Home Values Plunge Near Elmhurst Pizzeria

ELMHURST, IL – Neighbors opposed planned parking lots behind Roberto's Pizzeria in Elmhurst, but a narrow City Council majority approved them in fall 2021.

Residents said the lots would create more noise, traffic and flooding. And all that, they said, would decrease property values.

Representatives of Roberto's, 483 Spring Road, denied such impacts.

But on the issue of property values, the neighbors may have been right. Recent assessments by the York Township Assessor's Office sharply reduced the values of two houses.

In the short run, that's good news, meaning lower property tax bills. But it'll likely be bad when it comes time to sell, resulting in far lower sales prices.

The two houses nearest the parking lots saw significant declines in value. The one at 270 Eggleston Ave. is now assessed at $518,760, down from $629,100, a 21 percent drop.

Across the street is 266 Eggleston, where the value fell to $545,130, from $784,950, a 44 percent decrease.

In an interview, Deputy Assessor Julie Patterson pointed to the parking lots as the reason for the reduction in value. She also attributed the value decreases to sales of comparable houses in the neighborhood.

In the interview and documents, Patterson referred to a parking structure or garage as going up next to the houses. However, the City Council approved a parking lot, not a garage or structure.

In a follow-up email, Patterson wrote, "From my initial conversation with (a) homeowner, I was under the impression that it was the village doing the parking lots/garage. My assessment would not change if it’s a lot or a garage structure being built."

Dannee Polomsky, whose term as an Elmhurst alderwoman expired last week, recommended approval of the parking lots as the chairwoman of the council's Development, Planning and Zoning Committee. The two other members opposed them.

In a recent email to Patch, Polomsky said the city needs to consider the anticipated real property value impact of a proposed change such as a parking lot.

"In the Roberto's case, all of the evidence on the record (which pertained to residential properties in Elmhurst) demonstrated that the neighbors' property values would not be substantially negatively impacted," Polomsky said.

She said the city must base its decision on the evidence gathered by its Zoning and Planning Commission. Such decisions take into account the real values of properties as documented by home sales, not the amounts assessed for tax purposes.

"The fact that the York Township Assessor has a policy of discounting by 20% the assessed equalized value of residential lots adjacent to parking lots does not evidence that any particular property will, in fact, lose any significant value," Polomsky said.

In such situations, it is common for a municipality to see evidence showing that a change would not hurt nearby property values and other evidence demonstrating it would, she said.

"In the Roberto's case, there was zero evidence that neighbors' property values would be significantly negatively impacted," Polomsky said.

In an interview, attorney Mark Daniel, who represented neighbors, said Roberto's brought in assessment evidence it believed would make the case that the parking lots would not affect property values.

But Daniels said the information would never be allowed in court because it was not an accurate predictor of values.

"(The city) should not have considered it," Daniel said.

Otis Dungan, who lives at 270 Eggleston, said the Roberto's parking lots have decimated the cash value of homes.

"All this destruction done for one business," he said in a message to Patch.

Roberto's bought houses behind its restaurant and then tore them down to make way for the parking lots.

Scott Day, an attorney for Roberto's, did not return a message for comment.