In Kenilworth, the Line Under the Parkway Belongs in the Purchase Math

Every home in Kenilworth gets a water bill about every 120 days. Each bill includes a $105 System Improvement Fee, which adds up to $315 a year before anyone runs a tap. Nobody notices that line on a showing. The pipe that runs from the street to the basement gets even less attention, and it matters more. The village's Lead Service Line Replacement Plan, updated March 17, 2026, counts 883 service lines in Kenilworth. 233 of them are lead, and none are listed as unknown.

That works out to roughly one house in four. Every one of those houses will need a new line at some point. The cost will be shared among fewer than 900 households, through a utility the village runs itself, at a time when the village is rewriting its water rates for the first time in a decade.

The 30-Day Clock on a Lead Line

Under the village's replacement plan, a leak in a lead service line requires the owner to replace the whole line. An emergency repair is allowed, but the full replacement has to follow within 30 days. If the leak is on the village-owned portion, the village makes the emergency repair, and the homeowner still has 30 days to replace the lead line in full. An owner who refuses has to sign a waiver and becomes responsible for installing and maintaining filters or other lead mitigation.

The plan says those rules come from the Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act. The Illinois EPA notes that the Act took effect January 1, 2022 and requires water systems to inventory their lines and plan their replacement.

The village has also put numbers on what a replacement costs. Over the two years before the plan was written, a full replacement from the water main to the meter averaged $12,100 in Kenilworth. The private stretch, from the shutoff valve in the parkway (the b-box) to the meter, averaged $8,532. The plan projects a 2026 range of $10,500 to $15,000 for a full line.

Ordinance No. 1400, adopted April 20, 2026, sets out what the village pays. Applied to the average private-side cost, the split looks like this:

1. The village pays 100 percent of the work from the water main to the b-box, including pavement and parkway restoration.
2. The village pays 50 percent of the b-box-to-meter work, up to a maximum of $3,000.
3. Half of an $8,532 private-side job is $4,266, so the cap applies and the village's share stops at $3,000.
4. The owner pays the remaining $5,532, plus any interior restoration such as drywall or painting, which the ordinance excludes.

Several conditions come with that money. The program is voluntary. It covers only a complete replacement of an existing lead line, and each property can use it once. Reimbursement comes after the work is finished, and the homeowner picks the licensed plumbing contractor. Funding is limited to what the board budgets each calendar year. Once that runs out, eligible applicants go on a waitlist for the next fiscal year. For an owner facing the 30-day replacement deadline in a year when the fund is already spent, the timing of that reimbursement is a real question.

Renovations are the other trigger to watch. New construction already gets a new service line. The plan says the village will hand out materials with permits for large home improvement projects encouraging replacement, and will "explore its authority to require replacement if a project meets specific requirements." To encourage owners to replace lines on their own, the village charges a flat $85 permit fee for lead line replacements and has waived additional escrow requirements.

Which Streets the Water Main Work Reaches First

Many lead lines will be replaced as part of larger work on the village's mains. A 2018 assessment of the distribution system led to a phased program to fix low water pressure and fire flows. Projects completed since then have already replaced more than 50 lead lines. The plan lists ten remaining project areas that touch 161 service lines, 66 of them lead.

On Park Avenue, 10 of 14 lines are lead. On Tudor Place, the figure is 1 of 13. The village has said it will notify residents ahead of road and main work so homeowners have time to plan a replacement at the same time, which can lower the cost and avoid patching a freshly paved street. The FY2027 budget proposal covered by North Shore Weekly includes a lead service line replacement program alongside new curbs on Woodstock Road and paving on Essex to Warwick, Kent Road and Wayland Avenue.

At the planned pace of 15 replacements a year, the last lead line in Kenilworth comes out in 2042.

A Decade of Flat Rates Meets a $10.9 Million List

The village's share of all this is paid from the water fund, and the water fund is paid for by rates. A staff memo prepared for the November 2 Committee of the Whole says Kenilworth last updated its water and sewer rates in 2016. The 2026 fee schedule charges $5.41 per 100 cubic feet of water.

The same memo lists about $10.9 million in water capital projects over the next ten years:

• Abingdon, Robsart and Tudor water mains, estimated at $2.1 million
• Green Bay Road water main, estimated at $2 million, part of which the TIF fund may absorb
• Ridge Road water main, estimated at $1.9 million
• Village-wide water meter replacement, estimated at $540,000

The study also builds in 3.7 percent annual inflation on those estimates. The lead line cost-sharing program adds a recurring cost, estimated at $90,000 a year for 15-plus years, or about $1.3 million in total.

The water fund closed 2025 with an audited balance of $811,274. In its surplus years it has grown by about $127,000 on average. At that pace, the memo estimates it would take seven to eight years to save enough to pay for a single $1 million project in cash, and possibly longer given rising operating costs and the new cost-sharing program. The other option is borrowing, which is how the village paid for earlier water main work and, most recently, the Kenilworth Beach project.

The $105 System Improvement Fee was added to cover debt. It rose from $50 to $115 in 2010, dropped to $105 in 2019, and has paid the water fund's debt service since 2010. The only remaining bond, the 2015A, makes its final payment in 2030. The Finance Committee recommended keeping the fee after 2030 rather than letting it expire with the debt, and asked for scenarios in which the fee goes up.

Why Fewer Than 900 Connections Changes the Arithmetic

Kenilworth's consultant, NewGen Strategies & Solutions, compared the village's utility debt with 17 nearby communities in a September 26, 2026 memo. The village has 877 connections serving 2,437 residents. Its current water and sewer debt is modest. The borrowing being discussed is not.

NewGen estimated the per-connection figures for the other communities from Kenilworth's own ratio of connections to residents. Wilmette's number leaves out debt from its $61.5 million Neighborhood Storage stormwater project. Winnetka, Glenview, Skokie and Riverwoods carry no water or sewer debt and pay for capital work from rates and reserves.

The three borrowing scenarios range from $6.6 million to $8.75 million in total. Any of them would put Kenilworth above every peer on both measures, at roughly 1.5 to 2 times the per-capita debt of the most leveraged peer. Even if the village's peak balance reached only half the smallest scenario, about $3.3 million, it would come to about $1,354 per resident, more than all but three peers. NewGen's explanation is that "the Village's small customer base concentrates capital costs on fewer connections."

Kenilworth has very few households to split each project among, so a $2 million main on Green Bay Road shows up in each Kenilworth water bill far more heavily than a comparable project would in a larger town. NewGen also pointed to low-interest IEPA revolving loans, which several peers use. Highland Park's newest such loan, for lead service line replacement, carries a 0 percent rate.

What Comes Next

The Finance Committee recommended a five-year rate plan to make costs predictable for both the water fund and residents. The board can still revisit rates every year. Staff set the preferred plan to come back for adoption at the November or December board meeting. Any new rates are recommended to take effect no earlier than April 2027, the second quarter, to give the village time to tell residents.

Green Bay Road is on two village timelines at once. Its water main is on the $10.9 million list, and the village's FY2027 budget book puts $240,000 toward part of the Phase I engineering for the Green Bay Road Corridor Vision. That work looks at streetscape, parking and traffic flow options together with Winnetka and is expected to finish in 2028. For owners thinking further ahead about what they can build, our look at Kenilworth's zoning rewrite covers the other set of rules attached to a Kenilworth lot.

A Few Direct Questions

Is it known whether a particular house has a lead line? The village reports that it has identified the material of all 883 service lines. It built the inventory from records and visual inspections, then followed up with a 2023 resident survey and in-home checks. The replacement plan describes a map showing line locations and known materials.

Do Kenilworth's schools, parks or clinics have lead lines? According to the plan's survey of high-risk facilities, none of Kenilworth's preschools, its K-8 school, its 12 parks and playgrounds, or its clinics has a lead line on record.

Does the cost-sharing program cover restoring landscaping or finishes? The village restores the pavement and parkway on the public side. Restoration on private property, inside or out, is not covered.

This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Owners and buyers should confirm how these rules apply to their own property with the village and the appropriate professionals.

If you're weighing a Kenilworth purchase or preparing a sale, the service line and the village's rate plan belong in the same conversation as price. Jena Radnay and her team can help you understand what a specific house brings with it. Request a Private Consultation.