Sugar Grove OKs incentive-financing district for land near airport
The Sugar Grove village board Tuesday decided to offer financial incentives to attract industrial and commercial development to 634 acres near the Aurora Municipal Airport.
It did so over the objection of the Sugar Grove Library board, whose officials again said postponing increases in property taxes the library receives from the properties would harm the library. Residents of the Windsor West subdivision also opposed it, because they don't want industrial or commercial businesses built next to their neighborhood.
The village board approved a redevelopment plan; created the Northeast Airport Area Tax Increment District 2; and agreed to implement tax-increment financing for it. Trustee David Paluch voted against the first two measures. Trustee Kevin Geary voted against all three.
Geary suggested the matter be tabled to try to work out deals for compensation with the other taxing districts. He also said he voted "no" because of the many people who told him they opposed it.
However, he noted that many of the people speaking against the TIF district Tuesday, and at a hearing in April, had said their property tax bills were too high and that they needed relief.
"If you want to fix the tax base, the TIF really is the way to get you there to defer or offset some of those taxes," Geary said.
The village has offered to pay the library and fire districts amounts equal to what they would have received in increased property taxes normally, without development. It estimates that at $500 a year for the fire district and $200 a year for the library. It also offered to pay the two districts the increase in property taxes that would come from the development of the first building constructed with TIF assistance.
"If you have to hand out money to silence the opposition, then there is something wrong with the plan," said Louise Coffman, treasurer of the library board.
In a TIF district, property taxes received by government bodies are frozen at the amounts they are receiving when the district is created. Anything above that is instead used to pay for items that improved the land to attract development. In this TIF's case, that could include extending sanitary sewer and water lines.
According to a report on the village website, developers have investigated building on the land, but have decided not to because of such costs. The report estimates there could be nearly $46 million of eligible costs.