The Glen census outcome guides distribution of millions
Besides the once every 10-year tally underway by the U.S. Census Bureau, residents of The Glen in Glenview are being asked to participate in a separate head count.
However, the village request is old hat for residents of the master-planned town within a town on the site of the former Glenview Naval Air Station.
In fact, The Glen census has been held every June for 20 years. Over that time, a per-person formula has guided the distribution of about $300 million to six taxing bodies.
Officially known as the Tax Increment Financing District Census, the annual count is used to calculate how much in property taxes - accrued through the added value of development within the district - will be distributed.
The six entities that share the wealth are: Northbrook/Glenview District 30; Glenview District 34; Glenbrook High School District 225; Glenview Park District; Glenview Public Library and the village of Glenview.
A TIF district is an economic development tool in which property values are frozen for local taxing bodies for a period of years while taxes collected on increased property values go toward public improvements in the district.
But Glenview is a special case.
"I had to go to Springfield and advocate for new legislation for the TIF," said Nancy Firfer, a longtime village resident who as village president from 1993 to 2001 oversaw the process that set the stage for development.
A subsequent state law automatically qualified any closed military base of more than 500 acres to automatically qualify as a TIF district.
Commissioned in 1937, Glenview Naval Air Station became the primary training facility for Navy cadets. The federal government in 1993 decided the base was no longer needed and it closed two years later.
In the interim, village officials made a case for the local control. In late 1993, the village was given authority by the Department of Defense to plan and implement redevelopment of the sprawling 1,121-acre site.
"We decided we wanted to be in charge because it would be too much of an impact if it went wrong," said Don Owen, deputy village manager. Owen, who had retired from the Navy, was hired to manage The Glen project and has been with the village since.
Officials wanted it to be a collaborative effort. A task force of all jurisdictions was created and fashioned a re-use plan for the property outlining development goals.
Rather than being frozen out of the increased amount of property taxes, the other entities were to be reimbursed.
"One of the reasons a TIF is a four-letter word is the school districts rely so much on property taxes," Owen said. "We put in our TIF law an ability to make payments to core jurisdictions to make them whole on an annual basis."
To date, the TIF has generated about $500 million. About $300 million has been disbursed as "make whole" payments.
Figures provided by the village estimate the 2020 increment at about $30 million with $20 million to be distributed. That includes about $8 million for Glenbrook High School District 225.
The district uses the revenue for general operations as a result of increased enrollment from The Glen, according to Spokeswoman Tarah O'Connell.
This past school year, more than 370 students from The Glen attended Glenbrook South. The make whole payment is a replacement for the property taxes that would have been collected if homes in The Glen were not in a TIF.
"Based on our calculations, the amount of the payments have been roughly the same amount that we would have received from the property taxes," O'Connell said.
About 5,500 people live in the 15 residential areas of The Glen, accounting for about 12 percent of the village's population.
The Glen residents can return a postage-paid envelope or complete the census online. In past years, representatives of the village would knock on doors at addresses where residents hadn't responded but whether that will happen this year given the coronavirus is to be determined.
The TIF district will expire on Dec. 31, 2022, so there will be only two more annual census counts.
Did it work? Owen said economic development leaders from Russia, Mexico, Canada and Germany have come to Glenview to check it out.
"The proof is in the numbers of people who visited the Glen to find out what we did and how we did it," he said.
Besides residential development, The Glen includes 84 acres of retail and commercial uses, including The Glen Town Center; a corporate campus; more than 400 acres of sports and leisure space, including the exclusive Glen Club golf course; police headquarters; a fire station and Metra train station.
Village officials say the project has been a success.
"That was one of our goals - the project had to pay for itself," Owen said.
The Glen also has become part of town rather than a stand-alone entity as evidenced by before and after photos.
"You can't really tell where it was," Firfer said of the former naval station. "It didn't happen by accident."
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