A plan by the Community Park District of La Grange Park to expand its Recreation Center hit a snag last week when the La Grange Park Village Board turned down a request for $2.8 million in Tax Increment Financing funds.
But the project will move forward anyway.
In a 4-2 vote, Trustees Mike Sheehan, Jamie Zaura, Jermaine Stewart, and Robert Lautner voted against the measure, with Karen Koncel and Joseph Caputo dissenting.
“I’m having a hard time coming to the conclusion that we can justify the funds,” Lautner said. “We’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of effort determining policies and determining what we need to return to this village in the form of TIF funding … and I think we owe it to this community to come true to that promise that was made.”
The TIF funds, trustees said, should be devoted to spurring economic development, and the Recreation Center expansion project at 1501 Barnsdale Road didn’t fit into that category.
“Since the Park District is tax-exempt, its project will not generate any incremental property tax revenue in the TIF District,” village staff said in an agenda memo to the Board.
The Recreation Center project was to be financed by a $10.7 million referendum passed by voters in 2023. The Total cost of the renovation is $14 million, to be funded by the referendum and additional capital outlays by the Park District.
But an additional 2023 referendum question asking for a tax rate increase for the Park District failed, and without the additional revenue, the Park District originally indicated it wouldn’t go forward with the expansion.
Now, thanks to a better financial forecast, Park District Executive Director Jessica Cannaday said the project will proceed, even without the TIF funds.
“Our board truly believed that we wouldn’t have the operating funding coming out of COVID. From 2013 to 2019, the Park District Recreation Fund was losing money,” she said, noting now “we’re generating more money, more surplus revenue in our recreation fund than we asked the residents for in that referendum.”
The expanded space is much needed, she said, noting that area schools, whose facilities the Park District had been using to operate some of its programs, now needed the facilities for school activities.
“We are running out of space, we weren’t able to use their gyms or their stage for our Footlight Players (children’s theater) performances,” she said.
Several La Grange Park residents spoke out against using the TIF money for the renovation.
Nancy Freeman said that she had six grandchildren attending La Grange Park public schools and would love to see a new facility, “however, there is a problem with property taxes.”
“I personally own a home and pay an enormous amount in property taxes, everyone who owns a home in La Grange Park pays property taxes, and you can only afford so much,” she said.
Others, such as Anna Peterson, supported the move.
“I’m going to implore you as a nurse, a parent, and a community member … please support the building of this gym facility,” she said, noting that her son was a student at the Park District’s “Ready Teddy,” preschool, just as she herself was 30 years ago. “I support growth in our community based on family’s health, wellness, and however creative ways we can use to obtain that, I fully embrace it.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.