August/September Business View Magazine

176 177 PARK FOREST, ILLINOIS Park Forest ILLINOIS SUSTAINABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT T he Village of Park Forest, Illinois, in the south Chicago suburbs, began life in 1948, as a planned development to provide housing for GIs returning fromWorldWar II. It was the first post-war planned community and its innovative design has been recognized and used as a model for towns throughout the world.The Vil- lage of Park Forest has received numerous livability citations, including two All-America cityAwards, two Governors Home Town Awards, and the Burnham Award for excellence in planning for its downtown redevelopment. In 2007, it was named one of Amer- ica’s Most Livable Suburbs by Forbes Magazine, and, in 2014,was ranked third in the nation in affordable housing by Business Insider. Park Forest’s first homes were multi-family rental units for the returning servicemen.Many of those early rentals were later converted to housing cooper- atives, but a large number remained rentals. During the early 1950s, thousands of small, single-family “starter-homes”-900 to 1,500 square feet -were built. Later, a third building surge saw the production of larger, two-story homes, some with four or five bed- rooms. But for nearly 40 years, Park Forest remained a somewhat transient community. Families who sought larger,move-up homes had to look elsewhere. In AT A GLANCE PARK FOREST, ILLINOIS WHAT: A village of 21,800 WHERE: South of Chicago in Cook and Will counties, Illinois WEBSITE: www.villageofparkforest.com