Des Plaines to reconsider funding for facade rehab program

Des Plaines city officials are reconsidering how much money is allocated yearly to the city’s facade rehabilitation program that offers grants to downtown businesses trying to spruce up their buildings.

City aldermen discussed the issue during a recent budget hearing and will vote tonight on whether to spend $100,000 toward the program as part of a roughly $114 million proposed budget for expenditures in 2012.

“We have been spending $100,000 for four or five years. I want to see what have we gotten in those four or five years,” Des Plaines 4th Ward Alderman Dick Sayad said.

Sayad said he would favor lowering the amount of the yearly allocation considering the city awarded only $20,283 in grants in 2010.

“I think it’s a little bit too much money,” Sayad said. “We have a couple of businesses that we have given money to — they are not here anymore.”

City officials estimate they will spend the entire $100,000 allocated this year.

The program is funded through revenues from the downtown tax increment financing district. A portion of the money is used to provide grants to downtown businesses for awning replacement.

Aldermen also want to develop new guidelines for administering the program.

“I’d like it more defined on who gets the money, where it goes to, what type of organization gets it,” 2nd Ward Alderman John Robinson said. “I was under the delusion that it’s somebody that generates taxes back to the city, not just for a blank remodeling job.”

Ward 5 Alderman James Brookman said the city should not discriminate between downtown businesses when it comes to awarding grants.

“I don’t agree with the idea that we should only allow this for tax-generating businesses,” he said. “I think that’s punitive.”

Brookman suggested monies left in the fund should be rolled over to the next fiscal year.

Finance Committee Chairman and 3rd Ward Alderman Matt Bogusz assured that before the city spends a dollar in 2012 on facade rehab grants, the rules will be ironed out.

Some aldermen believe the city should be doing more for downtown businesses, not less, in the current economy.

“I don’t think there’s a more important time for the city to invest in downtown than right now,” 6th Ward Alderman Mark Walsten said. “Metropolitan Square owners are in trouble. It’s been bad enough the way it is. People have talked about it as a ghost town.”

Walsten said the city should consider increasing the allocation for the program since the downtown TIF is projected to have a surplus of $3.2 million in 2012.

“We’ve got millions of dollars in this TIF area,” he said. “The time will come when it expires, that all the money has to go back to the other entities. The whole idea of having this money is to use (it) in the TIF where it is to promote business, make it a better place, bring people in, to get tax revenue out of it.”

Ward 8 Alderman Mike Charewicz said the city should increase the allocation, but also direct staff to spend it wisely.

“We could put the money in the program and make it so stringent that it never gets spent,” he said. “We are spending it to make sure we are encouraging development in that area.”

Sayad said he would consider increasing funding for the program after reviewing the policy developed by staff.

The city council will conduct its final review of the proposed 2012 budget, which includes no property tax levy increase from the previous year, at a meeting Wednesday night. It is expected to approve the budget at the meeting.

The council also will review a study of the city’s water and sewer rate at the meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in Room 102 of City Hall.