Annual Membership Meeting and Election

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye!!
Attention all Independence Square Condo Owners!

The NCT #3 HOA will hold its Annual Meeting and Election of Directors. You are encouraged to attend regardless if your votes have been cast by mail or by e-mail. 

The purpose of this meeting is to elect five (5) Directors to the Board ... three (3) members for a two-year term and two (2) members for a one-year term. This is an opportunity for you to become involved in your community. 

If you're unable to attend, you are strongly encouraged to complete your proxy and return to: 

McGill Management, 

1314 N. Rand Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 

or e-mail to 

HRepeta@mcgillmanagement.com 

NO LATER THAN September 26, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.

If you have not received your candidate info and ballot packet, please let us know and we'll e-mail to you.

How We Lost Our Identity is a Mystery

The opening of New Century Town occurred during America's Bicentennial year of 1976. The theme throughout both residential communities - the townhomes of Republic Square and the condominiums of Independence Square - was intended to celebrate and pay tribute to a number of American patriots. 

The townhomes of Republic Square (bordered by Hawthorn Parkway, Indianwood, Greenleaf and Century Park) paid homage to a variety of individuals who made their mark on our country: American philosopher John Dewey, attorney and statesman Henry Clay, American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, and the Father of American Music, Stephen Foster.

The condominium community of Independence Square (bordered by West End, Hawthorn Parkway, Century Park, and Greenleaf) paid tribute to generations of American presidents, from George Washington to John F. Kennedy by naming most streets after them. 

Sales of the townhomes in Republic Square were well under way when, in the spring of 1976, United Development had their grand opening of Independence Square. 

The home designs of Independence Square pay tribute to America's colonial wars of Lexington (the two-story 3-bedroom condo) and Concord (the two-story 2-bedroom condo), and to the town of Williamsburg, the center of political events which led to the Revolutionary War (the single-story 2- or 3-bedroom condo above the garages, sometimes called the "Penthouse"). 

The nation was healing from a deep recession and home sales were brisk. A sign stood on an angle at the corner of West End and Hawthorn Parkway prominently identifying Independence Square. The condos just east of West End (482 to 496 Buchanan Court) were the model homes. 

Very few (if any) residents know the community's original name, and that's really a shame.

It's impossible to know how the community's identity got lost. The only way to verify it now, short of investigating site plans, board approvals, blueprints and records at the Village's Building Department, is for homeowners to read the legal description on their mortgage.  

Perhaps one day the community's identity will return. 2026 will be America's 250th birthday. 

America's Semiquincentennial. 

Maybe it will be then. 

The Way We Were

When United Development first designed Independence Square, the aim was to create a budget-friendly community featuring garages which traditional condominiums lacked. 

"Builders are making an extra effort these days to keep their home prices under the $40,000 mark, and the latest example of this budget conscious trend are the new condominium units just introduced at New Century Town in north suburban Vernon Hills.

"Clustered in groups of four 16 six-unit condominium buildings will comprise a new Independence Square neighborhood within the total 600-acre community. United Development Co., the builder, has priced the two- and three-bedroom units from $35,590 to about $38,000."  ~ Chicago Tribune, Friday February 20, 1976.

A New Town for a New Century

The following are excerpts from The Chicago Tribune, Monday November 8, 1976 p.77:

It's 1976 and you're driving into New Century Town. It's a 600 acre development at Illinois Highways 60 and 21 in Vernon Hills.

Five years earlier people would have said, "That's near Libertyville, isn't it?" but today that no longer happens. New Century Town has put Vernon Hills on the map in capital letters.

It probably has brought national attention to United Investment and Development Company because if the development is successful it will be recreated elsewhere around the country.

New Century Town is a carefully planned community featuring housing, shopping, recreation and jobs. It's not a grandiose town of 10,000 acres, but it works.

New Century Town features Hawthorn Center, a major shopping complex with Marshall Field and Sears as major tenants, plus about 130 smaller stores. It will have 1.4 millions square feet of space inside the enclosed mall but it could be expanded. 

Hawthorn Shopping Center, Vernon Hills, IL circa 1977

About 128 acres of New Century Town will be devoted to parks. Another 368 acres will be developed with buildings, including private and semi-private spaces. The remainder will go to roads.

New Century Town is designed to be an urbanopolois, a small well-planned community in an expansion corridor of a major metropolitan area.

It's designed to promote the orderly development of a much larger region by demonstrating what can be achieved through good planning.

It's a step forward in the art of urban planning, bring the best of what is known and adding some.

Says Philip Klutznick, Chairman of Urban, "Some people are inclined to say the cities are done; urban living is impossible. But I'm convinced the metropolitan area will continue to constitute the backbone of civilization.

"I don't believe we are at the end. We are probably at the beginning of our greatest experience."