Publications & Sites 
Clarendon Hills residents share what they like, and don’t like
The friendliness of residents is one of the aspects many in Clarendon Hills like about the village, according to a community survey. Here, Kelly McMillin (left center) and Cindy McCann (right) chat with other residents during a block party last fall. | Doings file photo
Survey says
What we like
Location (74.2 percent)
Neighborhoods (62.6 percent)
Schools (57.2 percent)
What we like least
Housing cost (51.2 percent)
Shopping (47.8 percent)
Street condition (28.3 percent)
Updated: March 15, 2013 11:42AM
CLARENDON HILLS — The living is good in Clarendon Hills.
At least according to responses to the 2012 Community Needs Survey, which provides feedback to village officials.
“The survey allows us to keep a pulse of how people in the community feel about things,” said Dan Ungerleider, director of Community Development. “It’s always good to maintain open communication, and the feedback we get allows us to be more proactive to issues that may be coming up.”
Ungerleider said comments from several residents about what type of businesses they would like to see in the village’s downtown will be used in the process of developing a new master plan for that area. Probably the most-often mentioned business desired by residents is a convenience/grocery store.
Questions on the 2012 survey asked what the village is doing well and where residents would like to see improvement.
As in past years, the survey was randomly distributed to 1,000 Clarendon Hills households. The majority, 69.7 percent, of households in the village are single family; 30.3 percent are multifamily, according to 2010 census data. With that in mind, 303 surveys were distributed to multifamily households and 697 surveys to single-family households.
A total of 378 surveys were completed, a response rate of 37.8 percent. Of the responses, 84.49 percent came from those living in single-family homes; 15.72 percent from those in multifamily residences.
For the seventh consecutive year, nearly all respondents rated the overall quality of life in Clarendon Hills as good (39 percent) or excellent (57 percent).
In response to being asked the three things they like best about Clarendon Hills, residents most often mentioned location, residential neighborhoods and schools. Other factors were friendliness of residents (44.76 percent), housing quality (35.4 percent), transportation (34.6 percent), recreational amenities (6.8 percent) and shopping (3.68 percent).
Housing cost, shopping, street condition, traffic problems (25.2 percent) and distance to employer (11.5 percent) were what survey respondents stated they liked least about Clarendon Hills.
With Clarendon Hills working with Hinsdale in an attempt to consolidate the police departments of the two villages, the 2012 survey asked residents how supportive they are of that possibility.
Nearly half (49 percent) responded they are very supportive, about 28 percent said somewhat supportive; about 7 percent are very unsupportive, and about 6 percent are somewhat unsupportive.
