Will County officials have approved a new taxing district designed to help redevelop Joliet’s struggling central business district.
Without dissent, the County Board approved the plan that puts taxes triggered by the redevelopment back into the project.
Harrah’s Riverboat Casino property has been excluded from the district, which is reserved for landmark properties that could not be developed without special incentives, Joliet officials said.
Lockport and Rockdale, which could lose some tax revenue, still must approve the plan, which targets 53 buildings.
The County Board is solidly behind the project, said Finance Committee Chairman John Gerl (R-Joliet).
“People in New Lenox and Frankfort work in the city of Joliet, and there are people who live in Joliet who work in Plainfield or Naperville,” he said. “When one community benefits, the entire county benefits.”
The city plans to sell bonds to provide seed money and would use increased property taxes realized from rising assessments to pay off the bonds.
Joliet City Atty. Jeff Plyman said the city is using a new version of tax increment financing districts (TIFs) that was approved by the state in 1997.
Rather than turning tax benefits over to developers, the city captures the increased taxes produced from the redevelopment.
“The public, through the city, decides how to apply the (tax money) so it can be spent to rehabilitate significant historic structures,” Plyman said.
The TIF district would be in place for up to 23 years.
Plyman said that within the next year the city hopes to redevelop the 73-year-old Louis Joliet Hotel into apartments and the 83-year-old Kline’s building, a former department store, into a retail and office center.
In many cases the city plans to purchase the buildings and then sell them to developers, Plyman said.
