Roselle, Hanover Park seek boundary pact

Roselle and Hanover Park are proposing a pact to detail each village’s claim to annex unincorporated land between the towns.

The proposed boundary agreement would apply to unincorporated parcels south of Lake Street along Gary Avenue. It would make Gary the dividing line between both villages for the next 20 years, with Roselle getting land east of Gary.

Talk of the agreement comes three years after a previous boundary pact expired. The proposed deal calls for the same geographical division as the old one.

Roselle’s village board agreed Monday to pursue the agreement. If Hanover Park officials decide to move ahead, votes to finalize the agreement would come in August.

Officials say the proposal is positive for Roselle because it gives the village two more decades controlling the southeast corner of Gary and Lake.

Patrick Watkins, Roselle’s community development director, said there’s value in establishing an “ultimate boundary” because it prevents developers from playing one jurisdiction off another for financial or zoning benefits.

“In essence,” Watkins wrote in a memorandum, “it protects the interest of the communities involved from being ‘pitted against one another’ by a developer.”

Watkins said boundary agreements also help developers by letting them know which jurisdiction to approach regarding a specific piece of land.

“It keeps them from having to knock on two or three different doors and trying to figure out who they can really do a deal with,” Watkins said.

Roselle already has a boundary agreement that gives Bloomingdale a claim on unincorporated land south of Foster Avenue along the Gary. That pact was approved in 2007.