Elmhurst's Aim To Revive Area Appears To Have Worked

ELMHURST, IL – In 2013, Elmhurst created a special northside tax district to improve the area and raise property values.

It appears to be working.

The tax increment financing district, or TIF, on North York Street has seen new medians, landscaping, lighting and other upgrades.

The district includes Mariano's grocery store, which opened a few months after the city launched the district. The district provided financial help to the store.

The city has credited the district for the openings of other new businesses, including LA Fitness, Thorntons gas station and Goldfish Swim School.

In such a tax district, a town can freeze the tax base for 23 years and collect property taxes on the growth in property values during that period. The idea is to spur development, with money earmarked for improvements.

Towns don't have to share the proceeds with other taxing bodies. But many do.

Elmhurst's agreement with the district and other taxing bodies required the city to start sharing 10 percent of the proceeds in the 11th year.

Elmhurst District 205, which makes up nearly three-fourths of the tax bill, is the major recipient.

2025 was the first year of the sharing, with the district receiving $141,000. It increased to $155,000 last year.

On Wednesday, Mayor Scott Levin presented the school board with a $168,000 check. That's a nearly 20 percent increase in three years.

"This TIF has gone very well, as have all our TIFs," Levin said. "At the end of the TIF, there will be a whole lot more to share in tax revenues for both the school district and the city."

He said the relations between the city and the district years ago "weren't quite as warm as they are now."

Over the last six years, Levin said, the relationship has improved, adding that he meets with the school board president a couple of times a year.

The president, Athena Arvanitis, agreed.

"We're in full 100 percent agreement about how pleased we are with our working relationship with you, the city staff and aldermen," Arvanitis said.

2019 was a low point in the relationship.