Lake Zurich keeps special service area

A special taxing area created more than a decade ago to care for a wetland area in Lake Zurich will remain in place, although the cost is expected to be spread more equitably.

“The village is going to change it’s administrative procedure for the Special Service Area 9,” Mayor Suzanne Branding said this past week.

The parties in the special service area will pay a percentage of the value of their properties rather than a flat rate, officials said. Also, more parties will pay into the fund, meaning the cost to about two dozen homeowners should drop.

The area was established in 2000 in an agreement with a developer to raise funds to maintain a wetland behind a commercial area on the northwest corner of routes 12 and 22.

The Willow Ponds Professional Center was included as a single entity, but going forward each of about 10 units will pay a share. Residents in the Willow Ponds subdivision have borne the majority of the cost.

The district is set up to generate $11,950 per year, and its existence has been a continuing issue discussed several times since last spring by the village board and frustrated homeowners.

Homeowners have been paying about $543 per year, said Aaron Karstens, a Willow Ponds resident who has spoken at board meetings and sent village officials detailed information outlining their opposition.

The debate essentially revolved around whether the special service area was created and is administered correctly.

Homeowners in some adjoining areas contribute to the runoff that goes into the wetland but do not contribute to its maintenance.

“We really don’t contribute (runoff) at all, yet we are the ones tasked with paying the entire expense,” Karstens said recently.

“That’s in the process of being corrected,” Branding said.

Karstens said the individual bills to homeowners are about $543 a year. Information presented during the Jan. 17 village board discussion showed residents should pay about one third less as a result of the adjustments.

At that board meeting, the board split 3-3 on an ordinance to dissolve the special service area, meaning the motion failed for a lack of a majority. Branding cast the final vote which resulted in a tie.

She said the village attorney said the area was formed legally and the village engineer said it is functioning properly.

“Everything that I looked at was fine,” she said. “I couldn’t pull the trigger.”