Mary Pierce remembers when her family first moved from Chicago to far south suburban Richton Park in 1928, she attended classes in a one-room schoolhouse at Sauk Trail and Ridgeway Avenue.
Her family moved to the community because her father, who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad, was sent there to work as a signalman after the rail line was electrified and passenger service began in 1926.
Pierce’s family lived in an old farmhouse on a half-acre of land, and the town’s population was about 50.
“I was one of eight kids. It was just farmland and a couple of taverns. If you wanted groceries, you had to go to Chicago Heights or Matteson,” said Pierce, who serves as Richton Park village clerk.
The community has come a long way since those days, and is now bustling with new housing developments. There’s even talk of expanding the town’s boundaries to accommodate more development and creating a downtown business district near the Metra commuter train station just north of Sauk Trail and east of Governors Highway.
“It’s grown and grown and grown. It’s not the old hometown that it used to be, but it’s still home to me,” Pierce said.
The village’s population stayed below 1,000 until 1970, when it reached 2,558, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. By 1980, Richton Park’s population jumped to 9,403. As of 2000, it was 12,533.
Richton Park Mayor Rick Reinbold said the village is hoping the village’s increasing population will translate into more businesses.
“As we expand the number of rooftops and people have a greater expendable income, we’ll attract more retail and commercial,” Reinbold said.
Richton Park is just south of Matteson, which has a lot of retail development including Lincoln Mall, and just east and north of Will County, which has lower property taxes.
Seeking to attract business
Richton Park Economic Development Director Greg Spathis said village officials are working to overcome these obstacles.
“We realize we just need to be more aggressive in attracting businesses. We think we have the right mix of demographics. We can become a destination,” Spathis said.
The typical Richton Park resident is 36 years old, owns a home, and has a median family income of $56,128, according to the village’s Web site (www.richtonpark.org).
The village’s only grocery store, Eagle Country Market, has been in the community for more than 25 years and last year signed a new five-year lease for its storefront in a plaza at the northwest corner of Sauk Trail and Governors Highway.
“There’s a lot of growth here. It’s a great location,” said store manager Rich Styx, adding that the store has been hurt by the recent openings of a Sterk’s Super Foods in Park Forest and Cub Foods in Matteson.
Reinbold said village officials hope to take advantage of the large number of commuters that travel downtown from the Metra station in Richton Park by creating a downtown business district around the train station.
Metra spokesman Dan Schnolis said an estimated 1,700 riders use the Metra station in Richton Park each day, making it the highest daily ridership of all train stations on the Metra electric line, which runs from University Park to Chicago’s Randolph Street station.
Metra is currently expanding by 105 the number of parking spaces available at the Richton Park station. There currently is parking for 948 cars in seven parking lots, Schnolis said. The project should be finished by the end of the year.
Reinbold said the village is looking into transforming the area around the train station into a downtown business district complete with shops, restaurants and stores. Village officials are seeking funding to hire a consultant to determine the feasibility of the plan, he said.
Spathis said village officials also are looking at annexing more land into the community, eyeing property along Sauk Trail west of Interstate Highway 57 for commercial and residential development, as well as a parcel south of the community.
Reinbold said the village is looking at annexing land as far west as Ridgeland Avenue by securing annexation agreements with landowners and making infrastructure improvements so the land would be ready to develop. The village would then recapture those costs from developers as they build, he said.
Airport proposal a catalyst
Village officials attribute the flurry of residential development in part to talk of constructing a third regional airport in nearby Peotone, but also due to the dwindling amount of available land left to build on in the Chicago area. It’s also due to village officials taking a more aggressive approach at attracting development to the community, they said.
“We don’t want to be the Sleepy Little Hollow,” Spathis said.
Of the proposed third airport, Spathis said, “It is impacting us. Every time you hear something about it, we get a flurry of phone calls” from people interested in developing in Richton Park.
Indeed, a number of builders have already taken notice of the community. There are a number of residential developments under way in town, consisting of homes ranging in price from $136,000 to $350,000.
“I’ve been building homes in Richton Park since 1979. I left for about five years and then came back in the mid-1980s and have been here ever since,” said John Hryn, owner of West Highland Homes, based in Richton Park.
Hryn is building in the Greenfield subdivision about a half-mile west of Cicero Avenue on Steger Road. The development consists of 216 single-family houses and 100 townhouses and includes a guardhouse at the entrance, two ponds, a jogging trail and a three- or four-acre park in the middle. The single-family homes range in price from $156,000 to $300,000, and the town homes range in price from $122,000 to $160,000, Hryn said.
“It’s a complete community. And it’s still an affordable community. You can still get a house for under $200,000 and a town home for under $130,000,” he said.
Residents seem to agree.
Sharrone and Carlo Bishop had lived in an apartment at Lioncrest Apartments in Richton Park before buying a four-bedroom tri-level in Greenfield two years ago.
“We wanted to stay in the area. We really like the area. We have a six-year-old son in first grade and we like the school,” Sharrone Bishop said.
Richton Park is served by elementary School Districts 159 and 162, and Rich Township High School 227.
“I like it because it’s hidden,” Bishop said of the subdivision. “And I like because you have everything nearby on Cicero (Avenue).”
Carlo Bishop said he and his wife shopped around before buying in Richton Park.
“We searched around, looked at different communities, and you can’t beat the price for the house you get,” Carlo Bishop said. The Bishops both work at the Ford auto assembly plant on Chicago’s Southeast side.
Sharrone Bishop’s cousin, Roxanne Summers, fell in love with Richton Park on her frequent visits to the community to see her cousin.
She liked it so much she ended up buying a house in the same subdivision.
“I’ve been out here enough to know I like it. I like the fact that it’s a very mixed community. It has a suburban/city feel not a small-town feel,” Summers said.
“I considered some western suburbs like Wheaton and Downers Grove. I did consider Glenview and Northbrook, but one of the things that sold it for me is proximity to family and friends and work and I do like the community. Plus I got more for my money,” said Summers, an embryologist with offices in Chicago and Orland Park.
Len Miller, president of Amlin Homes, which is also building in Greenfield, said the community has potential.
“I think Richton Park’s going to be a really good area in coming years. The tax rates are good, the schools are good,” Miller said.
Spathis said village officials have been updating building codes to make them more “builder-friendly.”
“The building department was stricter as far as life-safety went. We’ve made the codes friendlier. It puts us on a more level playing field with other towns,” Spathis said.
Sligo Five Construction of Tinley Park is building a 110-home development called Farm Trace roughly in the 22900 block of Richton Square Road. The homes are between 3,200 and 3,500 square feet and range in price from $250,000 to $350,000.
And Morris Development is building 20 all-brick ranch villas called Richton Falls targeted for empty-nesters on Governors Highway and Maple Avenue, north of Sauk Trail. Prices start at $179,000, said builder Darryl Morris.
Mayor Reinbold believes the best is yet to come.
“The time is right for Richton Park. This is our time,” he said. “I’m very excited about it. I believe in the next few years you’re going to see the biggest spurt in growth and population that we’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years.”
