At one point, before the Great Recession, a noted Chicago regional planning organization projected southwest suburban New Lenox would have a population of 100,000 by 2030.
While not that many years off, the village could see its population bloom to nearly 90,000 in the years to come, with new housing projects in the works, Mayor Tim Baldermann said.
“The future is incredibly bright for New Lenox,” the longtime mayor said in response to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2024.
The data, released earlier this week, show New Lenox among the fastest-growing suburbs in the Chicago south and southwest suburbs between 2020 and last year.
The new estimates show that most of the south and southwest suburbs losing population over the four years were in Cook County.
It was not clear whether the decreases were part of an exodus out of Cook County, such as to northwest Indiana, due to property taxes. Some south suburbs have the highest property tax rates in the county, as businesses have closed or relocated to lower-tax counties.
More than half of northwest Indiana’s communities saw a population decrease between April 2020 and July 2024, according to the new figures, but overall the region saw a modest population increase during the same time period.
Communities that grew include Cedar Lake, Crown Point, Lowell, Merrillville, Schererville, Winfield, Beverly Shores, Burns Harbor, Chesterton, Kouts, Portage and Valparaiso.
In Chicago’s south and southwest suburbs the largest population growth over that span between July 2020 and the estimate as of July 2024 was in New Lenox, with a 4.7% gain, followed by Frankfort, at 4.2%.
Lockport saw a population gain of 3.1% over the four years, and Lemont’s population grew by 2.2%, according to the new estimates.
Homer Glen, between summer 2020 and 2024, had a population increase of 1.3%, according to the new estimates.
Baldermann said that stability in village government, where he’s been mayor 18 years, has brought “a lot of residential and commercial developers who want to do something in your town.”
Several housing developments are either underway or in the planning stages, and Baldermann said New Lenox is working on a $70 million village-owned community sports complex near Silver Cross Hospital, west of Interstate 355.
Baldermann said housing developments either approved by the village or underway will bring more than 700 homes to the village in the coming years.
The village has an area of 42 square miles, and the mayor said, based on trends and housing development in the pipeline, “we will have a population close to 90,000 people in several years.”
Teerling Lakes, on 223-acres New Lenox bought and flipped over to national homebuilder Pulte, will include 500 homes, including more than 200 that will be set aside for owners 55 and older, he said.
That site is on the east side of I-355 and north of Route 6, near Silver Cross. The property was unincorporated and annexed to New Lenox last year, Baldermann said.
Farther to the south, near Laraway Road and Schoolhouse Road, Lakes Park will bring more than 200 homes to the village, the mayor said.
It is a property the village annexed last year, and home builders Lennar and Cachey Builders are developing duplexes and townhomes.
“We have a lot of people that want to live here,” Baldermann said.
He said that from restaurants and retail to health care, “anything you want you can get here.”
In Frankfort, new housing developments are underway or proposed, according to Rob Piscia, village administrator.
He said over the last several years, Frankfort has averaged completion of about 100 housing units annually.
“Our Village Board is very much about controlled, quality growth,” Piscia said Thursday.
An industrial property, the former Borg-Warner auto parts plant, near Village Hall, is also being considered for homes, Piscia said.
So many inner-ring Chicago south and southwest suburbs are essentially landlocked, meaning they can’t snap up through annexation surrounding land.
Piscia said that isn’t an issue in Frankfort,
“We have a basically unlimited growth area,” and that the village’s planning area extends southeast to Stuenkel Road and Interstate 57.
Frankfort has a growing commercial tax base, and the village has relied heavily on sales tax revenue to help offset using just property taxes to fund village operations, Piscia said.
Most all south and southwest communities that are entirely within Cook County saw population declines over the 2020-2024 period of at least 2%, and some were about 3%, according to the new estimates.
Those seeing decreases of at least 2% but below 3% included Bridgeview, Crestwood, Harvey, Matteson, Oak Forest, Olympia Fields, Palos Hills and Tinley Park.
Suburbs having losses over the four years of at least 3% included Alsip, Blue Island, Calumet City, Chicago Heights, Country Club Hills, Dolton, Evergreen Park, Flossmoor, Hazel Crest, Homewood, Lansing, Markham, Midlothian, Oak Lawn, Park Forest and South Holland.
No communities locally saw population losses of 4% or more.
Lynwood was a rarity, posting an increase of 1.5% between July 2020 and last summer.
Mayor Jada Curry said she believes her community is attractive to Chicago residents who are looking at the suburbs and want new homes over existing or used properties.
“Lynwood still feels like a small town,” Curry said Friday.
The Census Bureau estimated the village’s population last summer as 9,239 compared with 9,079 in July 2020.
Curry said that newer subdivisions in the village — Ambry Estates, The Meadows and Wellington Court — still have room for about 100 new homes.
Lynwood has seen in those developments building of larger more upscale homes, which appeal to families with children, Curry said.
“Plus, a majority of the homes sit on nice-size lots,” she said.
While Lynwood might have new homes available, what it lacks is any significant retail or commercial base.
Curry called that “both a blessing and a curse.”
The village could definitely use the tax revenue from something other than homes, but the scarcity of larger retail — the village has celebrated the opening of a Dollar General and Dunkin’ Donuts — helps Lynwood “keep that small-town feel.”
Curry said that a recently shuttered business, Warsaw Inn, 2180 Glenwood Dyer Road, is being converted to new use.
Poppin Plates will lease kitchen space to cooks, bakers and food truck operators, with food trucks setting up something of a food court in the parking lot, the mayor said.
Curry said the business had been in nearby Park Forest, needed to expand and bought the former popular buffett restaurant. Owners retired in early 2022 after Warsaw had been open for 50 years.
The mayor said the interior has been redone and that the business will open in the coming weeks.
“I’m very excited about it,” Curry said.
Maya Wilkins contributed to this article.
