Elmhurst mayor: Apartment construction will 'keep our downtown vibrant'

The market for new apartments - in the midst of a building boom downtown - still has room to grow, Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley said Tuesday.

In his annual State of the City address, Morley rattled off a list of residential projects under construction or in the planning phase. Developments are popping up with easy access to a Metra station the city is seeking to replace through an $18 million project, Morley told an audience of Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce members.

The new downtown landscape includes The Marke of Elmhurst, a six-story complex with more than 160 high-end apartments set to open by spring at the corner of Addison Avenue and 1st Street. Further north on Addison at 2nd Street, developers have proposed a luxury apartment complex with more than 200 units just steps from Elmhurst Brewing Co. and Starbucks.

Condo developers also plan to build 23 units at a long-vacant site at Cottage Hill and Park avenues.

"This is something that in my opinion is required to keep our downtown vibrant," Morley told roughly 150 people at the Community Bank of Elmhurst Butterfield Road branch.

But is it too much residential density downtown?

"Now as we go along with this growth, we've been meeting with consultants and experts to talk about what the absorption rate is to make sure that we are not growing too fast," Morley said. "And the good news is the way that these developments are stacking up, even though I listed them all in about 30 seconds, they're actually staggering over the next two years, and experts tell us that we can actually absorb double of what's being put in town."

Developers are catering to two types of renters: Young professionals commuting to Chicago and retirees who are empty nesters, Morley said.

"Either way, all these units are paying property tax to the city of Elmhurst and importantly, to the schools of Elmhurst, but they aren't adding the burden to the schools when they do that," Morley said.

As for other residential projects, the city's building department issued 97 new home permits - four more than last year - and more than 3,000 permits overall in 2018.

Morley drew applause when he highlighted the grant funding - $16.4 million - secured by city officials to rebuild the Metra station and make other transit improvements at an estimated cost of $18 million. He said he's directed staffers to continue to search for outside sources of funding.

The city also has advanced a preliminary study to the Illinois Department of Transportation, and officials are confident the state agency will approve that element of the project. The next step is assigning a "phase two" study to an engineering group that will likely be hired during the first four months of this year, Morley said.

"It's going to take probably two years to complete that phase two engineering. Part of the reason for that is the amount of agencies that are involved in building or rebuilding a Metra station," said Morley, citing IDOT, Union Pacific, Metra and the Illinois Commerce Commission.

With more than 2,300 weekday boardings, the station ranks as the busiest stop on the Union Pacific West Line, according to the city. The 1960s-era depot, "while serviceable," doesn't highlight Elmhurst as well as it could, Morley said. It also raises accessibility issues.

CDM Smith, a Chicago firm hired by the city in 2016, developed the plan to modernize the station campus and conducted a public outreach campaign to gather input from commuters. Plans have called for construction of new inbound and outbound stations, a new pedestrian tunnel at York Street and designated bus and vehicle drop-off lanes to relieve congestion.

"It's going to be a long process, but we're well on our way," Morley said.