Even as Glen Ellyn looks at putting the ink to an agreement for three special taxing districts, it is still not clear whether the largest of those districts will be formed.
Petitions were filed last month opposing the largest of the districts, which are being formed to assess a special tax that would support an economic development corporation to promote village growth.
Under state law, if 51 percent of the property owners and 51 percent of the registered voters oppose the special service area, the area cannot be formed.
Two of the areas being considered are along Roosevelt Road and one is in the downtown business district.
The challenge is to an area along Roosevelt Road from Illinois Highway 53 on the east to the village limits on the west.
If the petitions against that area are held to be valid, the economic development corporation could still be formed but its funding would be in doubt. The corporation could expect 60 percent of its tax money from that area.
The other areas are in downtown Glen Ellyn and along Roosevelt Road east of Illinois 53.
Jerold Morgan, a former village trustee who opposed the economic development corporation while a board member and who is also a property owner in the area being challenged, said the corporation will not necessarily benefit property owners. Many of the retailers who would benefit are not property owners, he said.
On Monday night, Village Atty. Sharon Eiseman presented a preliminary opinion to the Village Board that indicated the petitions appeared to be valid. She said the petitions had two more than the necessary number of signatures of property owners.
Her opinion changed, however, when it was discovered that two of the signers were beneficiaries of a land trust, not the trustees themselves.
”That changes things,” she said.
Eiseman told the board that it is too early to tell what the final decision will be on the petitions. She said that there is little case law on such petitions.
Morgan, who was not at the board discussion of the petitions, said his group would have to look at the village`s position. ”We will have to take a hard look at this and determine what they eliminated and why,” he said.
Eiseman said she had not investigated every property represented in the petition, but Trustee George Gilkerson pointed out that the legal fees for conducting such research could cost the village more money than the tax to be collected in the special service area.
The economic development corporation would be financed each year through a contribution of up to $50,000 from the village`s hotel-motel tax fund and a special tax of up to 15 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for each of the properties in the special service areas.
