Wheaton council starts looking at how to fund downtown projects

Wheaton City Council members began discussing the next steps for securing funding for future projects and programs identified in the downtown area during a planning session Monday.

Municipal Advisor Jennifer Tammen of Ehlers, a Lisle-based financial advisory company, laid out "a menu of options" for funding the proposed capital projects, which total about $53 million - about $4 million a year - and covering the cost of annual maintenance in the downtown area and programming costs, which together will likely amount to about $754,000 a year.

The projects are part of the "Wheaton Downtown Strategic and Streetscape Plan," which was approved by the council in early 2014. They include a permanent French Market structure, a new Central Park, improved parking, dining alleys and the immense streetscape plans. The work is anticipated to be completed in the next 20 years.

"I think what I'm suspecting we'll find is that you'll also want to look at that list of improvements and kind of prioritize them and see which of those we do now, we do later, we maybe don't do at all," said City Manager Don Rose.

Tammen said the potential revenue sources include the extension of existing tax increment financing districts; special service areas; home rule sales tax, food and beverage tax or business district sales tax; the creation of a special assessment district; and general obligation debt financing.

She laid out a scenario that used all those sources to generate the nearly $4.8 million that will be needed each year, but said there are many different combinations for how the money could be raised.

The council members agreed that it makes sense to start exploring the TIF options, as the two existing TIFs would likely bring in about $4 million a year if they are extended when they expire in 2016 and 2021.

The next biggest source of revenue could be from a 1 percent local sales tax, which has potential to bring in about $3.8 million a year, but the council members said they would like to stay away from taxes as much as possible.

With a TIF, the hope is that new development or redevelopment will increase the tax base, generating additional property taxes over time. Those new monies would then go toward paying for development, rather than other taxing bodies, such as the Wheaton Park District and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200.

"Unless you do get their cooperation, it's not going to go," Rose said.

But councilwoman Liz Corry said she felt there is a lot of room for compromise among the taxing bodies. She said she would like to see city staff meeting with representatives from the other taxing bodies in the near future.

"Certainly the downtown improvement benefits the entire city: property values, school values, everything. It's just such a good project," she said.

Councilman Phil Suess said he also supports the TIF idea, but warned that the council should be prepared if the taxing bodies aren't in agreement and the city is forced to look at other options.

"I'm just concerned there's going to be challenges associated with that," he said.