Around 100 residents showed up at City Hall for a meeting that addressed concerns that historic homes were being torn down and replaced with huge homes. Read more in this Daily Herald article.
Author: Joe McElroy
Joe McElroy Naperville
Joe McElroy of Naperville Co-Hosted Illinois Planners in Naperville Historic Building Tour
Joe McElroy co-hosted a downtown Naperville historic building tour recently. The tour was part of a conference held in Naperville by the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association. McElroy showed Naperville’s three downtown landmark buildings to the planners.
The tour highlighted the Naperville Woman’s Club building (pictured), North Central College’s Boilerhouse Cafe and the Willard Scott House.
Joe McElroy of Naperville: Nokia Building Bites the Dust
Whether you loved them or hated them, the eye-popping glass structures along the I-88 corridor in Naperville and Lisle were something to behold. But several of them, the former Lucent building included, may have lived beyond their usefulness. Many companies are cutting back on office space, leaving a glut of empty structures.
Today’s preservation efforts are focusing more than ever on “embedded energy,” in existing buildings. It’s been said, “The most energy efficient buildings are those that are already here.” They cost time, materials and treasure to build. Tearing them down wastes all that.
Fair enough, but not enough to preserve the building (owned by Nokia until very recently) in Naperville at the corner of Naperville and Warrenville roads.
Built around the turn of the millennium, the building and nearby parking decks are being demolished. I took this pic shortly before demo work began.
Even when it was built, I was not a big fan, so I’m not terribly sad to see it go. But to witness both the construction and eventual demolition of such a building boggles the mind.
City Planners Don’t Know All
Joe McElroy of Naperville knows that city planners do their best based on what they know at the time. You think that this or that regulation or setback will work but since it’s not built yet, there’s an element of the unknown.
One nice thing about being involved in city planning for many years is getting to see “How things turned out.” In other words, were our land use recommendations right or wrong?
Recently I revisited one of my mistakes — the drive-through at the Popeye’s Chicken along Route 59 outside Fox Valley Mall. Years after the store opened, the mall developer requested a variance for a drive-through lane. As Aurora’s deputy planning director, I recommended approval even though the turn is much too narrow, as you might be able to tell from this photo.
Since this happened more than 30 years ago, I don’t remember how we got talked into this, but there you have it. Please don’t avoid this place–gotta love their chicken sandwiches–but if you have a large car, it would be best to simply park and walk in. Sorry about that.
Chicago Bears in Naperville? Really?
With the Chicago Bears leaving Soldier Field, two alternative sites are in Naperville, but city planning consultant Joe McElroy, along with many others, thinks the NFL team is simply trying to gain leverage with Arlington Heights, where the Bears have purchased a former horse racing track.
“Even so, the nibble from the Bears demonstrates that Naperville should consider developing small area plans for the large campuses once occupied by Bell Labs and Amoco, once the city’s biggest employers. Recent zoning changes should preclude high density warehouse facilities, but other land uses should be examined.
Then Naperville can help the property owners find the highest and best use for the properties, according to McElroy.
Naperville one of few cities to save valuable ash trees
Seeking refuge from a rainstorm recently, Joe McElroy of Naperville noticed he and his wife were under an ash tree. Most American ash have died because of emerald ash borer, but in Naperville the City vaccinated thousands of ash trees on public property.
Several years ago Joe McElroy co-authored an article on emerald ash borer for Michigan Planner. Here it is, reprinted with permission of Planning & Zoning Center, Inc. July 6, 2023 for posting by Joe McElroy, author of, “Saving Ash Trees from the Emerald Ash Borer.
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Time to re-think vacant office spaces, says Joe McElroy of Naperville
Joe McElroy of Naperville, a city planning consultant, encourages a spirit of cooperation when it’s time to redevelop declining shopping malls and corporate campuses.
There was a time when cities with regional malls, like Oakbrook Center, Old Orchard or Fox Valley Mall were considered especially fortunate. Same with major corporate tenants, like Allstate Insurance in Northbrook and McDonald’s Corp. in Oak Brook. But today Allstate has sold its headquarters, downsizing into smaller quarters, while McDonald’s moved to new space near downtown Chicago.
Joe McElroy of Naperville said two major trends–online shopping and improved technology–contributed to the changes. “Why should somebody travel in bad weather to buy, say, dog food, when a company like Chewy will deliver it to your front door?” he said. “And why should an attorney go to the office every day when they can do legal research online and meet clients via Zoom?” And the Covid pandemic accelerated these trends.
Faced with such changes, many municipal officials are dealing with now-vacant malls and office buildings. Many will become mixed use, with housing and limited commercial, but both property owners and public officials will need to consider several factors: traffic; air and noise pollution; lighting, flood control; and neighbors.
“It’s important that people who live nearby the redeveloped properties be involved in the design,” said Joe McElroy of Naperville. “Otherwise, there is a good chance political opposition will sink the redevelopment proposal.”
Who Gains, Who Loses When/if the Chicago Bears Move?
With the Bears looking at Naperville, Joe McElroy, a city planning consultant, says that keeping various special interest groups reasonably happy will be a difficult, albeit necessary job.
“Soldier Field is the smallest facility in the National Football League, so after more than a century in Chicago, it looks like Bears will probably move to a suburb,” said McElroy, who served on the Naperville City Council and Naperville Plan Commission. “It will be a huge construction project that will generate billions of dollars,” McElroy said.
But who pays? Who stands to gain, and who might lose? Even though they’ve already bought the Arlington Heights racetrack, the Bears say the proposed tax burden could be a deal-breaker, which is why they’re looking at Naperville and other cities.
Major league sports teams have a long history of bolting for greener pastures–McElroy said some people in Brooklyn still bemoan the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles in 1957–and cities have provided new stadiums and other incentives to land a team. “But there is less appetite for that type of deal today,” said McElroy, adding that a world class city like Chicago–even though it has major problems–does not have to “give away the store” to keep the Bears happy.
Neither does Naperville. “The local economy is strong, our demographics are stellar, and we have good transportation access,” McElroy said. He added that several sites could work, including the former Amoco-BP campus, shown above.
Naperville Expert: Saving Old Buildings is Good for Environment
BY JOE McELROY
“The greenest building is the one that already exists.” — Carl Elefante, FAIA, 2007.
Many people cherish living or working in older buildings made with quality materials like brick and plaster. But every year thousands of old buildings are replaced with new construction.
As the above quote makes clear, there is a better way.
That’s the message from Naperville’s Bill Simon, who is active in both NEST (Naperville Environment & Sustainability Task force) and Naperville Preservation Inc., where he is a member of the board of directors along with: Becky Simon, president; Jane Burke, vice president; Ted Slupik, treasurer; and Tom Ryan, chief preservation officer. Other board members are: Joe McElroy, Ron Keller, and Philip Buchanan, all Naperville residents.
Simon agrees that Elefante’s statement seems surprising at first, but he will explain as one of the speakers at Aurora GreenFest on Saturday, May 13. The annual festival will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Prisco Community Center at Lake and Illinois streets. In his program at 1:30 p.m., Simon will speak on “The Most Sustainable Building is the One Already Built.”
“At first you might think, ‘What? How can that be? What about those leaky windows, that lack of insulation and those old heating and cooling systems?’ that cause problems in older buildings, Simon told the Naperville group.
However, as architect Elefante put it, “Retrofitting existing buildings to meet high performance standards is the most effect strategy for reducing near-and mid-term carbon emissions, the most important step in limiting climate disruption.”
Retail 1-2-3, a Handbook for Communities, Co-Authored by Joe McElroy of Naperville
Joe McElroy of Naperville co-authored this valuable toolkit for communities grappling with timely issues of economic development, workforce housing, protecting natural resources, improving public safety, or a combination thereof.
