Arlington Heights restarts process to create new TIF
With scheduling already delayed by the coronavirus, Arlington Heights officials will try to restart the process to set up a new tax increment financing district to spur redevelopment at the southern gateway to town.
An initial joint review board meeting of representatives of local government taxing bodies is now set for 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, at village hall, though it's likely the public session will take place on Zoom or some other online platform, village officials said.
The meeting was to be held March 18, but that was the same day officials decided to close village hall to the public in the wake of the growing COVID-19 virus.
In the first village board meeting in more than a month, village trustees met last Monday over video conference, where they approved a number of routine items that included setting new dates for initial TIF meetings.
Following the May 5 meeting of area taxing districts, the village's redevelopment commission will take up the matter at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, and hold a formal public hearing to collect comments from citizens. It's possible that meeting could take place by video conference as well, officials said.
“We're just taking it one step at a time, and trying to figure how to keep some of these business items moving that are important to the community,” said Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village's director of planning and community development.
The village board would take final action on setting up the TIF, an economic development tool by which property taxes above a certain point would be funneled into public and private projects instead of local governments like schools, parks and the library. The new TIF — which would be Arlington Heights' sixth ever — is proposed for a 65-acre area along Arlington Heights Road, from the Jane Addams Tollway to Seegers Road.
Officials have been eyeing ways to rejuvenate the village's southern entryway over the last few years. In 2018, the village published a 50-page South Arlington Heights Road Corridor Plan that recommended a host of improvements, from installing landscaped medians to relocating sidewalks 8-10 feet away from curbs, as a way to upgrade aesthetics and walkability.
And last year, the board loosened zoning standards on 17 acres of the southeast corner of Arlington Heights and Algonquin roads to replicate the higher density of the village's downtown. Bradford Allen, a Chicago-based commercial real estate firm that owns several properties on the corner, has indicated that TIF assistance could be helpful for its proposed town center that could include multifamily homes, entertainment, restaurants, offices and a hotel.