Des Plaines Mayor Paul Jung broke a deadlocked City Council vote to bring his city a step closer to final approval of a downtown redevelopment plan that would include a new, $15.4 million public library.
Concluding a contentious five-hour meeting, Jung broke a 4-4 tie after describing himself as “heartsick” when he compared the thriving downtown of neighboring Park Ridge to that of his own city.
The new development, to be called the Plaines Town Center, is “an opportunity to truly have an exciting, vibrant, alive downtown,” Jung said.
During the meeting, residents and aldermen wrangled over whether a new library was necessary; residents rejected referendum proposals in 1992 and 1995 for library additions.
Aldermen voted to approve $180,000 in funding to move along a redevelopment plan that would include doubling the size of the Des Plaines Public Library to 80,000 square feet by relocating it into three floors above a floor of downtown retail space.
LR Development Co. President Bruce Abrams told city officials that without a new library as the development’s anchor tenant, the plan probably would fail.
Abrams said his staff has failed to find an anchor tenant after nearly two years of searching.
In a report prepared for the city by consultant S.B. Friedman & Co., Steve Friedman suggested the city could pay for the library with annual mortgage-like payments of about $1.2 million.
A tentative plan between LR Development and Des Plaines also calls for the city to finance the $5.3 million reconstruction of the Des Plaines Mall into a parking garage.
City Manager Wally Douthwaite said paying for the development probably would mean increasing the city’s tax levy by about 10 percent. Such an increase would cost an average homeowner about $15 to $20 a year, he said.
In addition to the library and new garage in the empty Des Plaines Mall, the 6.2-acre project proposed by LR Development envisions about 250 residential units, a public park, day-care facilities and 39,000 square feet of stores.
