The village of La Grange Park is looking at establishing one or more Tax Increment Finance districts to give a boost to lagging commercial and industrial areas.
The areas under consideration are the Village Market area, three areas along 31st Street and the Barnsdale Industrial Corridor.
The Village Market area includes the Village Market Shopping Center, and the Homestead Apartment complex. The 31st Street corridor includes various commercial areas in three sections on the north and south of the street, between La Grange Road on the west and Maple Avenue on the east. The Barnsdale corridor includes industrial properties located north of 31st street on the east side of Barnsdale Road.
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Tax-increment financing is a tool that can be used to spur development of blighted or underutilized property. Under TIF rules, the equalized assessed valuation of properties in the district are frozen for a period of years, and growth in property taxes — the increment — is put into a TIF fund that can be used for land acquisition, infrastructure improvements and other qualifying development costs.
Property taxes collected on properties included in the TIF at the time of its designation continue to be distributed to the school districts, county, community college and all other affected taxing districts at the same level as when the TIF was created.
Though it has identified five areas as possible TIF districts, village manager Julia Cedillo said the village will not create districts in all five areas. The village hired a consultant, S. B. Friedman Development Advisors, which studied the areas to determine if they would qualify.
“Before we had any discussions we had to know the districts are eligible. They determined that all the areas qualified,” she said.
The creation of a TIF district requires that it qualify as either “blighted” or as a “conservation” district.
Cedillo said the vast majority of properties being considered would fall under the “conservation” designation.
For conservation areas, the TIF law requires that 50 percent or more of the structures in the designated area are 35 years of age or older. Although the area may not yet be blighted, it must have at least three factors defined by law that are detrimental to public safety, health, morals or welfare. Those factors include such items as dilapidation, obsolescence, deterioration, presence of structures below minimum code, illegal use of individual structures, excessive vacancies, lack of ventilation and layout.
She said the Village Board has received the information contained in the consultant’s feasibility study and wants to study it before any decisions are made.
“We want all that information to sink in and come back at a later date to discuss it,” she said.
The idea for establishing a tax increment finance district was first floated by the village during a strategic long-range planning session in February 2015, she said.
The Village Board will likely discuss the TIF proposal and results of the feasibility study in April, she said.
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