Aurora officials are seeking to expand an East Side tax increment financing district so it could pay for part of another entrance to Chicago Premium Outlets.
Aldermen will be asked to approve an ordinance that would call for a public hearing to consider expansion of the East Farnsworth Tax Increment Financing District, known as TIF number eight, to add in property the city purchased along Bilter Road, east of the outlet mall.
The ordinance also would call for a meeting of the Joint Review Board that oversees the TIF district, and an amended development plan for the district that would include plans for the city property. The Joint Review Board is made up representatives of the taxing bodies within the TIF district, and must approve any change in the development plan.
The city bought the five-acre parcel at 2065 Bilter Road several months ago to eventually add another access road to the east end of the outlet mall.
“Due to the mall’s recent expansion, future plans show another easterly access point from Bilter Road into the eastern parking lot of the mall,” wrote Bill Wiet, Aurora’s chief management officer, in a memo. “If this parcel is ultimately improved as an access drive, it would provide visitors other options in which to access the mall, especially from Eola Road.”
City officials have hoped that the more people who exit the tollway at the Eola Road interchange to go to the mall, and enter the mall off Bilter Road, the fewer the people who will exit at Farnsworth Avenue. The traffic off Farnsworth entering the west entrance to the mall can get crowded, city officials said.
In a tax increment financing district, the increase in property tax generated as a property increases in value goes into a special fund, called the increment. It can be used for any public developments in the TIF district. When the TIF district expires, the taxing bodies again get all the money generated from the property.
If the city can add the newly-acquired property to TIF number eight, it could use money from the tax increment to pay for the new entrance on Bilter Road.
Aldermen will discuss setting the public hearing at Tuesday evening’s Committee of the Whole meeting, with a final vote planned for the Jan. 26 City Council meeting.
