It’s no secret that Oak Park is losing the battle to Berwyn when it comes to reinventing Roosevelt Road, their shared border. But one local elected official thinks the village should take a controversial step to even the playing field.
Berwyn has had a rash of successes along the east-west stretch, with several new restaurants popping up. Those include an outpost of the Culver’s fast-food franchise, and a much-buzzed-about restaurant called Autre Monde Café.
Both those eateries were made possible by use of a tax increment financing district, or TIF, which siphons property tax dollars away from the schools and other taxing bodies to be used for economic development. Two Oak Parkers got about $125,000 in TIF money from Berwyn to build out the former flower shop into a regional dining destination, and Berwyn spent some $975,000 to assemble the properties for the new Culver’s.
During a discussion of economic development on Monday, Trustee Ray Johnson said he thinks Oak Park should explore creating a TIF on the northern side of Roosevelt, but acknowledged that, politically, it’s like “touching the third rail.”
“The more recent investment along Roosevelt has been very robust, it’s been on the Berwyn side, and it’s happened because they’ve had an opportunity to implement TIF dollars toward some exciting investments,” Johnson said. In terms of an Oak Park TIF, he said, “I think it’s a conversation worth having.”
Village Planner Craig Failor agreed. Oak Park, along with Berwyn, Cicero and the state, recently invested some $9.5 million into Roosevelt to help beautify the street. With that work done, the village could target TIF dollars specifically for economic development.
“I agree there’s a disadvantage. Berwyn has a TIF, and it also has less tax implications on their side of the street,” Failor said. “In my opinion, a TIF [on the Oak Park side] would not be a terrible thing for Roosevelt.”
Oak Park already has three TIFs, but creating another could be politically challenging. Village hall just wrapped up a nearly two-year legal battle with the public high school over its downtown TIF district. The result was that the majority of the money generated by the economic fund — about $48.8 million until that TIF ends in 2018 — will get sent back to other taxing bodies, rather than being used for economic development.
The Roosevelt Road Business Association is said to be crafting a letter to send to the Village of Oak Park, encouraging the community to add more incentives for developers to eye the north side of the street. Along with a TIF, they’re also suggesting a “special service area,” an extra tax on property owners that would fund maintenance of the street, promotions and special events.
An SSA could be paid for by all three towns (including Cicero and Berwyn) that share Roosevelt between Austin and Harlem. Downtown Oak Park already has an SSA, which provides the $650,000 budget for the shopping district’s business association.
In an interview last spring, Paul Zimmermann, head of the Roosevelt Road Business Association and a property owner in both Berwyn and Oak Park, said something has to happen to lessen the village’s competitive disadvantage.
“It’s hard to get businesses to look at the Oak Park side of Roosevelt Road when on the Berwyn side they could get up to half of their startup costs covered for them by the TIF. It’s a struggle,” he said in April 2011. “You look at Roosevelt Road and you can see that the newer businesses going in are all on the Berwyn side. There’s really nothing going in at the moment on the Oak Park side.”
Trustees asked village staff to gather input on what to do with Roosevelt Road, with plans for a future discussion in the coming months.