Oak Park’s village board acted last week to move forward with active architectural planning for a new police station at Madison and Austin while also advancing plans for notable renovation and expansion of village hall.
It was a split vote at 5-2 with trustees Wesley and Taglia in opposition to aspects of the project.
We understand the sense of urgency to move forward on projects that have been under discussion and have already cost a good bit of money in the planning. Oak Park has to have a new police station. Everyone agrees on that. We’re supportive of the plan to re-use the bank building at Madison and Austin to house a modern police station.
But we have questions, too.
As presented last week by staff and architects, the combined projects come right up to $90 million, not including the cost of expenditures like professional design work, legal fees and the acquisition of the bank building. That’s $64 million for the cop shop, which is more than we anticipated, based on the reuse of a large existing structure. And $26 million to renovate and expand village hall.
Yet there was no attempt to explain how Oak Park will pay for this. There has never been a transparent attempt to lay out the financing plan for this project. Simply, that’s nuts.
How much further can the planning process go forward before at least the broad sweep of financing is reviewed and given some sort of official nod. It is clear that Oak Park has considerable cash on hand. How deep into reserves can Oak Park go? $30 million? What is the bonding capacity of the village to pay for this? A referendum? What will that amount to? What will it cost individual taxpayers? There has been talk of staggering these projects by at least a few years. What does that save or cost?
This topic needs to be put on an agenda. The financial experts at village hall and likely a couple of bond consultants need to present a plan to pay for this.
Here’s another question. How deep can the village get into this project without owning the bank building? Yes, the plan is to take this property via eminent domain. It seems likely to work. But how long will it take? And what if there is a prolonged legal fight with U.S. Bank?
Finally, part of what the village board signed off on last week was a plan to expand village hall to include a new welcome area and, significantly, new council chambers. We admit to having strong positive feelings about the current council chambers with its philosophical statement about elected officials sitting at the feet of their constituents. We also acknowledge the warts of the facility with its main entry point through a tunnel at the top of steep stairs — and the safety concerns for those same electeds sitting effectively in a shooting gallery with limited exits.
That said, we’d like more discussion about plans for changes to village hall.
