Hoffman Estates hires consultant for 185-acre TIF district
Hoffman Estates village board members voted 5-2 Monday to pay a consultant $28,500 to work with them on considering a $21 million property tax reimbursement for a developer — as long as the developer pays for the consultant's contract.
“It's their development; it should be their cost,” Hoffman Estates Village Manager Jim Norris said of the development partnership of Golden Goose Enterprises LLC.
The project under consideration, Plum Farms, calls for building houses, apartments and businesses on the now-vacant 185 acres at the northwest corner of routes 59 and 72.
Hoffman Estates resident Anthony Iatarola, who represents the partnership, said a partial property tax reimbursement is being sought to help mitigate the challenges of building on the land.
These challenges include wetlands, flood plains, buried construction debris and a natural gas pipeline, all of which would need to be either removed or relocated, he said.
The reimbursement he seeks would be made possible by a tax increment finance district, which freezes the amount of property tax paid to each local government at the level of the district's first year. As the value of the property increases, the additional property tax paid by the landowner would go to a village-held fund to pay for public improvements on the site.
A TIF district expires when all such improvements are paid for or after 23 years — whichever comes first.
While some trustees have acknowledged that there are obstacles to building on the site, Mayor Bill McLeod and Trustee Anna Newell have consistently voted against any consideration of a TIF district for the project.
On Monday, McLeod and Newell voted yes only on the earlier vote that the developer be responsible for the cost of hiring TIF consultants SB Friedman Development Advisors of Chicago for the approximately five-month process of considering a TIF district.
If a TIF district is ultimately approved, the cost of the consultant would be reimbursable from the funds it collects. But the decision McLeod and Newell voted in favor of ensures Golden Goose Enterprises would pay the cost even if a TIF district isn't approved.