DuPage starts process to remove land from taxing district
The clock is now ticking on a proposal to remove land from a special taxing district for the Monarch Landing property that spans the Naperville-Warrenville border.
Monarch Landing's owner - Naperville Senior Care LLC - wants to sell roughly 24 acres that used to be part of the senior living campus at Route 59 and Ferry Road. To make the sale possible, the company is asking that the vacant land be removed from a special service area for Monarch Landing.
DuPage County Board members on Tuesday started the process to form a new special service area that would exclude the 24 acres. The county is involved because the entire 76-acre site is in two municipalities - roughly 58 acres is in Naperville and the rest is in Warrenville.
"This just sets the procedure and the timeline to create an SSA that no longer contains the parcel they want to sell," said county board member Paul Fichtner, who serves as chairman of the board's finance committee.
Fichtner stressed that the county board won't take a final vote on the special service area until November. In the meantime, a public hearing must be held and opponents must be given the opportunity to file petitions.
County board members also are requiring Naperville Senior Care to host an informational meeting for Monarch Landing residents.
"This is all going to come back to us," Fichtner said. "We can say no at any time."
The existing special service area was established 11 years ago to pay for roughly $15 million in public improvements to the Monarch Landing property when it was first being developed. The special service area created a mechanism for Monarch Landing residents to pay back the 2006 loan over time.
But Erickson Retirement Communities, the nonprofit company that started Monarch Landing, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. And Naperville Senior Care, which purchased the property in 2010, doesn't think it needs the entire 76 acres to complete the senior living campus.
In 2014, Naperville Senior Care started working with Naperville and Warrenville officials to "right-size the campus," officials said.
A decision was made to split off roughly 24 acres from the rest of the campus so it could be developed. The vacant parcel is next to an industrial park with warehouses, offices and an indoor trampoline park.
Now there's a plan to sell the 24 acres so it could be used to expand the light industrial use.
Naperville Senior Care wants to refinance the outstanding debt from the 2006 bonds so a new special service area could be created. The new special taxing district would cover only the senior living campus.
A lawyer representing Naperville Senior Care said the goal is to structure the new loan so that Monarch Landing residents won't pay more than they're paying now. The loan would be repaid the same year as the original one.