Officials, business owners and community members alike flocked to Brookfield Zoo Chicago on Thursday, March 5, for Brookfield’s inaugural State of the Village address, which celebrated the village’s recent achievements and spotlighted where it hopes to target next for development.
The well-attended event saw speeches given by Community Development Director Libby Popovic, Village President Michael Garvey, Village Manager Tim Wiberg and Jennifer Baader, the zoo’s vice president of governmental affairs.
In a prerecorded video, Popovic shouted out the Brookfield Shops retail incubator program, which opened to the public last June. The program allows entrepreneurs to open temporary storefronts in 15-feet-by-15-feet sheds located next to Eight Corners.
Six new businesses opened there last year, with three of them electing to stay on for the 2026 season; another business opened there earlier this year, with two more scheduled to open in May.
“We took a small, underutilized, triangular piece of land, and we have developed it into six incubator hubs where small businesses can thrive and test out their businesses,” Popovic said in the video. “What Brookfield envisions for Eight Corners is small businesses that thrive and grow within this community, that are accessible to our schools, to our local business community and to the [community] members living there.”
In a speech, Garvey emphasized Brookfield’s ability to earn grant funding for its various departments and projects, especially to go toward its police department and its street resurfacing projects. He pointed to some of the village’s recent accomplishments, including the bronze electric vehicle readiness designation it earned in August and its ongoing effort to update and modernize its zoning code, which will likely be completed this year.
“Brookfield is not standing still. We are planning intentionally, modernizing responsibly and creating opportunities that will benefit residents and businesses for years to come,” he said.
He attributed Brookfield’s strides to all of its village departments but especially the village manager’s office, which is responsible for communication between the village and residents, from sending letters to residents near planned development projects to managing Brookfield’s growing social media presence.
“I was proud of the village back when I started 25 years ago, but I’m more proud than ever before based on the strides that we’ve made, and it’s based on our whole team of staff,” he said.
When Wiberg took the stage, he credited some of Brookfield’s progress to the village’s comprehensive plan, which he said shapes the “development decisions, infrastructure upgrades and land-use strategies that we’re exploring and pursuing,” and staffers’ ability to find and successfully apply for grant funding to build upon existing village funds, especially engineers at Hancock Engineering in relation to street improvements.
He lauded Brookfield’s progress on replacing leaded water service lines. The effort is mandated by the state, which calls for local municipalities to begin replacing leaded lines by 2027 and be on track to replace them all by 2044.
“A lot of towns are debating about who’s going to pay for the replacement. Is it the homeowners, or is it the village? The village board said this is a village commitment. It’s a public water system issue; we’ll pay for it. They adopted a water rate increase to pay for our lead line replacements, and I’m happy to announce that, after next year, we’re going to be done replacing all the lead lines,” he said.
Wiberg also addressed common questions residents pose him about upcoming development like the kind planned for areas along Grand Boulevard and Ogden Avenue and near the Congress Park Metra station, among other spots in town.
“I get asked all the time, ‘What’s happening here? Why isn’t development happening downtown?’ I hear you. Development is a long, tedious process, and it takes a long time to make all the stars align and get everything planned and organized. Bear in mind that we generally don’t own the properties; we have to work with developers, and developers have their own timelines and their own priorities,” he said. “We are on the cusp of a lot of exciting private development projects that are going to happen and hopefully start in 2026.”
