Richton Park, Illinois
Town Center Plan

The Village of Richton Park reached consensus in 2002 to make the redevelopment of their town center area a major priority and worked with a consultant to prepare a village center master plan. In 2004, the Village received a grant from the Regional Transportation Authority to prepare a new transit-oriented development plan for the area around its Metra station. However, neither planning effort got the Village closer to realizing their town center vision. When the Village decided it should retain a project manager in 2006 to guide village center redevelopment, it selected Camiros, Ltd.

Camiros performed a diagnostic review of existing Town Center redevelopment documents and determined that these were insufficient to attract interest from the development community. The first year of project activities focused on establishing redevelopment documents needed to engage in a productive dialogue with developers. These documents included: 1) a specific program of redevelopment; 2) a resubdivision plan; 3) Town Center design guidelines; 4) a Town Center PUD ordinance; 5) a compendium of information on Village-owned properties; and 6) an illustrative plan depicting the redevelopment program.

Given the extremely challenging real estate market of 2008, Camiros is helping Richton Park refocus the redevelopment program to take advantage of market opportunities and to set the stage for broader development once recovery occurs. The response is to target rental residential and mixed-use rental/retail development. Since little or no rental housing has been developed within the market area in the last 20 years, there is pent-up demand. Two development projects are being negotiated. The first is a mixed-use project consisting of 200 residential units and 30,000 square feet of retail, while the second project consists of 120 rental units. These types of projects will build momentum to support future development and will strengthen the retail market.