Business View Civil & Municipal Apr-2023

82 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 Diversifying Richton Park’s housing stock is also on the agenda, as Saunders acknowledges, “Like a lot of suburban communities, we have a predominantly single-family home character. We’ve been that way for a number of years. One of the struggles is transitioning to a greater diversity of housing types within their communities, to bring in multifamily development, which we do have some, but also smaller units that might attract seniors, smaller units that might attract younger residents, transit-oriented development, so that people can make use of the commuter line that connects us with downtown Chicago. So, I think that a diversity of uses is what we’re really trying to seek out here. That senior’s building is just the first step in doing that.” Other infrastructure activity in the community includes stormwater improvement efforts in the town center. Stockstell maintains, “The more that we accomplish by completing that, the more land becomes developable. That’s really our number one project that we’re always seeking grant funds for.” With help from ARPA funds, Richton Park was able to implement a road resurfacing project throughout an entire neighborhood on the south side of the village. This work will continue, as Richton Park looks to a comprehensive pavement study of all roads, strategically completing road work while prioritizing areas that are most in need. A community- supported water rate increase has also been introduced, in order to address the maintenance and upkeep of the current water system. “We’ve got about a 12 to 18 month period here to actually set aside some revenues that will then begin to make improvements, either within our actual water treatment plants, which we have three, or through infrastructure in the ground with replacing storm sewers, and water mains and things of the like,” Stockstell reports. RIchton Park, like virtually all of the south suburban communities in Cook County and