Geneva considering $185 million aid plan to spur industrial, commercial development
The Geneva City Council will vote Monday on whether to possibly offer up to $185 million in property-tax-funded aid to get commercial and industrial development on the city’s far southeast side.
The aid would come through a proposed tax increment financing district for 297 acres of mostly vacant land west of the Kane-DuPage county line, north of Fabyan Parkway and south of Route 38.
The land has not been annexed to the city. But the city has already received two annexation requests, including one for a 211-acre business park.
The land is included in the city’s Southeast Master Plan, which was approved 12 years ago. The SEMP called for the area to be built out with commercial and industrial uses to increase the city’s property tax base without adding residences.
The vote on Monday would start the public hearing process for creating TIF District 4.
A consultant hired by the city says that the land qualifies to be a TIF district because some of the vacant land is blighted. It is blighted, according to the consultant, because it chronically floods and stormwater runoff from the land contributes to downstream flooding of Kress Creek, the Fox River and the Mississippi River, according to the consultant’s report.
The report says blighted areas have “blighting influences that are impacting the public safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community and are substantially impairing the growth of the tax base in the area.”
The report estimates $86 million of public works projects would be needed, including adding an electrical substation.
Much of the vacant land was used for farming, for more than a century. There was also a grove of bur oak trees — some more than 300 years old — until a landowner cut them down last year.
In a tax increment financing district, property tax payments to governments, including schools and park districts, are frozen at the current level for 23 years. Any increase in property taxes ‒ the “increment” ‒ that comes in is set aside in a special fund, and used to pay for the work that led to an increased value for the site.
In the case of the proposed TIF, that could include such things as the cost of extending city water and sewer lines to the site and building or widening roads. These costs are typically charged to the builders of projects.
The city could front the cost of the expenses and recoup the money from the TIF fund. The report notes one way to do that is for the city to borrow money. The city has to prove that “but for” the use of this financing, developers would not be interested in building projects there.
The city council meeting is at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 109 James St.