Schaumburg wants to clean up a key gateway to town. There's only one problem

Every community wants to look its best and hopes that begins with a strong first impression right at its entrance, but not all factors going into that can be so easily controlled.

The profile of Schaumburg's northeast corner has been rising steadily during the 21st century, a trend expected to continue with the ongoing redevelopment of the former Motorola campus and the imminent start of an entertainment district around the village's 16-year-old convention center and adjoining Renaissance Hotel.

But on the exact spot along Algonquin Road that village officials feel is perfect for a welcoming gateway sign is what they see as a problem: a quarter-acre of unincorporated land housing a crumbling, abandoned hot dog stand and the type of highway billboard that's prohibited in Schaumburg's village limits.

The village's yearslong efforts to annex and acquire the property on the northwest corner of Thoreau Drive have fallen flat, Mayor Tom Dailly said. That's even when the village tried to sweeten the deal by tossing in 10 years' worth of the revenue that would be generated by the double-sided billboard.

"It's planted on the hot dog stand," Dailly said of the billboard. "It's really kind of out of place."

Dailly said the desire to erase the eyesore goes well back into the tenure of his predecessor, Al Larson.

"We've always wanted to acquire that corner," he said.

Negotiating a deal hasn't been made any easier by the fact that even Cook County officials have been unable to locate the site's owner to serve notice of code violations.

The Daily Herald also was unable to make contact with the property owner this week, despite reaching out to the most recent attorney to represent the owner for tax purposes, the leasing agency for the billboard, and a lingering phone number to lease the now dilapidated Frankly Yours restaurant building.

Many of the public improvements in that area are being funded by property taxes earmarked for that purpose through a village-created tax increment financing district.

The funding would not automatically be eligible for improvements at the corner of Algonquin and Thoreau, even if the village annexed the land, Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said.

The TIF district could be amended to include the property, but it would require all the same procedures and notifications that were needed to establish the TIF district in the first place, he added.

A TIF district expires after 23 years or when all of the eligible costs within it have been paid off, whichever comes first.