Despite indications an impending recession is putting the breaks on housing sales and commercial development nationwide, Bolingbrook will continue to see its share of development in 2008, according to Mayor Roger Claar.
During the 2009 annual state of the village address Jan. 17 before an audience of 800 at the Bolingbrook Golf Course, Claar said Bolingbrook continues to grow in the face of a declining economy.
“We will conduct a census this spring we feel will result in verifying our population at about 70,000 residents,” Claar said.
An increase of approximately 7,000 residents since the 2003 special census placed the village’s population at 62,948 would reflect an 11 percent growth rate. Based on the 2000 Decennial Census count of 56,321, Bolingbrook’s population will have increased 30 percent in less than a decade, if the village’s projections are accurate.
Based on the state’s formula for reimbursing municipalities at a rate of more than $110 per resident, the village stands to gain about $800,000 annually in state-generated revenue.
Another benchmark of the village’s growth, Claar said, was in the increase in hotels since 1998.
“I often like to compare Bolingbrook to Schaumburg,” Claar said. “Schaumburg is situated on multiple expressways like Bolingbrook, and has more than 4,000 hotel rooms. In 1998, we had none.”
Currently Bolingbrook has six hotels that provide about 400 rooms, but after an Aloft Hotel and a Sheraton Hotel open within the next three years near the Promenade Bolingbrook mall — and a third one opens on Remington Boulevard within a few years — the number of rooms will more than double to about 1,000, Claar said.
The mayor also said three housing developments geared to seniors are being planned over the next few years, diversifying the existing housing market to add about 1,000 senior housing units.
Two projects outlined in previous addresses — the proposed redevelopment of Innsbruck Apartments on Boughton Road and improvements to the Bolingbrook Commons shopping center at Interstate 55 and Illinois Route 53 — remain in doubt, the mayor said.
Innsbruck Apartments were to be sold and redeveloped, but developers have balked at the project because the apartments and the plumbing system are in poor condition, Claar said.
Bolingbrook Commons is owned by Kalamazoo-based The Hinman Co., and is anchored by Century Tile. The mall has several vacancies and sits at the gateway to the village.
“Hinman continues to stall improvements. While Rome burned they fiddled, and now it is difficult to find retailers (to lease space),” Claar said.
The mayor said the village eventually would like to see the mall redeveloped “in a non-retail use.”
Upcoming projects include the resurfacing of Illinois Route 53 in 2008, a project that the Illinois Department of Transportation moved up from 2009 on their road improvement schedule.
Also, the village plans to develop a three-story building along Canterbury Lane for use by colleges to provide adult education. Among the institutions expressing interest in leasing space are Joliet Junior College, Lewis University and College of St. Francis, Claar said.
Claar said he did not support the upcoming Fountaindale Public Library referendum seeking voter permission to issue $48 million in bonds to build a $43 million facility in Bolingbrook and make $5 million in improvements to the existing Romeoville branch.
“I cannot support it and I will vote no. In general I support public referendums, but in this case I have to see something that shows a master plan. Until there is a master plan for how to service residents on the west side of Bolingbrook, I cannot support it. Someone told me that for what the library district is going to spend, they could buy every resident in Bolingbrook a membership in the Book of the Month Club.”
The village will move forward in 2008 with plans to develop three museums: the Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook Clow International Airport, the village’s Living Farm on Essington Road, and an un-named museum being promoted by the Bolingbrook Historic Preservation Commission on the site of the former village offices on east Briarcliff Road.
Operation Red Speed — the camera-monitoring program at four intersections in Bolingbrook begun in summer 2007 — will be re-evaluated over the next few months and could be reinstated, Claar said.
“I have never received more hate mail, e-mail, snail male and telephone calls over a single issue in my 21 years as mayor,” Claar said.
“We’ll review the accident statistics and see if it needs to be reinstated some time this spring,” Claar said.
According to statistics released by the Bolingbrook Police Department, traffic accidents were down 40 percent in the vicinity of the Red Speed cameras while they were in use.
“People became so aware of them that in some cases people wouldn’t even turn right on red anymore,” Claar said.
Bolingbrook, IL —
