By Brian Stanley
For the Bugle
There’s a lot going on in Shorewood.
Mayor Richard Chapman presented the State of the Village to local business leaders in April.
Chapman noted 121 new homes were constructed in Shorewood last year and 1057 remodeling permits were issued for existing residences.
The village also saw 39 new businesses open in 2018 – including Will County Brewing Company, Chicken-N-Spice, Guiding Light Academy, Affordable Dentures & Implants, Perky Paws, Orange Theory Fitness, Shorewood Fitness and D.R. Horton Builders.
2019 will see the opening of Aldi Foods, The Learning Experience early education academy, LaQuinta Inns & Suites and Shoot Point Blank gun range.
Shoot Point Blank will be located within the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) created two years ago for the area centered near the village’s main intersection of routes 52 and 59. The TIF District – which provides economic incentives to developers – runs along Route 52 (Jefferson Street) to River Road and includes the part of Shorewood east of Interstate 55.
According to Mayor Chapman, plans for the TIF area include a connected system of roadways that will break up large lots into walkable blocks and allow residential use – primarily row houses – in areas where commercial development wouldn’t work. The maps shown during Chapman’s presentation includes expanding the existing “green space” on both sides of the DuPage River and putting commercial and multi-family residential development where the mobile home park sits on the northeast side of routes 52 and 59.
Another proposed Land Use Plan for the Towne Center area further west would include commercial development of retail, restaurants, hotels and four-story multi-family housing along Route 52 and three-story units for multiple-family and senior housing closer to the village hall.
2019 will also include LED streetlight upgrades within the TIF District, a right-turn lane installed on Shorewood Drive at Black Road and storm sewer repair and replacement on Birch Drive.
Negotiations and engineering are also ongoing to bring Lake Michigan water to Shorewood, Chapman said.