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player ready...Both Aurora mayoral candidates, incumbent Richard Irvin and Ald. John Laesch, said at a forum on Monday evening that they want to move the city forward, but their visions of the future differed.
Irvin, who has been the mayor of Aurora since 2017 and before that was an Aurora alderman at-large for 10 years, said the city needs to paint itself as an entertainment hub with three urban centers: downtown, the Fox Valley Mall and the newly announced APEX District, which includes the soon-to-be new location of the city’s Hollywood Casino as well as the existing Chicago Premium Outlets mall.
Laesch, who has been an Aurora alderman at-large since 2023 and previously served on the East Aurora School Board, said he doesn’t want to tear down the work of past administrations but does long-term want to shift toward a more stable “exporter economy,” with the city producing products to sell to other parts of the country, especially with tech and green building.
At the forum, held in downtown Aurora’s Santori Library by the Aurora Area League of Women Voters, both candidates spoke and answered questions about their mayoral campaigns ahead of the April 1 consolidated election. Irvin and Laesch both advanced through the Feb. 25 primary election to be the two mayoral candidates on the April ballot.
One way Irvin suggested growing the city as an entertainment center is through the proposed 4,000-seat venue known as the City of Lights Center.
Laesch said he supports the Paramount and other downtown theaters, and supported the expansion of RiverEdge Park, but he is against the City of Lights Center because he said an existing theater in Illinois that is similar to the one proposed for Aurora might be sold because it is not making money.
However, Irvin said that an independent study shows the City of Lights Center would be successful in Aurora, paying for itself with the revenues it generates, and that it would be “iconic” for the city, bringing thousands downtown.
The two also disagreed on the use of financial incentives for growing the local economy, especially around the use of tax increment finance, or TIF, districts.
In a TIF district, which is a type of economic development incentive allowed by state law, property taxes that come from new development in the area do not go to taxing bodies as they normally would. Instead, during the life of the district, those extra or “increment” property taxes go into a special fund used to pay for costs related to improving the area.
Irvin said TIF districts are just tools, and like any tool they can be used incorrectly or correctly, but that the city would not have developed under his administration in the way that it has without them. He pointed to a number of projects supported by TIF districts, including the redevelopment of a number of downtown buildings.
Laesch said he was not totally against incentives for development, but that he was against TIF districts and would not use them in Aurora because “they siphoned so much money out of our school districts.” Instead, Laesch said he would consider giving developers buildings for free so that they could develop the first floor and start to make a profit there to finance the rest of the development.
Both Irvin and Laesch spoke about the need for affordable housing, but had different ideas on how to build more in the city.
Irvin said he has been pushing the state to give more tax credits to affordable housing developments and that he commissioned an affordable housing study, while Laesch said he would partner with Habitat for Humanity to potentially turn city-owned lots into affordable tiny homes and would tap into the Illinois Climate Bank to help fund affordable housing efforts.
When asked to share his vision for the future of downtown development, Irvin said he would continue what his administration has done over the past eight years, which he boasted has boosted the city’s value by billions of dollars, has lowered the property tax rate and attracted thousands of jobs that have raised the average income.
Laesch said he would focus on bringing more parking to downtown, would like to redevelop the old post office building into a multi-use art space and would work to support more local downtown businesses rather than giving TIF districts to what he called “politically connected developers.”
According to Laesch, things currently work very well for developers and those who donate to sitting elected officials, but he said that he would be “a voice for all of us” because he does not take money from those doing business with the city. If elected, Laesch said he would increase transparency, even posting his credit card statements online, and work to make the city more responsive to residents.
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Irvin pushed back against Laesch’s assertion that those who donate to him get special deals. When asked how he would stop favoritism and wasteful spending in city government, Irvin said there was no favoritism, there’s only people that want to do business in the city.
Before he got elected, developers were not interested in coming to Aurora to do redevelopment projects like the ones that have been completed during his time in office, Irvin said. It is a person’s constitutional right to donate to whoever’s campaign they want, he said, and there are checks and balances within the city to make sure there are no ethical violations.