Glen Ellyn meeting over taxing district draws vocal crowd

Glen Ellyn trustees will revisit the boundaries of newly drawn special service areas after residents packed the boardroom Monday and objected to plans to include condominiums and townhouses in a taxing district aimed at economic development.

But districts aimed at raising revenue for the Glen Ellyn volunteer fire department will move on to their next step.

Village President Mark Pfefferman said the decision to look into the economic district comes from both listening to the public as well as seeing what economic benefit, if any, those residents would receive.

He said the night evolved as a good example of a public meeting.

"Everybody was cool and collected, they came well prepared, we listened and we reacted," he said after the four-hour meeting. "That's democracy in action. I'm very proud of it."

More than half of the four hours were devoted to residents who felt they should be removed from the tax district.

The board will hold a workshop Monday to determine how they might go about removing some residences, as the meeting brought up several issues trustees said they had not thought of before.

Chief among those was the concern that some properties very near those affected had similar characteristics, yet were being excluded.

Trustee Jim Comerford was the first to bring up the possibility of redrawing the boundaries.

"Part of the purpose of a public hearing is to get input from residents," he said.

Many in attendance told the board that they would not reap economic benefits from the special service areas, with those benefits mainly going toward the development of commercial properties within the boundaries.

Gerri Bentel is president of the Glenstone Association at 570 Crescent Ave. She said she felt better after the meeting than she felt when she first arrived.

Because the public meeting was closed, a 60-day period for residents to file a petition against the measure has started.

"I feel in my heart that they really want to do away with (some residences)," she said. "But I don't know if we have the luxury of not starting to gather our petition."

Also at the meeting, the board passed an ordinance moving the special service areas in unincorporated areas north and south of town to their next step. Residents will now have 60 days to petition the village to remove the districts.

The service areas would levy an additional property tax on residents who right now fall under Glen Ellyn's fire company's jurisdiction. If 51 percent of property owners and voters within the area sign, the levy would be removed.

Fire Chief Scott Raffensparger said he was pleased with the results and that if residents do end up defeating the measure, the department was ready to cease coverage of the area because of financial reasons.