‘Stop focusing on the past’: Mundelein won’t revise impact fees for Ivanhoe Village development now
In an open letter to the community, Mundelein Mayor Robin Meier this week quashed any hopes officials with two local school districts may have of increasing the amount of cash they’ll receive from the company behind the massive Ivanhoe Village residential and commercial development.
“We have to stop focusing on the past and we cannot keep dividing our community with controversy,” Meier wrote on the village website. “We need to understand that the impact fee approval (process) has been completed, approved and doesn’t need to be reopened.”
That pronouncement puzzled state Rep. Daniel Didech, who — in response to the controversy in Mundelein — championed legislation that clarifies municipalities’ ability to impose impact fees on developers.
“Mayor Meier has promised all stakeholders that she would engage in good faith conversations with all local stakeholders after (the bill) becomes law,” said Didech, a Buffalo Grove Democrat who represents part of Mundelein. “I trust that she will keep her promise.”
That doesn’t seem to be the case. When asked directly via email if village leaders will have meaningful conversations about the impact fees once the legislation is signed, as she previously said would happen, Meier on Friday issued a two-paragraph statement.
In it, she said the village needs to move forward “to find innovative solutions that benefit our entire community” and not look back.
The legislation, Meier said in the email, “will not be a factor in this development.”
The dispute concerns the Blackhawks-owning Wirtz family’s plan to construct thousands of houses, townhouses and apartments — as well as retail and light industrial buildings — on 773 acres near Route 60 and Peterson Road. The project is proposed to be done in phases over 25 years.
Officials with Fremont Elementary District 79 and Mundelein High School District 120 expect Ivanhoe Village significantly will increase enrollment on their campuses and requested payments from the developer to cover related facility expansions.
The village board in April set an impact fee formula for the project that is expected to generate about $6.6 million for District 79 and about $4.3 million for District 120. School officials have said those sums aren’t large enough.
Village officials said they don’t have the legal authority to mandate impact fees.
The legislation Didech put forth affirms municipalities’ ability to impose fees to help fund new schools directly tied to specific housing developments. The General Assembly approved the bill this spring, and it awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature to become law.
In her letter to the community and in her email, Meier accurately noted the legislation doesn’t require villages to charge impact fees. She also said the legislation won’t retroactively apply to the Ivanhoe Village deal.
Meier defended the Ivanhoe Village impact fee formula, saying it will result in payments greater than those from other recent real estate projects. Additionally, the village persuaded Wirtz Realty to adjust the number of homes being built and the pace at which they’ll be built, Meier said.
School leaders and Wirtz Reality will be able to examine the impact of the project 10 years into construction and adjust future fees, too, village officials said.
Fremont District 79 spokesperson Nick Brilowski said the village “has the authority and obligation” to update the impact fee terms without delaying the developer’s construction timeline.
“We believe there are meaningful ways for the village to demonstrate leadership and mutually support the developer and its public schools by fairly representing the community's interests,” Brilowski said in an email.
• Daily Herald staff writer Mick Zawislak contributed to this report.