Tinley Park: A town with growth on its mind

Family-friendly southwest suburb faces a balancing act as it pursues commercial success

By Diana Strzalka | Special to the Chicago Tribune

July 18, 2008

Young boys ride their bicycles through Zabrocki Plaza on Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park. An inviting town square has made the village's downtown a popular venue for numerous community activities. (Tribune photo by John Smerciak)

This year's public art benches in downtown Tinley Park include whimsical scenes of dinosaurs, Wall Street, underwater coral reefs and King Tut's Egyptian pyramids.

The entertaining stroll along Oak Park Avenue also features the birdhouses modeled on historic buildings dating back to the village's early years.

The avenue, south of 172nd Street, is not only the village's main thoroughfare for restaurants and business, it is also the heart of a community that is balancing its family-friendly identity with an eagerness for growth and commercial success.

More than 12 years ago, the MainStreet Commission, a volunteer group of business owners, began to plan for annual events such as free drive-in style movie nights and summer concerts on the plaza.

These efforts were intended to bring neighbors together as well as to attract commerce to an older once-sleepy side of the 155-year-old town.

Surging population

About 100 or so mostly German and Irish people settled the land that would eventually be known as the Village of Tinley Park in 1853. Since then, the town has grown to more than 58,000 residents, according to the special U.S. Census in 2006. There was a 10 percent population jump between 2000 and 2005.

New roads, shopping centers, schools and homes are seemingly always under construction, said Barb Fleischman, a Century 21 Realtor who has worked in Tinley Park for 13 years. In recent years, village boundaries expanded south and west and the last remaining farms were turned over for the development of homes and businesses, she said.

Today, housing prices vary from $200,000 to $800,000, she said. And besides new-home buying, there's a trend toward redeveloping older housing stock. Some of the existing homeowners in the wooded Parkside subdivision on the east side of Tinley Park, for example, are enlarging their cozy ranch homes and actually tripling their living space, she said.

"Tinley Park is a place where people stay," she said. If they do need to downsize or expand their living space, they often choose to move just blocks away.

Village trustee Tom Staunton said people are committed to their neighborhoods, and they express this through their volunteerism. "There are tons of people who volunteer, who love this town," he said. "It's a really nice area to raise a family," he said.

Rapid growth, however, continues to stretch the resources of the village's park district.

To keep recreational services free or low cost, the park district enlists business support.

For example, the park district may consider offering naming rights for the new football/soccer field and two ball fields at its newest park, Freedom Park, in exchange for financial support, said Karen Wegrzyn, marketing manager for the park district. "We could offer a sponsor a lot of visibility," she said.

Low-cost neighborhood events are key to the park district's mission. Residents have the water park at the Bettenhausen Recreation Center, ball fields, playgrounds and special events like the second annual Family Campout this weekend that is expected to draw more than 40 families pitching tents in the baseball fields of Community Park. The summer also includes a block party, flea markets, farmer markets and old-fashioned parades and festivals.

Tinley Park has a prime regional location just 30 miles southwest of Chicago and it has the advantage of being close to Interstate Highways 80, 57, 90, 94 and 65. Three airports, Midway International Airport, O'Hare International Airport and Gary/Chicago International Airport, are all within an hour drive.

Commuters have two Metra train stations, the Oak Park Avenue station in the old downtown and the 80th Avenue station, to get to downtown Chicago or Joliet.

Tinley Park hosts some 300,000 concertgoers annually who visit its music theater. Formerly known as the World Music Theater and the Tweeter Center, the theater at 19100 S. Ridgeland Ave. is now known as First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre. Another 600,000 people come for events at the Convention Center and nearby hotels every year.

"There's a lot going on," said Donna Framke, Tinley Park's marketing director.

Free outdoor music concerts and movies during the summer at Zabrocki Plaza, at 173rd and Oak Park Avenue, attract about 3,000 people to each event, she said.

A plan is already in the works to expand the plaza and add a three-story parking deck, she said. A wading pond and ice skating rink are among the ideas for the site.

Mark Yanko, one of the latest waves of new residents in Tinley, said he was attracted to the village by its restaurants and recreational activities, but he's reluctant to embrace too much change.

Yanko said he's nostalgic for the physical reminders of the old days of Tinley. He opposes the continuing redevelopment plans for the old downtown because it means demolishing old relics like the Ice House along the tracks and installing a three-story parking deck. "They're trying to usher out the old and bring in the new," he said.

A few months ago, Yanko bought his house in the Brookside Glen subdivision because he wanted to live the quiet suburban life. But as he looks out his back window, he sees a sod farm that may soon be developed into a new Wal-Mart.

That's one of the risks a resident takes in a developing community, he said. Popular places attract business and people, and that includes Yanko, who moved to be near his family and friends. The 47-year-old plumber bought a 2,900-square-foot home that had been abruptly sold by its previous owners due to financial distress.

"I got a really good deal on this," he said. And despite the fact that Wal-Mart may soon be his neighbor, he considers it a safe investment since Tinley's population is projected to grow from 58,000 to 73,000 by 2020, and that means demand is still strong.