Euclid investments begin showing
up on tax rolls
When the Village first
began holding public hearings in early 2001 on a major
development proposed for three of the four corners at the
intersection of Lake Street and Euclid Avenue, potential
property tax benefits didn't get a lot of attention.
Nearby property owners and business operators were more
concerned about the impact of replacing a surface parking lot
with a multi-level garage, parking during the construction and
traffic once everything was finished.
Now that the final phase -- a mixed-use
building on the southwest corner -- is moving in tenants, the
first indication of significant new property tax dollars is
becoming evident. The first phase, a 32-unit condominium
building on the northeast corner called the Mews, is now on the
Cook County books as adding about $203,000 in new tax revenue
for the community.
Representing about a third of the entire
project, the Mews soon will be joined on the property tax rolls
by the other components of the project -- 37 townhomes along
Euclid, the new Tasty Dog restaurant on Lake Street and the four-story
building on the old restaurant site that has 6,000 square
feet of ground-level retail and 18 apartments above.
Under the Cook County system that assesses
property on a use-based sliding scale ranging from 16 percent
of value for residential property to 38 percent for commercial
property, the Mews and the townhomes will generate less in
property tax income than the rental and commercial components
of the overall project. Together, however, all phases of the
project could prove to be among the Village's most
profitable development investment to date -- good news for the
community's school districts that annually receive about
63 cents of every property tax dollar collected, compared to
the Village's 12 cents.
The project was anchored by the Avenue
Parking Garage that more than doubled the capacity of a surface
parking lot with a 500-plus space, state-of-the-art parking
facility tucked in behind the new developments, and accessed
from North Boulevard. Many in the business community have
credited the garage a key factor in the recent resurgence of
the Lake Street-Oak Park Avenue area as the community's
newest, and hottest, restaurant district.
Public contributions to the project tapped
Tax Increment Finance District funds in a textbook example of
what TIF districts were designed to do -- create a pool
of funds that is reinvested within the boundaries of the
TIF to spur economic development.
Oak Park recently took the TIF concept to
an entirely new level by creating an innovative program that
carves completed developments from the TIF boundaries, adding
their full assessed value to the tax pool. Seven properties
released in January added about $21 million to the value of the
property tax base, which meant about $1.28 million in new
dollars for the community's two school districts. The
developments at Lake and Euclid likely will be part of the next
round of carve outs in a plan to release an anticipated $26.7
million in value in 2006 and $44.6 million between 2007 and
2018.
The innovative carve-out program, which is
now being copied by other communities, is expected to include
new developments anticipated for the downtown area as well,
including along Lake Street and at Harlem Avenue and Ontario
Street.
For more information on redevelopment
initiatives in the Village call the Development Services
Department at 358.5640 or email devsvcs@oak-park.us.
