Elk Grove Village, IL

Elk Grove Village was built around a division that still organizes the suburb: homes and civic facilities occupy the west, while a six-square-mile business district reaches east toward O'Hare International Airport. Centex acquired 1,500 acres in the 1950s and planned separate residential and industrial sections; the village incorporated in 1956 with 116 residents. It now spans Cook and DuPage counties. In 2026, the village reported more than 5,600 firms and service organizations in the business district and roughly 100,000 people commuting into Elk Grove for work. Manufacturing and logistics remain part of that employment landscape, joined by the Northwest Point and Elk Grove technology campuses. The 3,558-acre Busse Woods preserve lies beside the residential side. It includes nearly 13 miles of paved trail, one of Cook County's largest fishing and boating waters, picnic groves, protected forest and wetland habitat, and the Busse Forest Elk Pasture.

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The boating center rents boats from spring into fall, and the paved loop supports walking, cycling, and cross-country skiing. On Wellington Avenue, the park district's Jack A. Claes Pavilion concentrates indoor recreation in a fitness center with an elevated walking track, open gyms, exercise classes, and access to aquatic facilities. Across the street, Elk Grove Village Public Library extends the same civic cluster with computer labs, free indoor and parking-lot Wi-Fi, business and job-search assistance, meeting and study rooms, home delivery, an outdoor holds locker, and museum passes. Those institutions put major recreation and practical services together near the heart of the residential half rather than in the airport-facing employment district.