Review Panel Created to Study Glen Ellyn TIF District Proposal

A Joint Review Board is being organized to study the feasibility and effects of the proposal to create a tax-increment financing district in Glen Ellyn along Roosevelt Road between Main Street and Route 53, including representatives from all local taxing bodies (village, schools, park district, library district) as well as residents, the Chicago Tribune reports.

According to the Suburban Life, Glen Ellyn trustees set a July 31 date for the board to have its first meeting, as well as a Sept. 9 date for a public hearing on a TIF district, both necessary steps for the proposal to move forward.

"There will be ample opportunity for public input, and I have also pledged to make myself available at some designated times to anybody who would like to discuss this as we move forward," the paper quoted Village President Alex Demos saying at the July 8 meeting. 

A TIF district, according to the Suburban Life, would freeze the amount of property tax paid to local governments for 23 years and redirect all increased property revenue into a fund for renovating the area, either by improving existing infrastructure or incentivizing new development. 

The idea of a TIF district on Roosevelt is controversial in part because residents of Glen Ellyn’s Parkside Apartments, many of whom are low-income immigrants and/or refugees placed in Parkside by the organization World Relief—fear that if the current plan including Parkside in the district goes forward, they could lose their apartments to either rising rents or outright demolition.

Read more at the Chicago Tribune and the Suburban Life websites.