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Downers Grove Homes
Through The Years Downers Grove is a community of residential neighborhoods consisting of homes that have been built over a period of some 180 years. Currently, more than half of the single-family, detached homes in our Village are more than 50 years old. The York, Downers Grove and Lisle Township Assessors have assigned a Year Built number to each home in the Village. These Year Built numbers can now be used to plot the total number of single-family, detached homes which were located in the Village in each year over the years 1839 through 2021. The 
blue line in the
accompanying figure shows
that the total number of homes in Village increased rather
slowly during
the 19th Century and the first half
of the 20th Century.
Then, starting
in the 1950s, following
the World War, the
Village experienced a boom in home
building. Now in the 21st Century, those homes built in the 19th and 20th Centuries are beginning to show their age. The number of homes that were less than 50 years old each year in the past is shown by the green line above. It rose steadily until just before the year 2000 when it began to fall. The number of homes that were 50 years old or older in a given year is shown by the yellow line. This yellow line has risen steadily and, since the year 2000, has risen rather rapidly. The red line that shows the number of 100-years-old homes may be following a similar trajectory - just displaced 50 years into the future! Around the year 2015, the yellow line crossed the green line. That year - 2015 - should now be recognized as the time when more than half of the single-family, detached homes in the Village of Downers Grove became at least 50 years old. For the foreseeable future, we must expect the number of our older homes, more than 50 years old, to exceed the number of our newer homes, less than 50 years old. In 2011 our community adopted a Comprehensive Plan to help guide us. Village officials are now in the process of updating that Plan. Please click here to view the Village Council's October 22nd discussion of the Goals and Key Recommendations in the draft Plan update. Let's hope that the current Plan update can to help us understand the impact of the aging of single-family, detached homes on the future of our community's residential neighborhoods. Initial Conditions Report  A presentation by Jason Michnick, Downers Grove Environmental Coordinator, and Jay Womack, GZA Geoenvironmental Consulting, on the initial conditions report for the Environmental Sustainability Plan was included in the manager's report segment of the July 16 Village Council meeting. Please click here to view the slides for their presentation, and click here to read Ken Lerner's summary report about this portion of the Village Council meeting. The 69-page initial conditions report itself is available on the village website. You can click here to watch the video of the manager’s report segment of the Village Council meeting, which begins at the thirty-three minute mark. The July 29 Environmental Concerns Commission meeting agenda includes the initial conditions report and a summary of other recent environmental discussions by the Environmental Concerns Commission and the Village Council.
Morton
Arboretum Updated Chicagoland
Tree Census
In 2020, The
Morton Arboretum partnered with
Davey Resource Group Inc. and the
Student Conservation Association to
conduct its second tree census,
remeasuring 1,576 plots in the city
of Chicago and the seven surrounding
counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane,
Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will to
gain a comparative snapshot of the
regional forest and the benefits it
provides.
The first census was in 2010. For the whole seven-county area, the number of trees and shrubs increased from 157,142,000 in 2010 to 172,297,000 in 2020, representing more than 194 species. In 2020, the regional forest tree and shrub canopy cover was assessed to be 23%, an increase from 21% in 2010. In DuPage County, the canopy cover increased from 26% in 2010 to 31% in 2020. Although the number of trees and shrubs and the canopy coverage did increase, the study notes that a large percentage of the canopy is composed of species considered invasive, such as European buckthorn and tree of heaven. Detailed discussion of the tree census findings may be found at: https://mortonarb.org/science/tree-census/ In addition, based on earlier data, the Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI) has developed community-specific tree canopy summaries, including Downers Grove and many other Chicago area towns.  The above images and corresponding ones for other communities may be found at: http://chicagorti.org/CanopySummaries/ * * * * * Historic Preservation Activities The Village's
historic preservation program was
revised in 2015, contributing to an
increased interest in landmarking
homes and other structures. Since
then twenty-nine historic features
have been granted local landmark
status in Downers Grove –– nine
structures in 2016, another nine in
2017, four more in 2018, four
historic features in 2019 and one
each year in 2021, 2022, 2023 and
2024.  Landmark status was unanimously approved on August 20, 2024 for the Herbert E. Ehninger House, 4812 Northcott Avenue, at the request of Daniel Apel and Sharon Andersen. Please click here to learn about this English Country Revival style home constructed circa 1942. |