TP Trustees OK Annexation Agreement For 110 Acres Of Land On Harlem Avenue, Vollmer Road

By Jon DePaolis, Richard Free Press:

TINLEY PARK, Ill. — The Village of Tinley Park Board of Trustees approved the annexation of 110 acres of land off Harlem Avenue and Vollmer Road that officials hope will net hundreds of thousands of dollars in future property tax revenue.

The approval — which came as part of several 6-0 votes by the board members on Tuesday, June 29 — allowed the annexation of the land, an annexation agreement with the developer of the property at 19501 to 19701 Harlem Avenue, and the rezoning of the property to Office Restricted Industrial (ORI).

A public hearing also was held earlier in the evening regarding the annexation agreement.

“The Village is considering entering into an annexation agreement with the contract purchasers of 110 acres of land located at the northeast corner of Vollmer Road and Harlem Avenue,” Trustee Michael Mueller said. “The agreement acknowledges the purchasers’ desires to annex, zone and develop the property as a business park with 1.3 million square feet of industrial buildings. The agreement outlines the conveyance of land to the Village for a future communications tower, the construction of water main beyond the purchaser’s property and the Village’s waiver of building permit fees up to $1 million dollars to offset those additional costs.”

Finance Director Andrew Brown also commented on the benefits of bringing the land into Tinley Park.

“Bringing this parcel in, it is estimated that it will be an additional about $25 million in [equalized assessed value] that will go onto our taxable rolls,” Brown said. “We estimate that it will bring in over $370,000 in additional property tax revenue that if we didn’t annex this property we wouldn’t have been eligible for.”

Community Development Director Kimberly Clarke also detailed some of the items in the annexation agreement during the public hearing.

“The concept plan that is proposed is for a light industrial business park where the developer will be approximately investing around $87 million in the overall development of this site over a few phases,” she said. “Lot 1, which is the first lot that will be developed on the far north end of the site, is the one lot that has received final approval. The remaining lots 2 and 3, which can also be two separate buildings or one large building, will have to come in on its own accord when the developer is ready to finalize those plans.”

Clarke said the developer will be making “substantial improvements to the area,” such as constructing an 8-foot-wide, multi-use path on the east side of Harlem Avenue, extending from the northeast corner of Vollmer Road to as far north as possible on the site. Clark said it will eventually connect to a future path that the Village is going to pursue on Oak Park Avenue.

There were no comments from public during the hearing or the board meeting.

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