Mayoral candidates look to future of downtown Lake Zurich

With the Lake Zurich village board's recent approval of an agreement with Equity Services Group LLC in mind, candidates for village president Scot Unger, Trustee Suzanne Branding and incumbent John Tolomei are looking toward the future of downtown.

The agreement gives ESG the exclusive right to buy village-owned property within specified project areas during four separate opportunity periods. The developer has until Sept. 30, 2010 to submit plans for the first project.

The village is planning to bring a mix of residential, retail and office space to its downtown, and to make it a more pedestrian-friendly area.

Branding said she first wants to see studies done in areas such as environmental impact, sewer and water, stormwater and traffic, before ESG makes its initial project proposal.

"We're going to be forced to play a little catch up because some of the things that should have been done were not," she said.

Branding said she wants the village to make sure it has all the necessary information before it starts any projects downtown, so it can avoid another false start similar to the situation with McCaffery Interests of Chicago. The village ended that agreement in 2007 saying the developer breached the contract, but the end of that contract is still being settled.

Tolomei said it would be good to conduct some of these studies, but requiring them all of ESG would be ridiculous. He added he does not want to see the redevelopment repeatedly stalled as a result.

Tolomei is confident ESG has the finances, experience and motivation to complete the redevelopment, and that this will not be another false start.

"Before they can get the (village-owned property), they would have to make millions of dollars in investments - designs, private property purchases ... Who would make millions of dollars in investments to just sit on it?" he said.

Tolomei's vision of downtown Lake Zurich is smaller than that of Palatine and Arlington Heights, but large enough to meet the needs of the growing community. He said he wants the redevelopment to go ahead with the plans ESG has made public, which can be viewed at www.destinationlakezurich.com.

Unger, an independent candidate, said he wants to see staff members from ESG and the village sit down together and lay out a schedule of who needs to do what for the length of the project.

"It's a big complicated project, but you have to get down to the details to get it done," he said.

All the candidates agree the redevelopment needs to move forward with the village's new developer.

"It's a matter of implementing the duties and obligations each party has," Unger said.