How many homes are near a downtown depends on how you measure. Try it yourself.
Made by a Northbrook resident with free public data. Not affiliated with the village, any developer or any campaign.
Colors
The report gives the main findings. Explore the data lets you change the town, distance and measuring method, and try what-ifs: new buildings, crossings, parking and storefronts.
About this report. It gives Northbrook residents complete, checkable numbers about homes, people and land near downtown, so they can reach their own conclusions. It takes no position for or against any proposal. Every number comes from public data, measured the same way for every town, with its source named.
Public decisions should rest on accurate numbers. Checking the figures presented to residents, and saying plainly where they are right or wrong, is how residents hold public officials accountable.
Northbrook's downtown, by the numbers
Homes within a mile of Northbrook's Metra station
Slide shown to the Village Board, April 28, 2026—
2020 Census, counted the same way—
Meadow Plaza: today and under the Pulte plan
Downtown land near the Metra station, today and under Pulte's plan for Meadow Plaza
Homes within 1 mile of each town's Metra station: the April 28 presentation's slide, and the 2020 Census counted the way the slide's title says
All 14 towns: homes and people within a mile of the station
The slide, town by town
The April 28 presentation slide's figures next to 2020 Census counts, 1 mile in a straight line from each Metra station
Town
Slide
2020 Census
Slide vs. Census
Density: homes per acre and per square mile
Homes in apartment and condo buildings
Meadow Plaza: the numbers
Meadow Plaza today and under Pulte's proposal
Today
Proposed
What these numbers don't cover
Homes and people are 2020 Census counts. Buildings finished since 2020 aren't counted, for Northbrook or for any other town.
The multi-unit shares are survey estimates; differences of a few points are within the margin of error.
This report doesn't weigh traffic, schools, taxes, building design or what any site should become. It shows how Northbrook compares, measured the same way for every town.
Check it yourself
Every number comes from the public sources named under each section. No account or sign-up is needed to see or download any of it.
1 Choose what to measure
Measure from
Distance
Spending assumptions
What a household spends a year eating out and shopping at the kinds of stores a downtown has. Used by the restaurant and shop check, the storefronts tool and the project figures.
BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024 (U.S. average / $150–200K income / $200K+): eating out $3,945 / $6,241 / $8,489; groceries $6,224 / $8,305 / $9,964; shopping (apparel and services, personal care, household furnishings and equipment, alcoholic beverages) $6,036 / $8,863 / $13,508. These include online purchases, so a downtown only ever gets part of them.
2 Results
—
homes (2020 Census housing units)
Does the slide match the Census?
The village's April 28, 2026 slide, "Residential Units w/in 1 Mile Radius of Metra Station," next to 2020 Census counts measured the way its title describes: 1 mile, straight line, from the Metra station.
Village slide figures compared with Census counts
Town
Slide
Census
Slide vs. Census
How many homes are in multi-unit buildings?
The village said about 20% of homes within a mile of Northbrook's station are in multi-unit buildings, against 35–45% in other towns. This measures every town the same way: homes in buildings with 2 or more units, 1 mile in a straight line from the Metra station, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Share of homes in multi-unit buildings within 1 mile of each station
Town
Homes
2+ units
5+ units
Townhomes
Loads when you show this section.
Homes per acre, by what's on the land
The village's "Community Data Comparison" divides every home by every square mile of the village, including office parks, industrial land, golf courses and forest preserves. This table splits the land by what's on it, from the regional planning agency's 2023 land-use map.
Housing density and land use by town
Loads when you show this section.
How the towns compare, with your settings
Every town measured the same way, with your settings.
Towns compared with the same settings
Drop (Advanced) is the share of homes inside the straight-line circle that are beyond the same distance on foot. Think of it as freedom of movement: lower means streets connect more directly; higher means more barriers, such as rail lines with few crossings, rivers and creeks, expressways, golf courses and forest preserves, and long blocks or cul-de-sacs. Busy roads like Dundee Rd (a state-route arterial) aren't counted as barriers; the tool assumes you can cross them. Planners usually measure this as a "pedestrian shed ratio" (walkable area ÷ circle area). This is the same idea counted in homes instead of acres, so it isn't a standard published figure.
Side by side with another town
Both towns, same settings
Both towns use the same settings. The second map uses the same zoom, so you can compare at the same scale.
Restaurant and shop check
Could the homes inside the area keep the town's restaurants and stores going on their own? Each row assumes every nearby household spends all of its money for that category in this town.
Town sales compared with nearby household spending
Category
Town sales, 2025
Nearby households could spend, at most
From farther away, at least
3 What if…
Each tool: set it up on top, read the result in the box below it.
…a new building went up?
Result
See how much one building moves the count.
…there were a new crossing?
A footbridge, underpass or path over the tracks, the river or a busy road. Click one end, then the other; each end has to be on a street the tool knows (dashed brown lines). Private drives and very new streets aren't in the Census street file. Counts use walking distance.
Result
No crossings added yet.
…there were a parking garage?
Drop a parking garage on the map to see how much of downtown is within a 2-, 5- and 10-minute walk of it (walking 3 mph).
Result
Turn on parking lots to see how much surface parking is near downtown.
…storefronts were many small or a few big?
The same commercial space split into small shops or a few big ones. Every number is an assumption you can change.
Result
Limits: space 500–200,000 sq ft; small storefront 300–5,000 sq ft; big 1,000–50,000 sq ft; sales $50–2,000 per sq ft per year. Defaults: 11,000 sq ft matches the two 5,500 sq ft commercial buildings in the Meadow Plaza proposal. Household spending comes from Spending assumptions in section 1.
3 Share or print
Saved settings and starting points
Save the settings you're using now (town, distance, what-ifs, storefront and spending numbers, density view and printout choices) so you can come back to exactly this view. Every printout is saved here automatically. Saved in this browser only; to move them to another computer, use the link instead.
Download the data
Every number here comes from free public sources. Download any table as a spreadsheet (CSV), or the source files the tool uses. No account or sign-up needed.
For developers and anyone checking the work: all the code, data and tests are on GitHub, with a data index listing where every file comes from and how to re-check it.
What goes in the printout
Your name, notes and these choices stay in this browser. The last page of every printout lists the settings used, with a link and a code you can scan with a phone to reopen this exact view.
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