Forest Park is one step closer to launching a new Tax Increment Funding district at Franklin Street and Brown Avenue, with the goal of funneling money into the northeast corner of Forest Park and attracting a residential developer to buy a 2.6-acre property within the TIF.
Ahead of the Aug. 10 council meeting agenda, there was a public hearing for the Franklin-Brown TIF. This included one public comment and a presentation on the redevelopment plan from Ryan LLC, the village’s TIF consultant. The village council will vote whether to create the new TIF district at its Sept. 14 meeting.
“A TIF is a tool that a village can use to reach its economic goals,” said Adam Greer of Ryan LLC during the presentation. “At the time of the creation, the base property value will stay the same, and then all that [annual] extra value will go into the TIF area.”
When a TIF is created, the district’s property tax value is frozen. As property value increases with development, that money is diverted into a fund that helps pay for the development within the TIF district.
TIF money could fund the demolition of industrial buildings currently in the TIF, as well as construction on streets, sidewalks, lighting and stormwater management — “Supporting coordinated redevelopment that would not reasonably occur but for the availability of TIF assistance,” Greer said.
The proposed Franklin-Brown TIF comes just a few months after Chicago Suburban Lumber Sales put its property on the market after 80 years of business. The property lies within the area of the proposed TIF.
Steve Glinke, head of Forest Park’s building department, said he was contacted 18 months ago by a broker who was selling the Suburban Lumber property.
“In discussions with the broker, staff has made it crystal clear that the highest and best use — and frankly, the best cost per square foot — for the trust [of siblings who own the property] is going to be in residential redevelopment,” Glinke said at the TIF hearing. “We cannot prevent the seller from selling to another industrial user, but we’ve made it crystal clear, both [Village Administrator] Rachell [Entler] and myself, that the TIF is off the table for an industrial user.”
At the hearing, Entler said that any development over a half-acre would need to be approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, then the village council. The village council must also vote to agree whether to use TIF funds on the development.
And while an industrial development wouldn’t be able to benefit from the TIF district, a residential one would.
“This is meant to incentivize private investors and developers to facilitate new development that is going to align more with the comprehensive plan,” Greer said of the 2014 document that outlines the village’s goals for its facilities, land use, policy changes and transportation. “Creating more of a mixed-use, residential-commercial area instead of the industrial area that is currently there will improve the [area’s] functionality, the accessibility and overall fit the neighborhood characteristics.”
Glinke said that “divorcing that part of town from its light industrial history has a lot of benefits.” He said residential properties bring more tax money to the village, and removing the industrial site would eliminate train and truck traffic in that area, since trucks pick up goods from the last active rain spur in Forest Park.
“There would be a rail spur that would no longer be accessible to this site,” Greer said.
Forest Park resident Thomas Kovac emailed in a public comment to compare the amount of money another residential property in the TIF could bring to the village, as compared to an industrial one.
“For year 2024, the lumber yard, per County records, paid about 88,000 in real estate taxes,” Kovac said in his email. “My earlier research of the nearby townhouse developments for 2017 showed that, at that time, real estate taxes totaled well over a half-million dollars. Current real estate taxes very likely now probably cost close to $700,000.”