There is an air of expectation talking to people who live in Access South Cook, the new apartment complex in Park Forest.
Fastened to the front door of Alicia Byars’ ground floor apartment in Park Forest’s new apartment complex was a welcoming sign:
“Bless this home and all who enter in it.”
The words reflected her feelings.
“I like it here,” she said. “They did a nice job when they built it. Everything is new and everything is convenient for me.”
The 2.4 acre development, at Indianwood Boulevard and Orchard Drive, took nearly two years to complete and consists of 44 apartments, equally divided, 22 for the needs of renters and 22 for those with special needs.
In June, Byars, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, along with her daughter and a family dog, moved into one of the 12 first-floor units.
Another new resident, Shelley Johnson, lives in a one-bedroom unit and, like Byars, says she enjoys being close to stores, a bank, the post office and the library, and as with others in town she wishes there were a more convenient grocery store nearby but insists she enjoys her new living space.
These apartments are the first major building project in the village in decades, and according to the usual news release, all the new units feature central air conditioning, in-unit laundry facilities, new cabinetry and flooring, and energy efficient appliances. Among the amenities housed in a community building are computers for residents. There is even a charging station for an electric vehicle.
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The project was directed by the nonprofit IFF (formerly Illinois Facilities Fund), a nearly 40-year-old organization spanning the Midwest from Minnesota to Missouri and from Ohio to Kansas. It is estimated that some 1,200 applicants were interviewed after the project was announced in 2023.
Andrew Brown, Park Forest’s assistant director of economic development and planning, notes that any applicant had to fall in the 60% income bracket of the six-county area of Chicago. This would include both north suburban Winnetka’s $458,000 average and Ford Heights $41,300, although income levels are also weighted by the number of people in a family
That 60% cutoff ensures a larger number of applicants than would be the case if only the south suburbs were used as the basis.
There are always plans on a community table.
Park Forest began looking for more housing units more than 20 years ago and a 2019 study recommended 100 units be built in and around the downtown area. In the earliest days of the village, the area was the site of a Mobil gas station.
When it closed the threat of contaminated soil from leaking storage tanks continued until 2006, when the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared the site was clean. In more recent years, the corner was used as a parking spot for parishioners attending services at the now-closed St. Irenaeus Catholic Church across the street.
A proposed project, which may take about five years to complete, would convert the site into group homes for women was presented to the Village Board earlier this year.
In what seems to be final formality for the new homes, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday, where village officials, Illinois Facilities Fund members, bankers as well as outgoing U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly and her apparent successor (this Is a Democratic stronghold, you understand) Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, took part.
Sad to say, we were told that although Sen. Dick Durbin would attend he did not show up. “He has laryngitis,” we were told. Since Durbin announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate, he may have contracted the ailment after saying “thank you” and “goodbye” to his supporters,
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.