Wheaton council approves additional financial analysis of downtown plans

Shortly after approving additional compensation for past work, the Wheaton City Council agreed Monday to continue working with a company that is helping evaluate funding options for downtown improvements.

The city entered into an agreement with Ehlers & Associates, a Lisle-based financial advisory company, last fall. For an estimated cost of about $20,000, the company was responsible for analyzing the financial aspects of implementing the Central Area Comprehensive Plan.

However, city officials were alerted that in recent months, the scope and depth of Ehlers' analysis had continued to expand, especially when changes to existing tax increment financing, or TIF, areas were introduced as funding options. The cost of the work, as a result, exceeded $20,000.

“We had authorized that work to go forward, in order to complete the plan,” said City Manager Don Rose.

Last month, representatives from Ehlers laid out “a menu of options” for funding the proposed capital projects, which total about $53 million and are anticipated to be completed in the next 20 years. Some of the projects include a permanent French Market structure, a new Central Park, improved parking, dining alleys and the immense streetscape plans.

Ehlers has since asked for additional compensation — nearly $12,200 ­— to cover the cost of the additional work they provided. City staffers reviewed the itemization of the company's request and said the additional compensation was warranted. The council unanimously approved the request, but Councilman John Rutledge expressed some disappointment in the company.

“I think they gave us some very bad advice a couple years ago, based on my experience in real estate business,” he said. “I can't oppose this, but I'm wondering if there are other people out there that we could consider using instead of Ehlers.”

The next item the council had to vote on, however, was a resolution authorizing Ehlers to continue reviewing and evaluating funding options for the downtown work.

In particular, Rose said, additional analysis on the exact impact any changes to the TIFs would have on other taxing bodies will be necessary.

Rose said he has met with representatives from the Wheaton Park District and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 about changes to the TIFs and both said they would be willing to discuss it further.

“They do have some concerns, however, about the potential loss of revenue that they would incur by the TIFs not ending at the point in time they're scheduled to end, as well as the potential loss of revenue with the additional areas that are going to be added,” he said.

City staffers recommended Ehlers continue to do the work, Rose said, because they have familiarity with the downtown plans and have already done a lot of the financial analysis.

The council approved the agreement, though it only included hourly billing rates. Rose said Ehlers will give the city a monthly billing detail and if it gets “exorbitant or out of hand,” the council will be notified.

“I'll support this only because we're so deep in with them,” Rutledge said.

Councilwoman Suzanne Fitch added that the agreement looked “pretty open-ended.”

“It would be nice to have something in writing with the perimeters of the work,” she said.