Concerned Citizens for Riverside

I am a 10 year resident of Riverside with 2 kids at Central School and another 1.5 years away from Central. I also happen to be a city planner with experience in planning for retail development and with TIF Districts for the City of Indianapolis, Village of Lombard, and Village of Burr Ridge. I would like to share some of my thoughts on TIF Districts and on plans for downtown Riverside:

§      A TIF is simply a funding mechanism. In and of itself, it is not good or bad.

§      All TIF’s require a “Redevelopment Plan”. That is the document you want to review to assess the TIF. It is my understanding that the TIF redevelopment plan for Riverside will reflect the adopted Transit Oriented Design (TOD) Plan. There is no way to assess the merits of the TIF without considering the merits of the TOD plan and the redevelopment plan. If the redevelopment plan is good, TIF is good for all including the school districts. If the redevelopment plan is bad, the TIF is bad for the schools and the taxpayers.

§      The Redevelopment plan has to be filed with the State of Illinois before TIF can be enacted.

§      In many TIF’s the other taxing bodies, particularly the school districts, participate in the preparation and implementation of the TIF.

§      In terms of taxes and financial implications, the school boards need to voice their opinion of the TIF. It is absolutely critical that our school boards are in close contact with the Village and are allowed to act as partners in the consideration of the TIF District. After a TIF is created, State law requires the creation of a TIF Board to oversee the TIF revenues and that Board must include representatives from the school districts and other local taxing bodies.

§      In terms of land use, density, etc, these are completely separate issues from TIF. If the proposed development plan is one that we as a community do not like, we need to let our elected representatives know that. The land use plan stands apart from TIF. Even if TIF was not the chosen method to finance the plan, other means to implement the plan could be pursued and we would have the same issue with the land use plan.

§      Although I was not involved with the preparation of the TOD Plan, I have reviewed the plan and I have some serious concerns. Most importantly, the plan seems to be lacking in its justifications. That is to say, the plan recommends the development of mixed use buildings with retail on the first floor and condominiums above but does not provide any verification that the downtown Riverside market could support new retail. I am also concerned about certain aspects of the plan. In particular, I question the recommendation for a community center and a parking deck. I do not see the need for these expensive facilities and the plan does not make a case for these facilities. I would also like to see more emphasis on the need to connect the two main retail streets - Quincy and Burlington Streets - with a pedestrian or vehicular connection across the tracks in the vicinity of the post office/arts center. I would consider this connection critical to creating a unified downtown Riverside and thus, creating a better retail and pedestrian environment.

§      Having raised all of these questions and concerns, I do know that one of the primary reasons our property taxes are so high has a lot to do with the lack of revenues received by the Village of Riverside. In Burr Ridge, where I currently work, the municipal portion of the property tax bill is about 2% of the total tax bill with about 65% going to the schools. Burr Ridge receives only about 11% of its funding from property taxes. I am guessing that property taxes are a much higher percentage of the Riverside budget. The Village of Riverside portion of the tax bill is high because Riverside does not have a diversity of revenue sources including retail and industrial wholesalers. Until the Village finds a way to balance its revenue sources, our municipal property taxes will continue to be high and most likely continue to rise.

All of that being said, I think the Village needs to revisit the TOD plan before any further consideration of the TIF. TIF is an extreme measure for a Village the size of Riverside. Depending on the quality of the redevelopment plan, it could be the worst thing or the best thing that has happened in Riverside since Olmstead and Vaux did their little planning project.

Doug Pollock, AICP
dpollock@burr-ridge.gov