3 Townships Take Up TIFs

(from the Daily Herald)

Three townships take up TIFs

By Jason KingDaily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, April 13, 2007

Voters in three north Lake County townships will weigh in on using special taxing districts to develop farmland in those areas.

The advisory referendum on Tuesday's ballot in Avon, Warren and Lake Villa townships is designed to gauge resident interest in what can be a controversial issue.

"We all agreed that we should get a consensus from voters, so when villages want to do this we can point to the outcome of this vote," said Lake Villa Township Supervisor Dan Venturi. "It's something our villages and municipalities can use to judge what their residents like."
Officials in the townships say the referendum question stems from the flap over a tax increment financing district debated as part of Lindenhurst's upscale retail and residential Village Green project at the northwest corner of routes 132 and 45.

That TIF proposal was dropped after residents and three school districts complained loudly. It was replaced by a sales tax district, approved as part of the Village Green development project last month.

Special taxing districts can be a hot button issue when it comes to residential development.
Typically used to foster redevelopment of blighted areas, some villages are considering using TIFs to bring mixed residential and commercial development to town.

"TIF districts were not created to put housing on virgin farmland," Warren Township Supervisor Suzanne Simpson said.

They are designed to freeze property tax collections in a designated geographic area for up to 23 years. During the district's life, taxes continue to rise, but the difference between the frozen level and what's paid to local taxing bodies funds improvements within the district.
Illinois permitted the use of TIF districts in 1977. The theory being businesses and developers will not sink money into deteriorating areas of a community. A TIF district allows an area to be redeveloped by using dollars generated by new and old businesses.

Despite being a nonbinding referendum, Simpson said it is a question elected officials would be wise not to ignore.

"If you ignore it you do so at your political peril," she said. "It's sort of like a benchmark for future growth in these areas."