Public hearing on TIF set for Sept. 16

CH trustees postpone hearing but allow residents to comment during Monday’s meeting

Pamela Lannom | Last updated Aug 21, 2024 2:27pm
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Even though the Clarendon Hills Village Board continued a public hearing on the proposed 55th Street TIF until September, trustees allowed residents who attended the meeting to speak for about an hour during the public comment portion of the agenda.

All but two of the 17 residents — from Clarendon Hills, Hinsdale and Westmont — objected to the tax increment financing district proposed for 55th Street from Western Avenue to Holmes Avenue. They questioned whether the area qualifies for a TIF and how it will impact local school districts (see sidebar). The area sends students to Maercker Elementary District 60, Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 and Hinsdale High School District 86.

Hinsdale’s Kim Notaro said the village needs to find a way to pay for needed improvements on its own.

“I’m sorry if the infrastructure isn’t there, but when you incorporated these homes, you made a promise to people in these homes to provide infrastructure, and that shouldn’t be on the back of the schools, and that shouldn’t be on the back of taxpayers,” she said.

Sinead Duffy, a Clarendon Hills resident and District 181 board member, acknowledged the issues with water pressure south of 55th street and agreed they need to be addressed.

“For me, there are other ways of funding that,” Duffy said. “I object to the TIF and I believe what you have jerry-rigged in your TIF area does not pass the test.”

Hinsdale resident Linda Burke said the TIF is a bad idea.

“At best a TIF is taxation without representation,” she said, noting that many taxpayers who will have to make up for the diverted revenue don’t live in the TIF.

District 86 board President Cat Greenspon, speaking as a resident, said the TIF hurts the very organizations that make the community so desirable.

“It scares me that this village could possibly approve a TIF district that could be so detrimental to the public school system that brings families here, that makes families want to live here,” she said.

The public hearing was continued after the Joint Review Board voted 4-3 Aug. 14 against recommending the TIF. The Clarendon Hills Village Board now needs a supermajority to approve it. Village officials have 30 days after the JRB vote to confer with taxing bodies. The public hearing will resume at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16.

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Pamela Lannom is editor of The Hinsdalean

 

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What is a TIF?

A tax increment financing district is a mechanism Illinois law allows local governments to use to establish a “redevelopment project area” to eliminate the presence of blight or prevent its onset.

When a TIF district is created, the value of property in the area is established as a base amount. The property taxes paid on this base continue to go to various taxing bodies. But tax revenue on the growth in the value of the property over the base (the “tax increment”) does not go to taxing districts. Instead, it is collected in a special fund and used to make investments in the TIF area. After the area has been redeveloped and the TIF district ends, all taxing bodies benefit from the new growth.

District 181 estimates it would lose $1 million to $3.2 million in tax revenue over 23 years. District 86 expects to lose roughly $10 million.

As EAV in a taxing district increases, its tax rate decreases. So without the increase in EAV, taxpayers would pay higher rates to generate the amount of property taxes districts are allowed to collect under the tax cap.

The TIF proposal created for Clarendon Hills by Ryan LLC indicates a TIF is needed “to overcome a number of redevelopment barriers.” It states access to transportation, infrastructure conditions, variable quality of public services and a lack of a sense of place as challenges facing the area.

The 46-acre area along 55th Street from Western Avenue to Holmes Avenue includes 70 tax parcels. Because 52 of the 65 buildings, or 80 percent, are 35 years or older, the area qualifies as a “conservation area,” according to the proposal. Additional qualifying factors include lagging or declining EAV, obsolescence, inadequate utilities, deleterious layout and lack of community planning.

After redevelopment, the area’s current estimated EAV of $14 million is expected to grow to $30 million to $40 million.

The plan shows a total estimated TIF budget of almost $29.2 million. Cost estimates are listed at almost $17.7 million for public works or improvements; almost $6.9 million for land and property acquisition and assembly costs; $2.2 million for site preparation, demolition and environmental cleanup; and about $1 million for professional services, interests, school tuition/library costs and job training. The village may borrow money through a bond issue to pay for the work, then repay the debt from the TIF fund.

The land use map included in the proposal shows new zoning for institutional south 55th Street midway between Holmes and Clarendon Hills Road. It also shows new multi-family residential zoning for the area bordered by 56th Place and 57th Street on the north and south and Holmes an Clarendon Hills Road on the east and west.

This would be Clarendon Hills’ third TIF district. It has one on Ogden Avenue between Richmond and Oxford avenues and another in the downtown business district.

For more information, visit http://www.clarendonhills.us and scroll down to the 55th Street TIF District link.