Northbrook's Ciesla looks back, ahead in State of the Village address
Hours after casting the final vote in a key board decision, Northbrook Village President Kathryn Ciesla recently delivered her second State of the Village address.
"We were in a meeting until 1 in the morning, but good things got done," Ciesla said to open her 40-minute address Jan. 25 at the Northbrook Public Library auditorium.
Ciesla was referring to the village board's wee-hours approval of a project to transform the former Grainger Industrial property on Shermer Road.
On Jan. 24, the board approved a 318-unit apartment complex, a second building of 48 affordable-housing units, and a 6,500-square-foot building planned for a restaurant on the 10-acre site.
Ciesla's annual talk was presented by the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce & Industry. She underscored the highlights from the past year, such as the $340,000 the village provided to nonprofits in 2022 and vacancy rates for retail, office and industrial space being at or below national averages.
The amount of sales taxes the village received in 2022 was 28% over budget with Northbrook Court ($3.1 million) "still the big dog," she said, and Willow Festival ($2.2 million) following. Businesses in downtown Northbrook kicked in $1.2 million in sales taxes.
Sanders Court contributed $153,000. "We are working very hard to try to get that mall turned around," Ciesla said of the space at Sanders and Dundee roads.
Ciesla highlighted the positive contributions of the village's police and fire departments, and said 170 police personnel had been trained about confronting antisemitism and hate crimes. She said technology enabled the village to stop 230,000 cyber attacks.
A progressive community, Ciesla said Northbrook was among just 50 municipalities nationwide named as leaders of a National Wildlife Federation program to assist the monarch butterfly. The village's 49 permits for residential solar energy installation in 2022 nearly doubled the previous total, and is now up to 116.
Ciesla said a green business certification program, a single-use plastic bag tax and regulations on leaf blowers will be among topics the board takes up this year.
Other village actions Ciesla talked about included updating village zoning codes, replacing 14,440 water meters with digital models and honing the village's 2020 affordable housing ordinance.
Going forward, Northbrook will look to replace an outmoded police station, a 1950s-era public works garage, and Fire Station No. 11 at 740 Dundee Road.
"I'm a little bit embarrassed to say it doesn't have quarters for women," Ciesla said of the firehouse.
She ended her speech with the various new businesses and developments on the horizon: Napolita Pizzeria, a Sweetgreen restaurant coming to Willow Festival, new Tesla and Toyota dealerships, a new Starbucks, a 400,000-square-foot Panattoni shipping warehouse, and the Quarterra and Housing Opportunity Development plan on the Grainger property.
Ciesla cited the "tremendous" Erickson Senior Living proposal for the former Green Acres Country Club on Dundee Road, last heard by the board on Dec. 13. The massive development initially was to occupy 83 of the site's 127 acres, but a new plan would devote 80 acres to public use. Also on the village board's docket is Brookfield Properties' renovations to Northbrook Court. "I'm so close to being able to talk about it," Ciesla said.
At that Dec. 13 board meeting, village trustees also approved Brookfield for a third extension to submit a proposal by April 25.
"We have to do everything in our power to preserve that mall," Ciesla said.