Glenview officials are considering a measure that would make village money available to future businesses as well as to property owners seeking financial help for costly capital improvements.
Currently, properties within The Glen Town Center are excluded from tapping into the village’s Permanent Fund, which makes money available to support construction projects or economic development incentives that will generate long-term revenue streams through new, successful businesses.
Trustees are looking to add The Glen, the 1,100-acre former Naval Air Station Glenview site turned retail, entertainment and residential complex, as eligible for the Permanent Fund revenues. The effort follows Trustee Adam Sidoti’s suggestion in May that future Boards should have the ability to approve expenditures from the fund for anywhere in the village.
If The Glen is added to the Permanent Fund policy, the Village Board would have the option to approve and fund projects there that are deemed to be “capital improvements or economic development initiatives.”
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Village Manager Matt Formica suggested that there are infrastructure repairs needed within the Glen, including parking decks and within Navy Park.
A memo to the Village Board states that the Glen was excluded from Permanent Fund dollars because it was receiving a revenue stream for capital improvements through a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. When a TIF is created, future increases in property taxes are set aside and can be used for infrastructure needs and development incentives within the district’s boundaries.
The Glen TIF ended on Dec. 31, 2021. The additional property tax revenues are still collected, but they are no longer reserved only for improvement within the Glen.
The Permanent Fund itself was created in the mid-1990s, the village said. When the village of Glenview collected 20% of the land sale proceeds from the former naval air station, that funding was deposited into the Permanent Fund.
Jeff Brady, director of community development for the village of Glenview, said results from a “retail evolution study” of the Glen Town Center commercial district will be shared with the Village Board in August, but no current requests have prompted the proposed change in the Permanent Fund policy.
The $94,000 retail study will include an analysis of the tenants within the center, a financial and market analysis, identification of challenges, and recommendations for “future success and economic viability,” according to the village.
In recent years, the Permanent Fund has contributed more than $13 million to projects that brought new restaurants to Glenview within the downtown area, according to the village.
Trustee Jim Bland said excluding the Glen from future Permanent Fund dollars “doesn’t make much sense.”
“I think the Permanent Fund has accomplished what it set out to accomplish,” he said. “We can see the direction our downtown is going. There is a lot of vitality down there.”
Other trustees agreed that the Permanent Fund proceeds should be available for the Glen. Staff was directed to modify some of the proposed language for additional discussion at a later meeting.
Trustee Mary Cooper said if the village contributes money to the Glen, current commercial property owners must “collaborate with us” in order to keep the area successful.
“If we’re going to spend money there, we want it to be a two-way street,” she said.
Village President Michael Jenny credited the proper handling of Permanent Fund revenues for giving the village flexibility to open up the policy to more areas.
“We’re going to continue to invest in return-generating projects in the village to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday, and better next week than we were last week,” he said. “It’s a continual improvement process.”