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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

https://www.metroplanning.org/multimedia/publication/287

April 30, 2023 – May is Historic Preservation month. As Joe McElroy of Naperville pointed out in his recent letter to the Naperville Sun, Naperville could do more to protect its historic buildings.