Working together Development deal an example of suburban neighborliness

It's not every day that we write about something that happens according to plan. Especially when it comes to the functions of government.

After all, as taxpayers we pay good money for things to go right.

But sometimes we should, especially when it involves neighboring towns and millions of dollars at stake.

Of course, with a scenario like that, things often don't go well. They often didn't in the formative years of the suburbs, when there still was wide-open swathes of unincorporated land between municipalities, tax bases to grow and lots of money to be made.

We're reminded of the squabbles some years ago between Vernon Hills and Libertyville, between Lisle and Downers Grove, between Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates and between Lake and the Hills and Huntley.

The maturing of the suburbs and the filling in of gaps between towns has eliminated many of the potentially rancorous disputes between neighbors.

And that's what we've become, for the most part, good neighbors to one another.

Case in point: Our Steve Zalusky wrote this week about a collegial deal between the neighboring municipalities of Palatine and Deer Park.

Persin & Robbin Jewelers will build a store next year at the southeast corner of Lake-Cook and Quentin roads, thanks in part to intergovernmental cooperation between the towns.

|The land upon which the store will be built consists of three parcels - one in Deer Park, and two in Palatine.

The villages and a developer created an agreement under which Palatine gets a share of the sales tax and is compensated for the loss of property taxes, while the store will fall within Deer Park's boundaries.

Palatine, for its part, will provide utility service.

This is what neighboring municipalities should be doing - creating win-win scenarios for their residents.

Going to war over potential money often turns off developers, and no one wins.

Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen said the site had been dormant for 20 years because without cooperation it wasn't big enough for either town on its own.

A notable exception to suburban harmony exists between Carpentersville and West Dundee over what should happen to down-on-its-heels Spring Hill Mall, which straddles the border and last year a proposal for a warehouse development between them. Let's hope those wounds heal soon.