Arlington Heights mayor: Bears stadium not done deal
Despite the Bears’ announced repivot in stadium development focus to Arlington Heights, village officials Monday continued to express caution that it’s not a done deal.
“When and if the Bears do make an announcement that they are coming to Arlington Heights with certainty, there’ll be a process that is going to begin, and there’ll be an enormous amount of opportunity for every resident and business owner to become educated and participate in all the dialogue that’s going to happen,” Mayor Jim Tinaglia said during a village board meeting Monday night. “And this entire board — believe me when I tell you we’ll all have something to say.”
“And it will be wonderful or it won’t be,” Tinaglia added. “We’re all committed to work for our neighborhoods here and make sure it’s a great project if it’s going to happen, but we’re still waiting on that to happen as far as the direction.”
The new mayor, sworn in two weeks ago, has been measured in his public comments since the Bears announced last Friday they are reprioritizing redevelopment of their 326-acre Arlington Park property in lieu of a possible new Chicago lakefront site.
There wasn’t a formal item about the Bears on Monday night’s meeting agenda, and Tinaglia didn’t plan to address the topic, but he was responding to public comments made by frequent meeting attendee Keith Moens.
Moens, a critic of public subsidies for any Bears redevelopment project, implored village officials to use negotiating leverage to secure community investments commensurate to any property tax giveaways the NFL franchise may receive.
“It looks like the billionaire Arlington Heights Bears have no other place to go — right back here to Arlington Heights,” Moens said. “We’re in the driver’s seat as a village right now. This is an opportunity to negotiate even more funds for education, for desperately needed available and affordable housing, for infrastructure investment, for public works, for public health and for safe streets — all in exchange for the massive property tax subsidies that will be given to the Bears later on.”
The NFL club is seeking approval of legislation in Springfield that would freeze the assessment at the old racetrack site between 23 and 40 years, then allow the team to make negotiated payments to the village, schools and other local units of government.