CLANDESTINE PLAN

Downers Grove could very well become the expensive "north shore" of the western suburbs.  It appears this is the clandestine plan of the mayor and council which has been being quietly executed over the past seven years.  Why has it taken so long to get any changes in the zoning code?  It took resident protest and action to get even meager changes in the code last year to address the issue of teardowns and McMansions which are destroying the quaint village atmosphere for which most people moved into Downers Grove.  The housing stock of small, affordable starter homes and retiree homes is being destroyed to make way for large, expensive homes for the well-to-do.

Have you noticed village owned parking lots near and along the Burlington railroad are being transformed into expensive condominiums for people with high paying jobs in downtown Chicago?  Remember the land bank properties west of the library which were intended for a parking lot and are now the Georgian Court townhouses?  The parking lot just west of the Tivoli Theater is now the Station Crossing stores and condominiums.  The Curtiss Street parking lot is now becoming the Acadia-On-The-Green stores and condominiums.  What was suppose to be a small park and green space at the northeast corner of Main and Maple streets is about to become a few stores and condominiums.  Even village hall is under threat of being sold to make way for condominiums.

Village leaders are trying to blame this abomination on market forces while quietly guiding it with taxpayer dollars by selling village property at a loss to developers.  All the while they have neglected village infrastructure as streets become pot-holed and lack of storm water sewers cause flooding of residents’ property by McMansions on lots which no longer have the capacity to hold rain water falling on them.

The only way to correct these problems is to change the village leadership which has sat idly by and allowed them to happen.  This is possible if resident will only get out and vote in new leaders on April 17, 2007.

Andrew J. Clark       Downers Grove, IL

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