District 204 Raises Concerns About Route 59 Corridor Plans

NAPERVILLE, IL — Indian Prairie School District 204 officials say they support the addition of senior housing along the Route 59 corridor that's shared with Aurora, but they do not support tax increment funding for this and other proposed developments. The school board also expressed concerns about additional students that would come from a multi-unit development proposed as part of Aurora's work on the Route 59 corridor.

On Tuesday, members of the Aurora City Council voted in favor of the Cedarwood senior housing development in a vacant plot of land at the intersection of 75th Street and Ogden Avenue. Part of the project includes creating a TIF district for the development, Board President Michael Raczak said in an email.

Raczak wrote, "Doing so precludes the district from receiving any property taxes for the next 23 years beyond the current very low taxes generated from the vacant land assessment."

According to Raczak, the Route 59 corridor plans will likely include other projects that create TIF districts to encourage developers, including a mutli-unit residential project that he said would add students to District 204.

Raczak says he anticipates that the district "will receive additional students from developments without adequate funding to support their education."

In a letter addressed to Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and other public officials, Raczak wrote, "You are putting the cart before the horse here in obligating property taxes that would otherwise flow to the School District to a road project in a TIF district not yet found eligible or approved."

He added, "You refer to the School District as a ‘partner’ but we are not seeing those words backed up with deeds."

In the letter, Raczak also addressed a proposed apartment building and parking structure along Route 59. He said, "As described by the City, we would expect to see many more students at the Pacifica development than forecast by the student generation tables."

District 204 does not currently have the classroom space to accommodate such an increase in students without additional funding, Raczak said.

Raczak called the TIF district proposals "a direct increase on area taxpayers that they have neither approved nor consented to" and suggested alternative ways to fund the projects, including property and sales tax abatements.

He added that District 204 wants to see "Route 59 become a vibrant economic engine for the area, but not at the expense of how we fund and operate our schools, and not by jeopardizing future tax resources over a 23-year period."