An Our Town Winnetka examination of how layered review windows, added boards, and rising discretion have made building, renovating, and opening a business slower and costlier — and how the village compares with its neighbors.

Ask anyone who has tried to renovate a kitchen, rebuild a staircase or open a storefront in Winnetka over the last five years, and you will hear a version of the same sentence: it took longer and cost more than anyone told me it would.

That frustration is not imaginary, and it is not simply the grumbling of people who dislike rules. Winnetka has, by deliberate choice, layered new ordinances, longer review windows and additional discretionary bodies on top of an already careful permitting culture — but good intentions carry a price, increasingly measured in months of delay, legal exposure and carrying costs borne by residents and businesses.