Barrington opposition slate has new member

Just hours after the 2012 national, state and county campaign concluded, a new candidate was announced Wednesday for Barrington’s April 2013 village board election.

JoAnn Fletcher will join the challengers’ slate started in August by longtime residents and businessmen Jim Magnanenzi and Mike Kozel. All three will run for village trustee positions.

Though another candidate may join the slate to run for village president, Magnanenzi said he, Fletcher and Kozel, who ran unsuccessfully in 2011, have already decided it won’t be them.

“We prefer the chances of winning three trustee seats,” he said.

Fletcher works for Angel Guardian, LLC, which specializes in making building modifications that allow aging seniors to continue living in their homes.

Meanwhile, Village President Karen Darch and Trustee Tim Roberts are seeking re-election on a slate that also will include residents Pete Douglas and Sue Padula. Douglas previously ran for the board, unsuccessfully, in 2009.

Village Clerk Adam Frazier also will seek re-election, Darch said Wednesday. Current trustees Beth Raseman and Steve Miller, whose terms end next spring, aren’t planning to run again.

Magnanenzi and Kozel started campaigning during the summer, citing their concerns with the current board’s management of the redevelopment project at the southwest corner of Hough and Main streets, as well as the tax-increment finance district intended to spur commercial growth downtown.

They say they’re trying to spread awareness that $23 million from the TIF district fund has been spent on the Hough-Main project without any solid plan to recapture the money.

They also argue that the pending project should offer rental apartments on the two floors above its first-floor retail space, not office space as currently proposed. Additional residential space would build up the consumer base for downtown businesses, they argue.

Magnanenzi and Kozel also have criticized the village’s downtown building height restriction of three stories as an obstacle to economic growth downtown.

Darch said the village’s financial plan for the redevelopment project is sound and secure. She added that no restrictions were put on the developer chosen for the project other than to design something the market would support.

Village officials have said in recent months that the three-story height restriction is based not only on their own opinions but on those of the entire community as reflected in a recent survey.