Sense of community
Stephen Crawford, a Kenilworth resident since 1988 and a Wilmette resident before that, said there’s a similar sense of community in Kenilworth. “What I like is the feel of a nice, small community where everything’s close by, including a great school.”
Crawford, who is writing a history of Kenilworth’s Church of the Holy Comforter for its 100th anniversary this year, said he originally moved to Kenilworth because that’s where he found a bigger house for his family. Last year he and his family decided to move to a smaller house in town.
“This is not an inexpensive community, but there is a mix, with larger homes on the east side and smaller ones on the west side,” he said. “We wanted to stay here. This is a great place” to live.
Others think so, too, and because there is little undeveloped land for building, teardowns have become a hot-button issue. There were 42 teardowns last year in Wilmette, 50 in Winnetka and five in Kenilworth, which has about 850 houses, according to sources in each village.
All three villages have ordinances that attempt to provide more oversight for the new construction. Last year Kenilworth passed an ordinance modeled after Winnetka’s, which requires applications for teardowns to go through a review process.
“If the building is considered historically significant, the applicant has to provide additional information to the village,” said Kenilworth Village Manager Kenneth Terlip. “The ultimate decision remains with the applicant or owner, but it does give the village an opportunity to have some input instead of just issuing the permit.”
Teardowns `a huge issue’
Wilmette Village President Nancy Canafax calls teardowns “a huge issue” in her town, and one that troubles her. “It’s one of the things responsible for the acute need for reasonably priced housing,” she said. Housing costs are “a real barrier to young people and others who want to stay here. We want the whole spectrum here.”
However, the biggest issue facing Wilmette this year will be another kind of development: what happens to the 17-acre Mallinckrodt College campus of Loyola University. Loyola has chosen Glenview developer Edward R. James Partners and Valenti Builders of Northfield to buy the property, but the Wilmette Park District is considering trying to buy it. The Park District Board has approved placing a tax-increase question on the March 19 ballot to raise up to $25 million for the purchase. The developer indicated he would wait for the referendum’s results before closing on the deal.
Almost 200 people attended a meeting at the Wilmette Village Hall in December to talk about their vision for the property.
“There were many speakers with many viewpoints,” Canafax said. “They want open space, they want diverse, affordable housing, they want assisted living for seniors. And they want preservation of the [school] building. Those were the big things, and I, personally, agree with all that.”
Tax revenues down
Although none of these villages is in serious financial trouble, they all have been affected by the economic downturn and lower sales tax revenues.
Kenilworth’s small business district is service oriented, with little shopping. “We’ll be impacted, but not to the extent of our neighbors,” Terlip said.
Winnetka has three main retail areas, with sales tax revenue making up about 10 percent of the village’s budget. The sales tax revenue will be down about 4 percent and will affect the village budget only slightly, said finance director Ed McKee. “It’s not a major drop,” he said.
Wilmette will feel the biggest hit, with 16 percent of its operations budget coming from sales tax revenue. The village expects to see a $1.5 million decline in revenue over the next four years, said Bob Amoruso, finance director. One way the village will make up the difference is to start charging ambulance and refuse fees.
Another challenge facing these aging suburbs is maintaining infrastructure. Kenilworth is embarking this year on a multiyear project of upgrading its water plant with the sale of $5 million in revenue bonds, to be repaid with water rate hikes.
Winnetka is spending $6 million to reconstruct its public works garages. Wilmette has two major improvement projects scheduled for this year: the reconstruction of Wilmette Avenue, which is being federally funded, and the reconstruction of the Metra station parking lot, which is being funded primarily from state grant money.
Wilmette also is in the third year of a four-year street lighting upgrade project, costing $1.6 million. “The lights are from the early 1920s,” said Village Manager Mike Earl. “We’re an older community, so things need attention. We need to keep some funding for infrastructure on an annual basis.”
Uproar over Historical Society
The issue drawing the most attention in Winnetka this year could be the planned move of the Winnetka Historical Society into a home in a residential neighborhood. The move has been complicated by a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the society and the Village of Winnetka by a group of residents.
The Winnetka Village Council granted a special-use permit to the society so it could move into a Gothic revival house at 411 Linden Ave. Opponents believe the permit would open the door to other non-residential uses of houses in Winnetka. They also fear having a museum in their neighborhood could create traffic and parking problems while lowering property values.
The society and the village have filed motions to dismiss the suit, said Nancy Judge, society president. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.
Joan Evanich, executive director of the society, said the society is continuing to accept bids for work that needs to be done on the home before it can be opened as a public space. The society has applied for a state grant to help pay for the renovations; that money isn’t expected to be allocated until this summer.
While gathering information for a new comprehensive plan in the late 1990s, Winnetka surveyed its residents on a variety of issues. When asked to list reasons why they had moved to Winnetka, 71 percent of respondents said it was because of the excellent schools, 44 percent said it was for the accessibility to Chicago and 43 percent said it was for the village’s charm. (Residents were allowed to list more than one reason.)
Top-notch schools face change
The schools continue to enjoy first-rate reputations, although several of the school districts in the three towns have faced challenges and change in the last year. Winnetka Public Schools District 36 narrowly averted a teacher’s strike in the fall. Wilmette School District 39 hired a high-profile new superintendent, former state schools Supt. Glenn “Max” McGee, who will take over in the summer.
Due to growing enrollment, New Trier High School began using the former New Trier West campus in Northfield for its 960 freshmen in the fall. About one fifth of the faculty members commute between the Northfield and Winnetka campuses each day.
The opening of the second campus went smoothly, said Jan Borja, principal of the Northfield Campus. The only problem has been the behavior of some of the students, she said.
“Having 900 students spread out in the building with no older role models” is an issue, she said. “So we’ve had assemblies to talk about behavior, and we’re talking about how do we respect each other, how do we treat each other.
“That’s really the only little glitch. Everything has gone very well. We’re just so amazingly happy with what has happened over here.”
Tax increase on ballot
Kenilworth Village President Hamilton Kerr said one of the major issues facing his town in the coming year is the referendum for a tax rate increase at the town’s only school, Sears School. A referendum to raise the rate failed last year when the vote ended in a tie.
“It’s important for the village because it’s such a strong school system with a K through 8 program,” Kerr said. “Once you’re in the community, you don’t have to ship your kids all over.”
The opportunity for cultural experiences in these villages includes several thriving theater groups, with the children’s theaters being particularly well known on the North Shore. In Winnetka, the Children’s Theatre of Winnetka operates out of the Winnetka Community House and has children in 2nd through 8th grades putting on two shows a year. The Community House also is home to the Winnetka Theater, an adult community theater begun in 1973 that puts on four to five shows a year.
The Wilmette Park District also sponsors adult and children’s theater. The Wilmette Children’s Theater, for children ages 10 to 17, stages two shows a year. The North Shore Theater of Wilmette, for adults, stages three shows a year. All shows are at the Community Recreation Center, 3000 Glenview Rd.
Play-acting for children
The Wilmette Park District also offers a series of theater classes, which can prepare children to audition for the shows. “It’s not just baby-sitting,” said Bob Bierie, the Park District’s performing arts supervisor. “We have an extensive children’s acting program, and the kids really grow in the program. You really see a change in them.”
Along with a gradual increase in the school-age population in the three villages over the last 10 years, there has been an increase in the number of seniors. Wilmette, in particular, has had a big jump in its population age 75 and older.
New Trier Township provides about $800,000 a year for social service programs on the North Shore, assisting seniors and others in need.
“There has been an increase in the number of requests for help with prescription medications, in particular, for seniors,” said Bette Vitale, New Trier Township social service administrator.
The township operates an Angel Fund, providing emergency financial assistance to people who don’t qualify for government programs, “and yet there is a need, such as prescription medication,” Vitale said. “It’s also used for things like a utility bill if there’s a shutoff.”
Families, seniors seek help
Vitale said her clientele is about 50 percent families, 30 percent seniors and 20 percent disabled on small, fixed incomes. “I’m seeing a sharp increase” in the need for services, she said. “I’m seeing more people unemployed who have never been unemployed before, and they’re desperately struggling with this.”
While the 2000 census showed Winnetka and Kenilworth to be predominantly white, Wilmette has become more diverse, with about 8 percent of its population being Asian.
The village formed its Community Relations Commission in 1993. Last year the group held a Black History Festival and an Asian Performing Arts Festival. At the commission’s January meeting, several Muslim residents of Wilmette attended to talk about ways to spread information on Islam and to enhance the participation of Wilmette’s Muslim residents in community events.
“Our job is to educate people about different cultures, religions and ethnicities and give them an opportunity to appreciate the differences of people in the village,” Youngerman said.
