Voters in Downers Grove will be asked in the April election whether the village should spend $46 million or more on building a new village headquarters, police department and fleet maintenance facility.
Although it has put the proposal on hold, the village has been mulling a facilities plan that calls for the police department to be demolished and rebuilt at Ogden and Lacey avenues. Alongside it would be the maintenance garage for village vehicles and a fire station relocated from the north side of town. The front of the property would be reserved for commercial space.
A new, smaller Village Hall would be built on its current site at 801 Burlington Ave. A portion of the property would be sold to a commercial developer to construct a mixed-use condominium building of about 200 units.
The citizens group that pushed to get the advisory question on the April 7 ballot, Downers Grove for Responsible Government, is urging voters to vote “no” to the question.
Tim Werner, one of the founders of the group, said the facilities plan is too grand and has too many moving parts. While it is projected that selling a portion of village-owned land would offset costs of constructing the village facilities, he said he’s not confident that would happen.
“The concern I have is ‘Are you really going to get those projected revenues’?” he said. “What if the real estate market is less then robust or even declining?”
While Werner contends the facilities plan needs to be scrapped, both mayoral candidates, Martin Tully and Geoff Neustadt, said they are willing to wait for the results of the April ballot question before moving forward with any projects.. They both said that the police building is severely outdated and needs attention.
Werner said his group agrees that the police building needs improvement.
“There’s little opposition to enhancing the police facility,” he said. “We’re all on the same page for that.”
He said his group is looking for cost-effective alternatives such as adding a second floor to the police building or moving it to another municipal building that the village already owns.
“We’re looking at options that are much less expensive,” he said. “We’re not at the point yet where anyone is able to agree on an alternative.”
Any proposal for improving facilities in the village may be severely impacted by actions at the state level. The village is facing the potential of a loss of $2.4 million if the state proceeds with revenue cuts to local governments as proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in his budget address earlier this year.
When the village’s facilities plan was first proposed, Werner said the village didn’t do enough to inform residents about it.
“I couldn’t believe such an ambitious plan wasn’t better explained to the residents,” he said.
He said whatever happens at the ballot box, his group will continue to put a spotlight on facilities and the need for the village to be upfront about any plans for improving them.
