In a major victory for angry homeowners, an ad hoc panel has voted to urge Lisle to refuse to create a special tax district that is being sought for the construction of a Meijer’s superstore.
In the end, the members of the special committee agreed that they could not in good conscience describe as blighted an area surrounded by attractive suburban homes near the well-maintained campus of Benedictine University.
Under state law, such a description is necessary before a tax increment financing district can be declared.
The vote was not the final salvo in the battle over the $12 million superstore, but it sounded an ominous note for the developers, whose officials have indicated the creation of a tax increment financing district could be key to the store’s construction.
Three criteria were used by the panel to determine whether the site of the proposed store could be construed as blighted: whether it was prone to flooding, whether it was a former dump site, and whether it had long been vacant.
The panel decided that if the site flooded, it was the fault of previous owners and not that of nature. They decided that if the site had been used as a dumping ground, only topsoil had been dumped there, and that would not prove an expensive or insurmountable difficulty to builders. The panel also decided the land had been farmed recently enough so that it would not legally qualify as vacant.
The committee was made up of officials representing Lisle, Naperville Unit School District 203, the Lisle Park District, the Lisle Township Library District, DuPage County, College of DuPage, and one area resident.
The vote was 5-1 against creating the TIF district, with Lisle Mayor Ron Ghilardi casting the vote in favor of it. The representative of the college was not present.
Neither the mayor nor representatives of the developers would comment after the meeting, but the decision was cheered by some 20 adults and 10 children who marched outside the Lisle Village Hall, where the session took place. The demonstrators were urging the panel to take the action it did.
The Meijer’s plan has met with heavy resistance from hundreds of Lisle residents who are potential neighbors of the mega-store, which would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They contend that the 215,000-square-foot facility would bring intolerable traffic and late-night noise levels along with its huge stockpiles of food, housewares and other products.
The creation of the TIF district could be critical to the company’s plan to build in Lisle. Officials with Michigan-based Meijer Inc. said that with a tax increment financing plan and its incentives, Meijer could help pay for renovations to the land over a 15-year period.
Meijer officials have estimated that it could cost up to $22 million to buy the land, address storm-water drainage issues and make other renovations.
When a TIF district is created, the real estate tax base within its boundaries is frozen for a set period up to 23 years. As the land is developed and property values rise, the extra property taxes are used to pay for more land or renovations within the district.
Meijer is asking that 49 percent of the extra taxes be returned to the company for such renovations over 15 years. The village would decide how to use the remaining 51 percent.
Imposing a TIF can affect other local units of government, such as schools, park districts and libraries, because once the tax base is frozen, all are shut off from collecting new revenues.
TIFs first were authorized in 1977, and are supposed to be the tool of last resort for development, according to a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Indications of how the vote would turn out came the night before, when officials of Naperville Community Unit School District 203 reviewed the Meijer plan and came up with a lot of questions and a heavy dose of skepticism.
What especially puzzled them was the request for creation of the TIF district.
School board member David Vaught said during the session that he questioned whether the land could be designated as blighted.
“We should look at this with a little skepticism,” Vaught said. “What we really have here is a stretching of form over substance.”
And board member Brian Barnes said he believes the land is likely to be developed, even if it isn’t by Meijer. Another use for the land, he said, potentially could bring even more money to the district.
After the meeting, Allen Albus, the District 203 assistant superintendent for finance, said Meijer could provide the district with about $210,000 in new property tax revenue in its first year of operation.
