In his WTTW documentary “Northwest of Chicago,” Geoffrey Baer quoted a local source who declared Barrington Hills, Barrington and South Barrington to be “North shore communities without the shore.” This may have been true when the show first aired, but this is far from accurate today.
Read any recent real estate report on the average time on the market for homes in our area and you’ll find our Village bests all others for the wrong reasons. Barrington Hills homes consistently have the longest time on the market and lead at the lowest sale price compared to the original asking price. Home and lot values have plunged to prices not seen in over a decade.
It doesn’t take a WTTW documentary to conclude that recent political unrest and unnecessary drama are making us the pariah of the Chicago suburbs, which clearly is not helping, and probably is hurting, property values.
This includes the false recent drama over bike lanes; the real and potentially character changing debate over commercial horse boarding; and the embarrassing fiasco over the exterior lighting ordinance in our recent history. Outsiders can reasonably question whether they want to have any part of this madness.
For example, one vacant five-acre lot in our Village is now going for $119,900. Another breathtaking estate on Hawthorne Rd has had its price slashed by more than fifty-percent of the original eight-figure asking price.
While the housing market across the country is generally picking up after years of decline, this is not the case in Barrington Hills. True, there are a number of factors beyond our control, but there is one major factor we can clearly change for the better, and that’s to stop making our Village look arrogant, dysfunctional elitists time and time again.
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Since 2005, some of our elected politicians and residents have made some local issues very public. Residents do have every right to voice their concerns loudly, but it’s usually a few politicians that make our Village look bad.
First, there was a proposal for sky-high cell towers in our picturesque Village by some on our Village board. Then, there was the ill-conceived exterior lighting ordinance proposal from a small group of “dark sky” zealots on our board and in the community, which outraged residents enough that the issue was covered in the Wall Street Journal (see “Everything is Diluminated”).
One of this year’s topics of resident concern is bike lanes. While The Observer shares many resident concerns on this hot-button issue, all of this would have been alleviated back in 2012, if the administration at the time actually communicated with residents about the plan before pursuing it.
Two newspapers recently took Barrington Hills’ residents to the woodshed in editorials over objections to bikers in our Village. And even though residents were assured over a month ago that there will be no bike lanes in our Village, the group “Don’t Change Barrington Hills” (apparently assisted by the former Village President) persists in encouraging their supporters to keep protest signs up along our roadways and continues to disseminate rumor and innuendo on their website.
Do you think that helps our property values? Do you think that encourages people to seriously consider Barrington Hills as a place to make their home?
Additionally, we have commercial horse boarding amendments back on the table — for the third time since 2005. Calling itself “Save Horse Boarding in Barrington Hills,” one group circulated an online petition based on a false mission statement that has garnered electronic signatures from as far away as southern Yemen.
Really? After all, we were “branded” by the former administration as an “equestrian community” years ago, so why do we still not have effective codes to address commercial horse boarding? Perhaps we are waiting for advice from southern Yemen!
Sadly, the Village Board meeting held earlier this week provided even more fodder for the press. We find it a very interesting coincidence that this was the very first meeting reporters have attended since President McLaughlin was sworn in.
It certainly was convenient, considering the clearly rehearsed barrage by four trustees against the chair due to the dismissal of the law firm that has cost our Village millions of taxpayers’ money.
Regular readers of The Observer are familiar with our monthly “Flashbacks” column, and each month it pains us to review what our Village reputation has endured in the press for many years. Yet there is still a dwindling faction among residents who get pleasure it seems by fueling misinformation and innuendo.
It’s time for us to stop being a sideshow for the entertainment of surrounding communities. Instead of “Don’t Change Barrington Hills,” a more productive goal is “Let’s Change Barrington Hills.”
After all, didn’t most residents vote for that goal in the last election?
– The Observer
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