Unincorporated Maine Township residents on the west side of Washington Avenue (left) can get a Niles library card for free, while residents on the east side (right) must pay an annual fee to get any library card. (photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

The Cook County government and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning are working with local government entities to develop a comprehensive plan for one of the largest, most densely populated pieces of unincorporated land within the county limits.

Known as the Maine-Northfield Unincorporated Area Plan, it will deal with pieces of unincorporated land between Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Morton Grove and Glenview. According to a page on the CMAP website, the plan is an outgrowth of an earlier study of unincorporated areas in Cook County. It would look at the needs of the people who live in the area, and develop strategies to address them.

At this point, the planning process is still in the early stages.

The first draft of the plan isn’t expected to be unveiled until October 2017 at the earliest. But, once it is ready, it could spell a number of changes for the unincorporated townships, including incorporation into the nearby municipalities.

The plan focuses on three unincorporated areas. The largest area includes parts of Maine and Northfield Township bordered by Des Plaines in the west, Niles in the south and the east and Glenview in the north and northeast. The second, smaller area is a portion of unincorporated Maine Township further east, bordered by Niles in the southwest, Morton Grove in the south and Glenview in the northeast. The third section includes smaller portions of Northfield Township surrounded by Glenview on all sides, roughly between Pinski Road in the north, Milwaukee Avenue in the northwest, Gregory Drive and West Lake Avenue in the south and Landwehr Road in the east.

As it is a common practice with unincorporated areas, their addresses identify them as the nearest incorporated municipality — in this case, either Glenview or Des Plaines. But the distinction between incorporated and unincorporated areas is important when it comes to government services.

In the latter case, Cook County government handles many responsibilities that usually fall to a municipal government, including police services, building and zoning related issues and liquor licenses. It falls to township governments to provide social services, emergency assistance, as well as road and sewer maintenance.

As Northfield Township Supervisor Jill Brickman told the Chronicle, Cook County has been trying to figure out what to do with the unincorporated areas for decades, and the prospect of annexing them to nearby cities or villages came up again and again. Toni Preckwinkle, who has been Cook County Board President since 2010, has been a particularly strong advocate.

In 2012, Preckwinkle launched the Cook County Unincorporated Task Force. In 2014, Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonpartisan government research organization, released a report breaking down how much the county spends on each area, how much tax revenue the areas generate, what issues might affect incorporation and how residents’ taxes would be affected if the incorporation happens. Based on those results, the county felt that the Maine and Northfield townships deserved further study.

The CMAP page says that the goal is to try to figure out a way to improve services and address issues. While it doesn’t

“The team will evaluate the community’s challenges and opportunities and identify viable strategies to help guide future growth and development,” it stated. “The plan will address stormwater, housing, transportation, public services and utilities, and image and identity.”

Annexation wouldn’t be the end goal — though the study will look at whether it’s worthwhile for all parties involved.

“[It] will explore through a benefit-cost analysis if annexation of all or portions of the study area is viable for stakeholders,” the page stated.

The plan study was launched in July 2016. Over the past few months, the planning team studied the existing conditions and collected public input. It is currently in the process of analyzing the information — something that isn’t expected to be completed until May 2017.

CMAP has posted information about what it learned from public meetings. One major issue that emerged was what the report described as the “disparate access to library services.”

Most library districts in Cook County are parts of municipal governments, and their service areas match whatever villages or cities they are located in. The Niles Public Library District is one the exceptions, serving most of unincorporated Maine Township and  portions of the triangle-shaped area in the unincorporated Northfield Township formed by Dearlove Road, Milwaukee Avenue and Central Road.

This leaves most of the unincorporated Northfield Township portions of the study area without any library service whatsoever. In Maine Township, there are four unincorporated residential areas aren’t part of the library district. That includes houses along the stretch of East River Road between Golf Road and Central Avenue, the area between Central Road, Milwaukee Road, Thornberry Lane and Glenwood Road, a few lots between Glendale Road, Lotus Lane and Central Road, and the area between Washington Avenue, Golf Road and the Glenview border.

Under the state law, residents who don’t have library service can get a card from one of the nearby libraries, but they have to pay a fee. Niles and Morton Grove libraries calculate their fees based on property tax revenue and local population, charging $266.39 and $423.69, respectively. Glenview library calculates fee individually based on how much property taxes they would pay if they lived in the village.

Sasha Vasilic, the Niles Library’s Public Relations and Marketing Supervisor, told the Chronicle that library director Susan Lempke was interviewed by the planning committee, and that the library has heard the concerns about service access while doing its own strategic plan study.

Another issue that came up was access to parks and recreational opportunities, especially in areas with multifamily buildings. Most of the unincorporated Northfield Township areas, as well as the portions of unincorporated Maine Township east of Milwaukee Avenue, are served by the Glenview Park District.

Golf-Maine Park District serves the portions of Niles and unincorporated Maine Township between Potter Road, Dempster Street, Greenwood Avenue and Golf Road, as well as a small section north of Golf Road, but the rest of unincorporated Maine Township has no park service. In addition to lack of parks, they have to pay a higher nonresident fee to access facilities run by any of nearby park districts.

John Jekot, the Golf-Maine Park District’s Executive Director and the Village of Niles trustee, told the Chronicle that CMAP reached out to him about doing public meetings to get input from people who use the parks. They wound up holding one of the public meetings at the district’s Feldman Recreational Center. Jekot said that he and the other members of the park district staff weren’t asked to give input, but he felt that the meeting was enough.

“I think they already did [get the input] by inviting our users to get the data that they need,” he said.

The township residents were also concerned about flood mitigation, as well lack of oversight related to housing design and property maintenance. They called for quicker response times from the Cook County Sheriff’s police, adding sidewalks, signage and streetlights in areas that lack them, local control over permitting process, more community programming and “neighborhood identifiers to foster stronger sense of community.”

Both Brickman and her Maine Township counterpart, Carol Teschky, told the Chronicle that they have input in the planning process, and they weren’t willing to offer any opinions until the plan is released. As far as the annexation, Brickman said that the Northfield Tonwship government hasn’t taken any position one way or the other, but, speaking strictly for herself, she wasn’t convinced.

“I am yet to see how services can be provided by anyone else with the same quality, or at the same level,” Brickman said.

East Maine District 63 serves portions of Niles, Morton Grove, Glenview, Park Ridge and unincorporated Maine Township. Janet Spector Bishop, the district’s director of communions, told the Chronicle that the district supported CMAP’s efforts from the get-go, and helped them with the outreach. The district has also been able to provide input.

“Early on, our superintendent, Dr. Scott Clay, and I met with CMAP staff members as part of their effort to sit down with all stakeholders in the community,” Bishop said. “We shared our own thoughts and asked how we could help.”

She said that the district looks forward to continue working with CMAP as the plan takes shape.

When asked about the effects the annexation would have on the district, Bishop said that, to the best of her knowledge, it would be minimal.

“In cases where there is a need to work with police, our schools in the unincorporated area work with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department,” she said. “If they were incorporated into a municipality, they would work with that municipality’s police department.  Possibly our school buildings would be subject to slightly different regulations — for example, perhaps with signage — if they were incorporated.”

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–Plan underway for unincorporated Cook County northwestern townships —