Bartlett fire, park district joins Elgin U-46 against TIF district

An advisory panel of taxing bodies has formally opposed the creation of a special taxing district in downtown Bartlett.

The joint review board recommended against the tax increment financing district in a nonbinding opinion issued Thursday afternoon. With the 5-2 vote, representatives from schools, parks and other taxing bodies that would lose out on increases in tax revenue for the length of the TIF district, urged village trustees to nix it.

A report from a village-hired consultant argues that TIF incentives could lure developers who would otherwise shun a downtown with aging buildings and utilities.

On Thursday, however, opponents said it was nothing more than a vague plan, that too closely resembles and expands on the last downtown TIF district that expired five years ago.

Most of the proposed TIF area - roughly 75 percent, Elgin Area School District U-46 officials say - would be within the previous downtown TIF district that generated more than $20 million.

"Most of the taxing bodies are looking at the same question: What's the ultimate benefit of having the TIF? Is there something concrete?," asked Bartlett Park District Commissioner Lori Palmer, comparing the TIF funds to "a generic pot that could be pulled from for various things."

In a TIF district, as redevelopment boosts property values, the village funnels the extra tax revenue that otherwise would go to the taxing bodies into a special fund that can be used to pay for improvements to the area for up to 23 years.

If property values rose 30 percent, the Bartlett Fire Protection District estimates, conservatively, a loss of $500,000 over the life of the TIF district, Chief Michael Falese said.

He called on the village to find other avenues to spark redevelopment instead of freezing property tax payments to U-46, the Bartlett library, park and fire protection districts, as well as Hanover Township.

"We would have to look at what we would have to cut," Falese said. "That's the challenge."

The proposed TIF boundaries extend from Wilmington Drive to the east, Devon Avenue to the south, Western Avenue to the west and Oneida Avenue to the north.

Within that area, the village's consultant, Kane, McKenna and Associates, Inc., found 41 percent of buildings had either major or minor defects, but opponents say the firm's report didn't distinguish between the two.

The firm also outlined general improvements for the area eligible for $17.5 million in expected revenues from the district.

The plan isn't project-driven, but provides a framework, said Jim Plonczynski, the village's community development director.

Plonczynski and Donna Weir, the public member on the joint review board and an economic development commissioner, were the lone votes in favor of the district Thursday.

"This one is more a conservation TIF," he said. "It's meant to help the existing area in the downtown and to help the existing businesses, to help the vacant storefronts and owners of those properties, possibly bring in some users to help what's here and improve it."

Residents and business will have the opportunity to speak out on the TIF district during a public hearing June 2 at village hall, 228 Main St.