In 1987, DuPage County residents began hearing sounds of shattering glass, tumbling bricks and splintering wood as bulldozers reduced livable houses to rubble, to be replaced by more palatial dwellings. Suburban renewal was under way.
Here’s how five towns have fared.
– Called “the teardown town,” Hinsdale (pop. 17,498) has seen 634 residences bite the dust, which amounts to about 12 percent of the houses in town. The present zoning code for single-family houses was adopted in 1989 and amended in 1991 and 1994, according to Bo Proczko, assistant village manager. Spawned by the demolition derby, Citizens of Hinsdale Advocating Responsibility in Teardowns (CHART) and The Hinsdale Heritage and Architecture Society are pressing for additional revisions.
– When Hinsdale walls came tumbling down, Wheaton (pop. 55,755) heard the noise and in 1989 modified its zoning code. “Demolitions here have been largely commercial or homes on the fringe of commercial property,” said Jim Kosik, director of planning. “However, we may see more because we have little vacant land left.”
– Like Wheaton, Downers Grove (pop. 47,883) lumps residential and commercial demolition statistics together: Through October 1997 there were 169 teardowns. In a few cases, townhouses have replaced small groups of single-family residences, said Alice Dornan, administrative technician. “Considering the size of the village, the number of residential teardowns has not been significant,” she said.
– Change in Clarendon Hills (pop. 6,994) began with a single teardown in 1987. In 1993, a revised zoning code was adopted. “Things have definitely picked up in the last two years, with 19 residential demolitions in 1996 and 34 in 1997, for a total of 130 over the past 10 years,” said Kevin Stough, community development director.
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– Although residential teardowns in Elmhurst (pop. 42,680) jumped from 24 in 1994 to 48 in 1997, City Manager Thomas Borchert said demolition of 235 houses from 1989 to the present has been of little significance. “That’s a small percentage of our city’s 15,000 residences,” he said.