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Active in Community Affairs
 Park Forest Cooperative residents have held such elective positions as Village Trustee, Village President, School Board President, and State Representative. In addition, a number of residents have served on various boards and commissions within the Park Forest government. Because they are proud of their community and eager to support it, Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes residents regularly lead all areas of the community in voter turnout for state, national, and local elections.
Park Forest Cooperative has its own governing structure. The Board of Directors consists of five residents of the cooperative who have been chosen by their neighbors to serve as directors of the corporation. The directors are elected for staggered three-year terms at the annual meetings of the cooperative membership. Board meetings are open to all residents and a special portion of each meeting is devoted exclusively to members' comments. The Board president also regularly appoints residents to serve on special committees that review specific issues of importance to the Cooperative.
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Co-op living - have it your way!
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Living in Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes offers a number of benefits, but few compare with the opportunity residents have to decorate their townhomes in the style they desire!
Operating within broad parameters that have been established by the Co-op's Board of Directors, residents have the chance to add their personal touches to the interior of their homes and their outside yard areas.
 Over the years, some truly remarkable improvements have been made to our townhomes, and, as a result, several have been added to the annual League of Women Voters House Tour. Likewise, Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes residents regularly are among those honored each year by the Village of Park Forest with beautification awards. The awards are given in recognition of the way our residents have added to the community's appearance by planting flowers and shrubs in attractive ways.
Recently, the Board of Directors permitted an entirely new way for residents to improve on living conditions by allowing the combining of two townhomes into one larger space. Undoubtedly, more residents will consider this option as time goes on.
Meanwhile, the usual requests to the Board for consideration will include removing walls between kitchen and dining room areas to increase space, enclosing or enlarging front porch areas on some of the duplexes, and adding second bathrooms or decks on other townhomes. Aside from some standard rules and regulations designed to protect the architectural and structural integrity of the buildings, the individual resident's creativity is the only limitation to the potential for such improvements.
At Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes it's just like they say at the fast food restaurants: Have it your way!
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Park Forest...A Planned Community
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If you had visited Park Forest back in the mid 1940s, you would have found some farmland, a golf course, a few houses, but not much more!
 When Philip Klutznick and Nathan Manilow decided they wanted to build the ideal community for GIs returning from World War II, they purposely picked this area because they could develop it the way they wanted, instead of having to build around a lot of already existing structures.
As a result, Park Forest is the perfectly planned community, with parks conveniently located so children do not have to cross busy streets, with curving roadways to keep automobile traffic from moving at dangerous speeds, and with shopping centralized so you may reach it by walking if you so choose.
 The other pressing need that the two pioneer developers recognized was good and accessible transportation. They knew they were building a community that would house a large number of commuters who would be looking for easy ways to get downtown each day to their jobs. Here's a sample of how their foresight has paid off.
- Two large public parking lots accommodate Park Forest residents who use the commuter rail line, and buses go to and from the station regularly; an average train ride to downtown Chicago is approximately 50 minutes.
- Travel to Chicago by means of either I-57 to the Dan Ryan Expressway, or the Bishop Ford Freeway to the Dan Ryan, means you can be in the Loop in 45 minutes by automobile.
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© 2000 Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes
All Photography By: Photographically Speaking/Frank Casella
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Park Forest Cooperative News
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Equal Housing Opportunity
Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes is an equal opportunity housing development.
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Need More Information?
| If you would like additional information about The Park Forest Cooperative - Birch Street Townhomes or cooperative housing, in general, we would be happy to provide it for you.
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