More details about the proposed Touhy Avenue tax increment financing district were discussed during the village of Niles board of trustees’ April 28 meeting.
The TIF district, which is officially known as the Gross Point-Touhy TIF District, would cover what the village has dubbed the Touhy Triangle area, as well as a few lots farther north along Howard Street and farther west along Touhy. Chicago-based Kane, McKenna and Associates Inc. has been consulting with the village on the specifics of the new TIF district.
Under Illinois law, when a TIF district is created, the property taxes are collected at the same rate as they would be elsewhere in the village. But when the taxes are increased, the village and other taxing bodies only get the portion of the revenue they would get under the rates set during the TIF’s creation. The rest of the revenue gets deposited into the TIF fund. The state law calls for a complex process to determine how the TIF district is designated and how the money it collects may be used.
In Spring 2014, the Village Board hired KMA & Associates to study the section of southern Niles and see whether it could become a TIF district under state law. The area in question is bound by Howard Avenue on the north, the Chicago River’s North Branch on the west, Touhy Avenue on the south and Lehigh Avenue on the east.
During the August 2014 Niles Chamber of Commerce and Industry breakfast, the village unveiled what it described as a “vision” for the area so-called Touhy Triangle — the smaller portion of the study area that was bound by Touhy on the south, Gross Point Road on the northwest and Lehigh Avenue on the east. It called for a business-class hotel, a convention center, an expanded park around the Leaning Tower of Niles and a Metra station.
During the Nov. 18 meeting, KMA & Associates presented its initial findings, reporting that the study area met the legal requirements to become a TIF. On April 28, during the Village Board’s informal consideration session, the company presented a more detailed report that dealt with which portion of the study area would actually become a TIF and how the village would use TIF funds.
The report recommends that the TIF district would include all of the Touhy Triangle except a small forested portion at the Caldwell and Touhy avenues intersection. It also recommended including lots farther west, including a section bound by Caldwell Avenue, Jarvis Street, the Chicago River and Touhy, as well as lots on the other side of the Chicago River.
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It also called for adding a few lots north of the Touhy Triangle’s northern point, near the Howard Street/Lehigh Avenue/Gross Point Road three-way intersection.
The KMA report also went into how the village is allowed to use TIF funding under state law and which uses it would recommend for the Gross Point-Touhy TIF. That includes demolition, construction and rehabilitation of buildings; landscape and utility improvements; traffic control and street improvements; and building public facilities. The village would be able to give money to schools, libraries and other taxing bodies and cover the costs of redevelopment-related professional services.
The report doesn’t include any specifics on how the village would use the TIF money. But during the April 28 board meeting, the village voted to use the TIF revenue to help fund repairs of the Leaning Tower of Niles during fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
In response to questions from trustee Chris Hanusiak, Niles economic development coordinator Ross Klicker said that he expects the Gross Point-Touhy TIF would generate at least $4.3 million.
Hanusiak, who previously told the Niles Herald-Spectator that he was worried about the potential impact of the TIF on local schools and other taxing bodies, told the board that he was worried that the area was already overloaded with tax incentives.
“The area on Touhy Avenue [around the Touhy/Milwaukee intersection] was recently TIFed,” he said. “There are three [lots with a Class 6(b) designation] inside the TIF area. Are we putting more money atop of money?”
During the meeting the board also established an official resource for residents and organizations that want to stay informed about the TIF proposal.
The Interested Party Registry will include residents, businesses and organizations that want to be able to follow the planning process of a TIF. Gross Point-Touhy TIF will be the first TIF to have such a registry, and if the village creates any more TIFs, more registries would be created. Every individual or entity on the registry will automatically get notified about any public meetings, plans and other new information related to the TIF.
To register, interested parties will need to fill out registration forms and submit them to the Niles village clerk. Once registered, they will remain on the registry for three years, and they will have the option to renew.
In a memo to the board, Klicker explained that the registry was a way to formalize what was previously done informally.
“As the village moves to establish clearer and more transparent policies and procedures as they pertain to TIF Districts and explore the possibility of creating a new TIF District along the Touhy Corridor, it has been recommended that we formalize this process and maintain an official Registry of Interested Parties within the village,” he wrote.
The next scheduled Village Board meeting on the proposal at Village Hall is on May 19 at 7 p.m.
Igor Studenkov is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.