Concerned Citizens for Riverside

Riverside in for a change?

138-year-old suburb has historic design and parkland, but the idea of attracting more businesses to ‘tired’ downtown is proposed

By Joseph Ruzich

Special to the Tribune
October 25, 2006

The village of Riverside looks about the same today as it did 138 years ago, when landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted created an area of abundant park land, large green parkways and curvilinear streets.

But sleepy Riverside may be in for a makeover that has some residents and preservationists concerned.

Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York and the grounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, created a rural oasis in the western suburbs along the winding Des Plaines River, 11 miles west of Chicago.

“I think the village still has that same rural feeling that Olmsted intended,” said Jim Reynolds, Riverside resident and president of the Olmsted Society, a village preservation group.

But lately, Reynolds and others are a little nervous as officials consider creating a special tax district to attract more businesses to the downtown area.

In a tax-increment financing district, increases in property-tax revenue generated by redevelopment are used to fund infrastructure improvements. The TIF was first rpoposed in a transit-oriented development plan that the village adopted in June.

Reynolds, a 14-year resident, said development in the downtown area would hurt the ambience of the village and Olmsted’s vision of open spaces.

“I was attracted to Riverside for its pastoral landscape and atmosphere,” Reynolds said. “I think residents value that very much. Making Riverside this vibrant urban area would change our quality of life.”

Village Manager Kathleen Rush said the biggest outcry from residents is over the need for more amenities downtown. She said the village needs more businesses and describes the historic downtown as looking “tired.”

“For years, residents have asked me why we aren’t doing anything to attract more business to the downtown,” said Rush, who has been village manager for nine years. “Creating a TIF district will encourage businesses to come to town.”

The downtown now has a restaurant, wine bar, two coffee shops, a grocery and several other businesses. But Rush said the village should provide a boost for additional businesses, including more restaurants, cafes and retail shops.

Riverside resident and preservationist Lonnie Sacchi, who is a member of the Concerned Citizens for Riverside, said the village isn’t telling the full truth about the TIF. An informational handout on TIFs attached to a recent water bill was misleading, he said.

“There are a lot of negative aspects to TIFs that the village didn’t mention,” Sacchi said. “The biggest thing residents should know is that schools and other tax bodies will suffer.”

Rachel Weber, associate professor of the urban planning and policy program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said taxing bodies such as schools, libraries and parks have their tax revenue frozen, with any increases going to the TIF district.

For example, if a school collects $1,000 from a property at the time a TIF is created, it will be collecting that same amount until the TIF expires, which could be up to 23 years.

“Two generations of schoolkids could be affected negatively by a TIF,” Weber said.

Rush said taxing bodies would not be greatly affected because the district would be only a small portion of the village’s taxable area.

“More businesses in the village will be a good thing for the schools,” she said. “The schools will get a bump in the end.”

Reynolds and Sacchi also are concerned that green areas in the TIF district may be sites for future development.

“You have to wonder about the village’s reasoning to include green spaces that generate no income into a TIF,” Reynolds said.

Village officials said they plan to use TIF funds for capital improvements on those parks.

Rush noted that most of Riverside is a national historic landmark, which it was designated in 1970.

“There is a Supreme Court ruling which says we can never build on any of Olmsted’s open land,” she said.

Weber said Riverside’s toughest challenge might be attracting businesses to the area even with a TIF district in place.

Downtown Riverside is “off the beaten path,” Weber said. “A municipality should make sure the market fundamentals are there before establishing a TIF. It’s best to have businesses and investors interested in the area before a TIF is created.”

Resident Ronald Majewski, 75, wonders if businesses and visitors would come to Riverside, a village of about 9,000 in western Cook County.

“I would like to see more shops in town,” Majewski said. “But will people come? We have no major roads that pass through our downtown.”

But resident Marty Kenahan said the TIF is worth a try.

“The downtown has been pretty much the same for years,” Kenahan said.

“We should try to do something.”

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune