Yorkville Stays The Course For TIF District Boundaries

YORKVILLE, IL — City Council aldermen voted 5 - 1 in favor of moving forward with its original plan to keep the boundaries of its new downtown tax increment finance district. Plocher was the dissenting vote and Milschewski abstained from the vote, which took place Tuesday evening. The approved ordinance set a date for a public hearing on TIF 2, according to the meeting’s packet.

The public hearing, which is required in the TIF 2 creation process, will be held March 13 at 7 p.m. at Yorkville City Hall, 800 Game Farm Road. Also required are joint review board meetings, which are slated for February. The meetings require the city to set the final boundaries for the proposed TIF 2.

The board was also presented with a second option, which would have started the process over again and added more properties into TIF 2. Staff recommended either option as acceptable.

An Illinois TIF district is a method used by cities to finance their own redevelopment programs. Yorkville is looking to extend an existing downtown tax district while creating a redevelopment project. The original district was created in 2006.

The city is seeking approval from five government entities for a 12-year extension of the original district. So far, Kendall County has not given its approval, although there was some indication during Tuesday’s meeting of a slight chance the the county could change its mind. A city official said that would sweeten the deal, but some officials indicated they were not hopeful.

The city will move forward “with the existing strategy of seeking the extension to TIF 1.” Yorkville has not yet received letters of approval from the Yorkville School District or Yorkville Township.

Map of current proposed boundaries for downtown redevelopment project area No. 2, created Oct. 2017 by Yorkville Community Development Department