Recently, a few different viewpoint pieces were filed to attack the development project at Madison & Ashland. I thought some of the arguments grasped at straws, including how far it would take to walk to the Metra or grocery stores? Incremental traffic because of an additional 72-unit building. Really?
The principal argument seems to be that, given the village’s history at Lathrop and Lake, we can’t trust the board to do anything.
I agree that, over the years, that project started out looking pretty good, but has now turned into a train wreck. Recently, I encouraged the village president to have our lawyers get the village much more involved in this court case because I believe the judge would be much more attuned to an issue involving the town’s finances, as opposed to just a suit between a developer and a bank. The reality is that this is likely costing significant tax revenue that would be split between the village and the county and schools.
I’d like to provide a different perspective on the development Madison and Ashland:
I had a couple of friends who had interest in developing a project along that site, and had plenty of capital and experience to pull it off. They worked their way through the village process for a couple years. They pointed out that the development has to be put together in a way that would provide an adequate economic return, after paying all of the costs associated with the building, including taxes, along with interest and principal. Their proposal looked very similar to this one, but they pulled out because they grew frustrated with the process.
The new developer, from my perspective, has gone through a very rigorous process to get to this point, and what is on the table is approximately $600,000 a year of tax revenue overall, of which the village and schools (D90, D200, and Triton) will get about half through the TIF. We know that our local D90 schools – of which we are very proud – are operating at an operating deficit, so the schools have a lot at stake in this.
I have reviewed the village website, and think that this proposal is well put together. My guess is that if this project doesn’t get pushed through, it will be a long time (five years and potentially much longer) before any developer gets to the same point again, and will likely face the same kind of objections that certain citizens are raising now. Therefore, what the village will lose over the next five years, is roughly $1.5 million of lost tax revenue.
Given the fact that those are the stakes and we are dealing with a piece of property along highly commercially developed Madison Street, I think this is a no-brainer.
Jim Lynch
River Forest