1-1: Administrative Map

Employment The largest number of Berwyn residents are employed in educational services, and health care and social assistance (19.4%); followed by arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services. The majority of residents leave the City for their work, with many (35.8%) employed in the City of Chicago.18 Berwyn has an unemployment rate of 9.3%, which is slightly higher than the Cook County unemployment rate of 8.8%. Figure 1-5 proportions these sectors on the following page.

As illustrated in the Figure 1-6 below, the largest share of Berwyn residents (35.8%) are employed in the City of Chicago. Berwyn has more residents leaving the City for work than residents coming in, which is in line with their status as a bedroom community. 19These community names below are proportioned according to their share of employment.

Figure 1-6: Berwyn In-Flow, Out-Flow, and Circularity of Jobs

Largest Employment Sectors of Berwyn Residents Figure 1-5:

Figure 1-7: Largest Employement Sectors in Berwyn

Within Berwyn, however, the circularity of jobs is contextualized alongside the city’s largest employment sectors, shown in Figure 1-7 (above). The majority of jobs in Berwyn are in healthcare and social assistance, which is unsurprising given the presence of the MacNeal hospital, a 347-bed hospital located in the center of the city. This industry’s location quotient is a staggering 4.3 when compared to the rest of Cook County. In a distant second and third are accommodation and food services, and retail, which both have location quotients of slightly under 1.20 It is worth noting Berwyn’s 2012 Comprehensive Plan called for promotion of the healthcare sector, however, through community engagement it was discovered that the acquisition of MacNeal Hospital by Loyola, a tax-exempt non-profit, has led the City to focus more on growing its accommodations and food services and retail trade sectors. In 2017 Berwyn had 102 retail trade establishments that employed 1273 people and grossed $258,498,000 in revenues and 111 accommodation and food services establishments that employed 1977 people and grossed $113,943. This shows a rather strong presence of both of the sectors; in fact, the presence of both of these sectors is very similar to neighboring Oak Park, which is often lauded for its many successful food and retail focused establishments. Many of these jobs are located along Cermak Avenue in Cermak Plaza, a strip mall hosting big box stores. Smaller, local businesses are scattered across the City, however, they make up a smaller portion of businesses overall.

Land Use & Zoning

This section provides a brief analysis of current land use and zoning in Berwyn and can be used as a tool to better understand how the land in the community is currently being utilized, and how to better plan for the future.

Land Use The land use map of Berwyn (Map 1-4) reveals that the majority of the land in the City is designated to single family homes. There are multiple commercial corridors in the City that feature extensive retail uses, such as Roosevelt Road, Cermak Avenue, and Harlem Avenue. Also notable is the relatively large campus of Morton West High School, which abuts a shopping center along Cermak and Harlem. This map reveals that there are relatively few parks and open spaces within the City, as it is completely built out. Resident’s access to parks is discussed in more detail later in this report. Multifamily residential uses are frequently clustered together, especially in North Berwyn, with smaller clusters being found in South Berwyn.

Zoning It can be seen in Map 1-5 that residential zoning classifications comprise the majority of the City of Berwyn. The most restrictive zoning classes of R-1 and R-2 are also the most common, with multi-family zoning areas R-3 being relatively more common than R-4. The R-2 zoning district designates the historical Berwyn Bungalow zones, which are a source of pride in the community. There is also an area of relatively dense commercial zoning designations in the downtown depot district. Finally, it can be seen that there are two areas of railroad tracks that cut through the City, with both freight and passenger service.