Amid pandemic uncertainty, Buffalo Grove delays scheduling of TIF hearing
During a meeting that clearly was not business as usual, Buffalo Grove village trustees decided Monday to delay setting a public hearing on a proposed Tax Increment Financing district for the Lake-Cook Road corridor.
Proponents say the proposed district would spur economic development in the corridor, a 472-acre area bounded by Checker Drive, McHenry Road, Arlington Heights Road and Lake-Cook Road.
The board planned to schedule a May 4 public hearing on the proposal. But uncertainty over the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak, and questions about whether a mandatory Joint Review Board meeting could take place first, led board members to postpone that decision.
The Joint Review Board is a panel consisting of all the local governments that would be affected by a TIF district. A TIF works by freezing property tax payments to those governments for 23 years and funneling any new tax revenue to a special village-controlled fund to pay for public improvements within the district.
Deputy Village Manager Christopher Stilling recommended, and the board agreed, to refer the matter back to village staff so it can "proceed accordingly with an appropriate setting of a public hearing date and joint review board meeting."
The outbreak impacted the village board's entire agenda, which was drastically shortened Monday, as well as the composition of the board. Only Trustees Lester Ottenheimer III, Andrew Stein, Gregory Pike and Eric Smith attended, with Village President Beverly Sussman among those absent.
Prior to the meeting, Fire Chief Mike Baker screened every member of the public, village staff and board members in attendance. He asked whether they had a fever, chills, unusual sweats, or a runny nose not associated with an allergy, then took their temperature.
He also asked whether they had been traveling outside the country within the past 21 days.
As it turned out, Pike and Village Manager Dane Bragg recently returned from a Rotary Club service trip to Guatemala. Bragg sat in the audience apart from the board, but updated trustees on the village's response to the pandemic, which includes closing village hall and other facilities to the public, effective Tuesday.
The police department lobby will remain open to the public and the public works department will focus on core services, including water and sewer. The village is cross training with neighboring communities in case there is a "widespread outage of staff available," Bragg said, and both village golf courses are closed.