The Board and Village Manager continue to hold up the TOD study as "the plan" for Riverside's improvement and hence the need for the TIF. Am I the only one that believes that plan was nothing but a bunch of stock cliches that the "planners" roll out and peddle to all their Metra sponsored clients? I have repeatedly asked the Board - verbally and in writing, to define what the little building and parking lot is (for) that appears in that plan - I mean the one east and south of the Swinging Bridge on Riverside Road. No one will answer. I hear Board members laud the "riverwalk" concept as they seem to understand it, calling for continuing some kind of path or walkway behind the library to the Swinging Bridge and perhaps beyond, calling to pave it with brick or cement, widen it, put in "wayfinding signage" and even have a souvenir stand somewhere along it. Presumably all the people that come to the "boutique hotel" or riverside restaurant or conference center will get lost or get their shoes dirty if this doesn't happen. I hear about the need to "repair" the WPA steps and the "blight" presumably caused by the seasonal flooding that naturally occurs in the Swan Pond as reasons to include these areas in the TIF District. FYI Board members - flooding is much worse at Indian Gardens than in the Swan Pond, and usually takes a lot longer to be absorbed.
I think the Board should get out of their chairs and take a walk - several, many walks - through the Village and especially the Swan Pond, and see how things are going there. Is there a more beautiful place anywhere else? Isn't the path that is there now better suited to the area than the paved "riverwalk" that was put in in front of the Hoffman Tower? What's wrong with the WPA steps? use them - both of them - all the time. And I donate and plant trees to help sustain the area's natural beauty.
I once asked the Board to put a small rustic bench down along the river just below the Little Dam so that seniors like myself might have a place to rest, or anyone sit and enjoy the view, but President Wiaduck wrote me and told me "No." "No hardscape in the parks." Of course we got the Library reading circle (in concrete!) put in without even a permit right over the roots of nearby trees, , but that was an "official" project. I don't believe that this Board - perhaps any Board - has the right to mess around with the property along the river. To give them money from a TIF and include this "blighted" property in it is just plain asking for something bad to happen. Let's just keep these areas as they are.