The look and feel of Buffalo Grove is changing after a year filled with new leadership and breaking ground for redevelopments to improve long-blighted sites with new retail, commercial and luxury housing. Area school districts also introduced new construction, new leadership, lobbyists and sought out funding support for capital improvements.
A look back at 2023 in the village includes remembering students lost in a three-vehicle collision at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, and another slain in a fatal shooting early in the 2023-2024 academic year.
School District 102 seeks $49 million referendum
Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 hosted a series of informational meetings about the $49 million facilities referendum
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the district planned for the April 4 ballot. District officials said the referendum was necessary to address aging infrastructure, safety and security issues throughout the district in addition to needed classroom space at Aptakisic Junior High School. The referendum was later rejected by voters on April 4.Township High School District 214, other area districts, hire lobbyist
In response to state legislation that would allow for tax breaks for mega projects such as a new Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights, the school board of Township High School District 214 hired a lobbyist to protect its interests and future tax dollars, joining with other area school districts that pull property tax revenue from the former site of the Arlington International Racecourse.
School District 214 student joins First Lady at State of the Union
Rolling Meadows High School sophomore Kate Foley was asked to join First Lady Jill Biden and cabinet secretaries in the viewing box during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., after making an impression on Biden during her visit to the high school last fall.
“I met her in November – once,” Kate said in a video interview with Township High School District 214 spokeswoman Stephanie Kim that was shared with Pioneer Press. “So, for me to have that big impression on her … like, oh my God, she remembered me is kind of an unearthly feeling.”
Beverly Sussman steps down as village president
Village President Beverly Sussman began her career in Buffalo Grove village government in 1994 when she joined the commission for residents with disabilities – where she served for 15 years before running for village trustee. She was elected in 2009 and again in 2013. In 2015, two years into her second term as trustee, Sussman decided to run for village president against incumbent Jeffrey Braiman and won, serving until she decided to step down in 2023. In an interview with Pioneer Press, Sussman reflected on accomplishments during her tenure, including numerous new developments, increased transparency, a modernized infrastructure and holding the line on the village’s portion of property taxes. She cited a desire to spend more time with her husband as the reason for stepping down.
“I won’t go anywhere if it means missing a meeting. So, I won’t go on trips … if they interfere with meetings,” she said. “And my husband and I have reached a point where we’d like to be able to say, ‘Let’s go to such-and-such place,’ and get in the car and go, or to be able to make reservations and go, which I haven’t been able to do in all these years. It’s time to get back to normal life and do what we want to do when we want to do it.”
Redevelopment of Mike Rylko Park
The village partnered with the Buffalo Grove Park District in the redevelopment of Mike Rylko Community Park, 951 McHenry Road, which will be transformed with a new outdoor amphitheater and pavilion to be used for the town’s signature “Buffalo Grove Days” summer festival, along with improvements to the outdoor playground and Spray N’ Play park. The village contributed $600,000 to the project for the construction of the pavilion. An intergovernmental agreement allows the village to retain the use of the property for Buffalo Grove Days and five additional events, along with the naming rights for the facility.
Buffalo Grove elects new village president and trustee
Eric Smith ran unopposed to succeed Beverly Sussman as village president during the April 2023 election. Smith, who served as a village trustee and on the Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as president of the Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Rotary Club, was sworn in as village president in May.
Frank Cesario, the current chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, was elected to fill the seat Smith vacated. Trustees David Weidenfield and Gregory Pike were each reelected to their seats.
Four Buffalo Grove High School students die in vehicle collision
Students and families of Township High School District 214 were gripped with grief after four Buffalo Grove High School students were killed in a vehicle collision in Wheeling just a week before graduation. Killed were Richard De-Ita, 18, Kevin Hernandez-Teran, 17, and Jesus Rodriguez, 16, of Wheeling, and Ricky Barcenas, 17, of Arlington Heights, authorities said. The students were inside the primary vehicle in a three-car collision May 16 at Dundee and Schoenbeck roads. At the time, police reported the crash was caused by “speed and a disregarded traffic signal.”
New Public Works building underway
The Buffalo Grove Village Board approved a contract with Frederick Quinn Corporation for the construction of the new Public Works Department facility at 1650 Leider Lane. The village purchased the property for $13 million and began the $14.3 million construction project in 2023 to build the facility.
New superintendent of School District 214 named
Scott Rowe, former superintendent of nine-school Huntley Community School District 158 – which includes only one high school – took over leadership at Township High School District 214 July 1. Rowe was named the new superintendent of one of the largest high school districts in the state, enrolling more than 12,000 students across six schools, including John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove High School in Buffalo Grove. He succeeds David Schuler, who after 18 years as superintendent, left the district in February 2023 to be executive director of the American Association of School Administrators.
Mental health funding referendum called into question
Fall 2022 referendums that provided funding for mental health services in suburban townships were called into question by Wheeling Township attorney Kenneth Florey. The referendums in Addison, Lisle, Naperville, Schaumburg, Wheeling and Vernon townships, along with Will County, would allow for townships to create property tax levies to fund the treatment of not only mental health but substance abuse and developmental disabilities. However, Florey said the referendum language approved by voters did not require elements required by the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, or PTELL, that details the tax rate and dollar amount it would cost on property values.
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Township High School District 214 student shot by another teen
District 214 student Damian Hernandez, 15, of the 900 block of Foxwood Drive, in Mount Prospect, was shot Aug. 17 and later died from his injuries. A 14-year-old Palatine boy is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Hernandez. District 214 officials confirmed Hernandez was a transfer student just beginning his sophomore year, but declined to say in which of the district’s six schools Hernandez was enrolled. Palatine police told Pioneer Press at the time of the incident they believed the shooting was gang-related. Another 18-year-old man is still wanted in connection with this shooting.
The Clove redevelopment takes shape
The Clove, the biggest redevelopment project in Buffalo Grove history, began to take shape at the site of the former Buffalo Grove Town Center retail strip at Lake Cook and McHenry roads. The $150 million mixed-use project on 22 acres is led by Kensington Development Partners. Urban Street, the developer of the 300-unit luxury apartment building to be constructed as part of the project, laid the steel for the seventh and final floor of the building in December. A 34,000-square-foot building at the site has been renovated, and Sushi Grove and Giordano’s have reopened, along with new free-standing restaurants Chick-fil-A and Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen.
Anchoring the site will be a 43,000-square-foot “nationally renowned grocery store” that developers and village officials have yet to reveal but expect to open in July 2024. The village is working to design plans for The Clove central park which will serve as a community gathering place on the site. Village officials expect the commercial pieces of the development to be completed toward the end of 2024 and the residential building and park completed by 2025.
Mental health board funding secured
Illinois lawmakers validated the referendums voters approved last year in suburban townships that would provide funding to treat mental health and substance abuse despite objections from the Wheeling Township attorney that the referendum language was improper. The referendums allowed the newly created mental health boards in Wheeling, Addison, Lisle, Naperville, Schaumburg and Vernon Hills townships, along with Will County, to levy taxes to support these programs.
“We’ve seen the value residents place on mental health care — they already approved the tax increases that will fund the creation of these community mental health boards,” said sponsoring state Sen. Ann Gillespie, a Democrat from Arlington Heights. “By validating these boards, municipalities can levy the taxes to allow the boards to function as intended.”
New Tesla dealership, luxury apartments approved for Dundee Road
Another big project approved by the Village Board in 2023 included improvements at the former site of the Bob Rohrman auto dealerships along Dundee Road. The property sat vacant for 14 years until plans came forward this year for a 50,000-square-foot Tesla sales, service and delivery dealership and a 224-unit, four-story luxury apartment building, along with two commercial spaces for the 16 acres at 915-945 Dundee Road. A community of single-family homes lies along the southern border of the new development and 12 of these residents submitted a petition opposing the development while others shared their concerns at a Dec. 4 village board meeting. Despite the objections, the board voted 7-0 to approve the zoning and variances for the projects. Demolition of the current buildings on the site is expected to begin in February.
Village Board considers regulations surrounding migrant drop offs
Buffalo Grove Deputy Village Manager Christopher Stilling told Pioneer Press that officials of the town — located about 35 miles northwest of Chicago — were not aware of any migrants being dropped off by coach bus or other mode, so far. But, just as other municipalities that have considered, or even passed, regulating ordinances to preempt unauthorized and unannounced drop offs, Buffalo Grove sought to do the same.
Pioneer Press freelancer Elizabeth Owens-Schiele contributed.