Clarendon Hills Limited In Developing 55th St. Area: Village

CLARENDON HILLS, IL – Clarendon Hills trustees may give their views Monday on whether the village should proceed with a special tax district that three local school districts oppose.

Under a proposal, the tax increment financing district, or TIF, would be designed to spur development in the area along 55th Street, village officials say.

With such a district, taxes generated from the growth in the tax base would go to the district, not to the other government bodies.

In a memo released Friday, the village said the tax district – in the best-case scenario – would not even generate 1 percent of the combined $240 million in combined annual school budgets.

After 23 years, which is the period for tax districts in Illinois, the village expects a substantially bigger tax base, particularly for Maercker School District 60, the memo said.

Also, the development of a tax-exempt site such as River of Life Community Church, which is now for sale, could offset any TIF income that the other taxing bodies lose, according to the memo.

But that cannot happen without a tax district generating money for at least partially covering the cost of water system improvements, the village said.

"(T)he village is limited in adding additional properties to the municipal water system due to water pressure/capacity issues," the memo said.

Last month, a committee of taxing bodies voted 3-2 against Clarendon Hills' proposal. Because of that, the tax district requires the support of a three-fifths supermajority of the Village Board.

The village has offered elements of a compromise to other taxing bodies. They include:

• Giving 20 percent of the extra tax income to the other taxing bodies.
• Giving 50 percent of the extra tax income from the Jewel property to the other taxing bodies.
• Giving 100 percent of the extra tax income for houses on the north side of 55th Street from Western to Prospect avenues to the other bodies.
• Ending the Ogden Avenue TIF four years early and refunding the existing balance
• Removing large homes on Western Avenue from the proposed tax district. They were included only because they were at the low point of the water system and seen as a potential site for a water storage tank, the village said. "(R)emoving these parcels would address one frequently mentioned concern, but at the expense of restricting options for a future water tank location," the memo said. Critics of the proposal have complained that the high-dollar houses on Western Avenue are a reason why the tax district does not need development.

Hinsdale High School District 86 has been leading the public campaign against the tax district.

At Thursday's school board meeting, member Jeff Waters again spoke out against it.

"Raising awareness of this TIF is important. In fact, it's an absolute necessity. The TIF is inappropriate," he said. "It desperately needs community opposition to ensure it fails to gain passage."

Here is the map of the proposed tax district in Clarendon Hills: