Lombard rejects plan to waive downtown permit fees
Lombard village trustees say they’re willing to do almost anything to bring new businesses into downtown.
But they won’t initiate a proposed grant program to waive up to $2,000 in building permit fees for downtown business or property owners.
Trustees voted 4-2 to deny the grant proposal in its current form and send it back to the village board’s economic and community development committee for reconsideration.
“I see this as a Band-Aid approach and at this point I cannot comfortably put my arms around this,” Trustee Bill Ware said.
The proposal would have waived up to $2,000 in building and permit fees for any capital improvements planned by tenants or owners of commercial properties within Lombard’s downtown tax increment financing district.
Money from the TIF would have paid back the village’s general fund to make up for cash lost from waiving fees.
Trustee Keith Giagnorio said waiving building permit fees will not help downtown Lombard attract a star tenant, something he said the area around St. Charles Road, Park Avenue and Main Street desperately needs.
“I feel like we need to get an anchor down there,” Giagnorio said.
He also said it’s not the government’s role to prompt business owners and tenants to upgrade their properties.
“Government is subsidizing property owners who don’t want to do anything to their properties,” Giagnorio said. “We’re stepping in and doing what the private sector should do.”
Community Development Director Bill Heniff said the grant was designed to help Lombard’s downtown plan gain momentum by spurring short-term improvements to private businesses.
“We’re proposing a temporary grant program that will foster additional property owner and tenant investment in downtown,” Heniff said. “It’s intended to provide a small incentive program to established business and property owners.”
Heniff said the community’s downtown plan, approved in March, only can go so far without action by those working and investing in downtown.
The building permit fee grant program would have expired a year after it began, or once $20,000 in fees had been waived.
But at the current rate, reaching $20,000 in downtown building and permit fees may have taken a while. So far this year, the village has collected just $1,281 in building permit fees for work done downtown, Heniff said.
Village President Bill Mueller said he shares concerns of trustees who oppose the grant.
“I don’t think we’re going down the right path here,” Mueller said.
Trustee Peter Breen said his vote to discuss the grant at the village board level broke a tie in the economic and community development committee, which was concerned the waiver of building permit fees wouldn’t do enough to help create improvements and developer interest in downtown.
He and Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick supported the grant. Breen said he is open to reconsidering the idea in his committee.