TIF News

Information about the 53rd Street Redevelopment (Commercial Tax Increment Financing District)
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A service of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, its Development, Preservation and Zoning Committee, and the HPKCC website, www.hydepark.org. Support our work: Join the Conference!

Return links: home. Site contents navigator. Development Hot Specific Topics. Development Hot overview. Hot Topics and Community Issues home.
Development homepage.

Breaking: Harper Court story unfolds, visit Harper Court home, which has more and important sub-explanations and community positions, and TIF Advisory Council
Five screen theater, 5 Guys Hamburger coming to Harper Theatre. See in Harper Theater.
Mayor's TIF reform task force- http://www.cityofchicago.org/TIFTaskForce. Comments and ideas taken.

Howard Males, first and to date only 53rd TIF chairman, relinquishes the post after 11 years of service.
And letter of gratitude from HPKCC and three HPKCC presidents

TIF REFORM PROPOSALS
 TIF Meetings page.
TIF Presentation and funding ask (separate page)
Notice of availability of 20 TIF Annual Reports (below) See TIF Annual Reports page.

Next TIF meetings

Regular March 12, Monday, 7 pm at Kenwood Academy Little Theater, 5015 S. Blackstone.

To page index.
Next meeting agenda (as available)
Hearing July 7 2010 on proposed ord. to use 20% of TIF funds for affordable housing. Also on what TIF funds were taken from TIF to fill the city budget gap.
Recent doings (Canter, Cleanslate, SBIF...).
2006 Annual Report, 2007 Annual Report
More: Advisory Council Meeting Records. Early AC Meetings. July 10 06 Mtg. Report.
"TIFormation" brochures (official annual publication).
53rd Street News. Development Navigator. Business Climate. Tracking Community Trends. Zoning Reform. Community News. An article saying "density" can be a solution to neighborhood and regional ills. Parking Woes and Hopes. Parking (Transportation Enhancement) Recommendations. Lake Park/viaducts/embankment Project. The Hanging Basket program- 1), 2), 3). The CleanSlate program, page. Maps of the TIF District. Adv. Co. bylaws changes.
Theater decision and undoing?. Harper Court homepage. Antheus Capital. Village Center. Mobil/McDonald & 53rd Cornell. Checkerboard Lounge and Kleiner restaurant.
Next meeting details. To past meeting records. Bylaws.

53rd Vision workshops, info. It's website: vision53.org. See also 53rd St. page. See pics from the Nov. 15 Block exercise: picasaweb.google.com/crcrumsey/53rdStreetVisionsBLOCKS or http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DK_JZJ9p9XK0utKiVEvRug
November 15 2008 Block exercise report.

A new TIF and SSA in the Cottage Grove strip 35th to 50th.

Anyone who wants to see or have the 2010 annual report of the 53rd St. TIF or any others of the TIFs in Chicago can visit
http://www.cityofchicago.org (look for Department of Housing and Economic Development) or http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/dcd/tif/10reports/T_105_53rdAR10.pdf.
You can also go to City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle, Room 1006.

Be advised that the 2008 and 2009 Annual Reports issued by the city for all TIFs is now available at City Hall room 1006 M-F 9:30 am-4pm. You can sign up to receive notice of same mailed annually as a "TIF Interested Person (or organization.)" Each year's is posted from the start of August.
>>>>>>>You can see the TIF's 2010 budget online in the city website- community planning dept. See some former in Annual 03, Annual Reports, and TIFormation.

NOTICE TO INTERESTED PARTIES REGARDING THE AVAILABILITY OF THE 2009 TIF ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO

"NOTICE is hereby given, pursuant to Section 5/11-74,4-5(d)(9) of the Illinois Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act, as amended (65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-1 et seq.) (the "Act"), that discs of the 2009 TIF Annual Reports of the City of Chicago will be available Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. beginning Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at City Hall, 121 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois in the Department of Community Development ("DCD"), Room 1006. Pdfs for individual districts will also be available. Annual reports are online at cityofchicago.org beginning Thursday July 1, 2001."

[TIFs in the list in our area: 43rd Street/Cottage Grove Redevelopment Project Area
53rd Street Redevelopment Project Area]

Christine Raguso, Acting Commissioner, Department of Community Development, City of Chicago

See Council info/ update brochures 2005 - 2007: TIFormation ( Copies are at SECC offices). See major parking recommendations for the business district, introduced July 10 2006. Was on pdf from SECC.(new web address). Chamber of Commerce new website: http://www.hydeparkchamberchicago.org.

Flower Power hanging baskets donation time again. Contact SECC at 773 324-6926. Read about it.

The city council on July 6, 2011 finally agreed to the $60,000 in TIF funds for the Kenwood bleachers and scoreboard. The other $34K is rom CPS.

Akira clothing chain is coming to the Borders site, 53rd (1539) and Lake Park. Coming fall 2012, the 8,000 sf store will become the expanding chain's flagship. It will take the front 2/3 of the first floor- suggested a day care center or restaurant for back?

Howard Males, first and to date only 53rd TIF chairman, relinquishes the post after 11 years of service.

Letter to the Herald, published November 9, 2011: A fond farewell to the TIF Advisory Council

As I look out my window and take frequent walks around the TiF district, I see the progress we (and those before us) dreamed for Hyde Park and the Mid-South Side. The recent announcement of financing for the deal at Harper Court is a great win for our community and neighbors. It is also an apt punctuation point for my personal goals as the first chairman of the 53rd Street TIF Advisory Council. Having had the honor to serve three aldermen over the past 11 years, I have come to know many of he parties who helped move progress in our district forward. They are not all well-known name. However, they are all very gifted people and often content to work behind the scenes.

Establishing our TIF district over a decade ago was timely. To focus on job training, commit to local school infrastructure improvements and remain dedicated to the very best in commercial development has always been our primary mission -- even in the ups an downs of our economy. Executing these tasks in a public and transparent manner that depended upon the participation of everyone in the 4th Ward was/is a core value to me. I hope I have never disappointed any of our residents or elected officials. i remain confident that our high standards and practices will continued under the able guidance of Ald. Wil Burns (4th) and the council Burns re-appointment of the council was his sign that the peoples's work will go on.

My work as chairman of the 53rd Street TIF Advisory Council is complete. I have, with your help, accomplished all of my objectives. it is time for new leadership and ideas. It is time for me to move on.

I also want to express m y thanks to the Hyde Park Herald staff for serving as the official paper for public meeting notification for the past decades. And, most importantly, thank you for covering our actions and the opinions of residents. Never once did a story focus on the Council or its membership.

My role as chairman will conclude some time between the November meeting and before the next regularly scheduled January session. I have promised Burns to make this a smooth transition. It wil be. This is the easy part. Our council is full of talented members. I remain your neighbor. your participation in the process enlightened me. You helped to make me a better and happier person. What an extraordinary group you are!

Howard E. Males, Chairman, 53rd Street advisory Council.

Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference Releases
Jane Ciacci, President
November 16, 2011

A word of thanks to Howard Males

The Hyde Park Kenwood community owes thanks to Howard Males, who has recently announced that he is stepping down as chair of the 53rd Street TIF Advisory Council. Howard has been the chair since the inception of the TIF council, and his stable leadership in changing and often challenging times for 53rd Street development has been appreciated.

The members of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference extend our deepest thanks to Howard for his hard work and stewardship of the TIF council. Past HPKCC presidents Jay Ammerman and George Rumsey join me in our fond acknowledgement of Howard's care for the neighborhood.

Jane Ciacci, President
Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference

 

For an article about some of the complaints and the as -yet unimplemented reform panel recommendations, visit News Tips Jan. 31 articles and material/articles by the following sites: http://www.newstips.org/2012/01/on-tif-a-long-way-to-go/

Grassroots Collaborative: http://www.thegrassrootscollaborative.org

Stand Up Chicago: http://www.standupchicago.org

Illinois PIRG released a report:
http://illinoispirg.org/reports/ilp/cleaning-tax-increment-financing

Yet to fully implement the TIF Sunshine Ordinance (2009):
http://www.illinoispirgedfund.org/news/ilf/chicago-failing-meet-tif-transparency-requirements transparency-requirements

July 28 2011 saw a South Side TIF meeting by the Mayor's TIF Task Force on transparency, accountability and efficiency. Well attended, with lots of smart testimony and some anger. If you want to submit input, even though the Report has been submitted, visit http://www.cityofchicago.org/TIFTaskForce.
In August Mayor Emanuel made it clear he will keep TIFs but that they would have benchmarks that must be met in order to continue to have taxes put in their funds (tied to 5 and 10 year city development goals-- a plan that does not depend only on TIFs but would make TIFs part of a citywide plan with strategy whose outcomes include a competitive and well-trained workforce, a working school system, and quality of life on the streets -TIFs would be expected to contribute to these outcomes.). Neither nor benchmarks are in sight, but the objectives are--job creation, private investment, property value increase, and new affordable housing. Measurement likely would be overseen by a new TIF internal government body (as in the report of the TIF reform panel led by Carole Brown). Every five years the body would post TIFs that are or are not meeting goals; those that are not would be changed or closed. Such oversight is estimated to add $6 million to the current $9.3 million cost to administrate TIFs. $500 M a year currently goes into total TIF funds. Based on Tribune article August 30, 2011.
To Sept. 2 Tribune on the broader report itself.

May 19 2011 Mayor Emanuel announced appointment of a 10 member TIF oversight committee. The panel will set up ongoing examination and standards of how effective the TIFs are in and to promote their use for job creation and economic development. Long overdue, he said. He also released much material on the 157 districts. He pledged to take politics out of the districts and frowned on having TIFs downtown - they are for blighted areas. He did NOT commit on whether he would move to eliminate TIFs that don't meet standards.

The Task Force held its first meeting in Bronzeville July 18.

Herald, August 3 2011. By Sam Cholke.

About 160 residents demanded more transparency and a greater emphasis on housing at the first hearing on reform of the city's tax increment financing district program. The July 28 meeting was the first of a task force established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to examine the TIF program. ..

Bronzeville and Hyde Park both are at the forefront of the debate. Bronzeville has the highest concentration of TIFs in the city [80% of land coverage]. Hyde Park was the first to establish advisory councils to oversee how TIF money is spent. Councils then spread to Bronzeville TIFs.

"We have to go way beyond transparency -- we have to change the game," said Gary Ossewaarde, a Hyde Parker who frequently attends advisory council meetings for the 53rd Street TIF. "There have to be real advisory councils."

Councils are a rarity in the city. The first was established a decade ago for the 53rd Street TIF. a council was also later formed for teh 43rd adn Cottage grove Avenue TIF. None of the members from either council testified at the public hearing. Though such councils were rarely advocated by anyone at the hearing, increased transparency was a frequent refrain.

"We have been kept in the dark regarding all matters related to our TIFs," said Sheilia Carr of Housing Bronzeville. Many thought the lack of transparency and oversight was allowing inefficient uses of TIF money. "Monitoring and compliance of the TIFs is at an all time low," said Sandra Bivens of the 51st Street Business Association, suggesting that local organizations be used to provide oversight. She also pressed greater investment in industrial properties. "Why are we not manufacturing our own souvenirs?"

More TIF money should be focused on saving the historical landscape, according to Harold Lucas, president of the Bronzeville Visitor Information Center and the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council. Others thought those involved with the TIFs should have a better understanding of the blight that affects the district. "Start with a tour of the TIFs," said Brian Malone of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. "What abandoned properties have become a stash house for drug dealers? What building do prostitutes go to service their clients?" "We're asking that our money be used to rehab these vacant buildings," Malone said. "Let's use our money to do something good for ourselves."

Bronzeville residents said the TIFs were regarded largely as a potential boon that had either not been deployed or used inefficiently. "I believe in the TIFs. I believe they can accomplish great things in this city. i don't think they have already," said Rev. Jeffrey Campbell of Judah Israelite Christian Church, 4500 S. Prairie.

Most thought TIFs should be recalibrated to address housing problems. "While residential is important, the most important solution to a residential problem is to offer a job." said Bernard Loyd, who is using TIF money to develop restaurants and a market near the 51st Street Green Line station. He said his project could not go forward without the initial injection of TIF money. "There isn't enough coming into the system to create volume at the end of the system."

The task force held the hearing to establish what criteria should be used in the evaluation [but was not tasked with the evaluation itself].

[A major complaint was that the schools operations were deprived of the increment during the life of TIFs and there was no inconsistency about amounts and projects when capital needs of schools come from TIFs. Another segment wants $100 M of the TIF money declared surplus to go to secure foreclosed buildings and back affordable housing.]

September 2 2011 Tribune report on the broader TIF Task Force Report itself

Tribune editorial, September 2, 2011. How to salvage the city's TIF program. Emanuel's task force want to fix it, not nix it.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's TIF reform panel had its work cut out for it. No way does Emanuel want to scrap a redevelopment program that generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But public sentiment is sour toward tax increment financing, and for good reason.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley papered a third of the city with TIF districts to support his off-the-books spending habit. Chicagoans are angry that their tax dollars ended up subsidizing private development projects in the LaSalle Street financial district or the central Loop while the city raided its reserves to keep cops on the street. Plenty of taxpayers think the best reform would be for the city to get out of the TIF business entirely.

That's a bad idea, and the task force doesn't appear to have given it a moment's consideration. Instead, it recommends overhauling the program to conform to basic good government principals--planning oversight, accountability, transparency--all of which are designed to regain public confidence. We don't have to tell Emanuel or his task force that Daley dug them a very deep hole.

The opening pages of the task force report, released last week, are best read as a primer on how TIF is supposed to work. By designating an area a TIF district, the city lays claim to new tax dollars generated by rising property values there. Those dollars are supposed to be reinvested in the district to promote growth. The idea is to goose development in areas that have fallen into decline. The test to determine whether a project qualifies for public subsidy is supposed to be: Would this happen without a government assist?

The task force is politely circumspect about Daley's expansive interpretation of the TIF stature. Its report acknowledges that the city's long-term TIF plan, if there is one isn't integrated with its budget or its economic development plan, that the TIF districts have been designated and money distributed "independently of any citywide economic development or financial strategy," that there's no meaningful way of measuring how many jobs were created by the TIFs or how much private investment was leveraged and that the districts have been evaluated on "statuary compliance"--that is, are they legally defensible?-- rather than on outcomes.

It says all of this without ever using the words "piggy bank" or "slush fund" or "siphon" or "clout" or "cronies"--all words that have been used on these pages to describe what went on under Daley. We're not taking any of it back.

The report also notes that information on the TIFs was basically unavailable until the City Council passed the 2009 TIF Sunshine Ordinance and that now, "even though the city makes a large amount of data available to the public, this data is not presented in an easy to access and understand format."

The panel's thorough and thoughtful report calls for:

Just when we started to believe the panel had mapped out a plan that, if followed religiously, could restore some credibility to the TIF program, we turned the page to discover a section headed "Expanding Impact." More and better ways to use TIF! It scare heck out of us.

The report notes, though, that many of the suggestions would require changes to state law. It also cautions against expanding the use of TIF before the city has adopted the reforms already spelled out. Amen.

The TIF is one of the best development tools available to local governments, but Daley's anything-goes approach has given it a bad name. It will take time, and change, and more time, to repair the damage. The task force has done some excellent work. But it's just the start.

 

For budget of 2011, City to account for TIFs in the budget, declare surplus the money in several TIF and send it to the taxing bodies, and to merge Housing-Zoning-Planning into one department (zoning inspectors would be under Buildings. Hearing dates set. (the following is a release from Chicago Rehab Network)

Here is from the Nov. 24 2010 Herald on what happened. TIF "surplus" was taken from (only) two TIFs in the 4th Ward, Bronzeville (5.5m) and 47th-King (6m), not from 53rd or 44th-Cottage. The two that contributed are the largest on the southeast side with a total of $35m. Most of the surplus-hence-returned TIF funds are from the big downtown TIFs- $118m. The city gets only 20% or $38m of $473 total freed up. , the rest going to the other tax bodies including the Park District (12m), Schools (245m), Cook County... On the total city budget, Ald Preckwinkle has a reluctant yea objecting to draining down nearly all reserves; Ald. Hairston voted against consolidation of departments saying inefficiencies should be addressed first.

TIFs were a major topic at a Chicago Teachers Union mayoral candidate forum December 2010-- Just over 50% of county taxes are for schools, so taxes sequestered in TIF and used or not used for schools, or taken for other purposes (TIF or city) is important to education.

_____________________________________

Is the 53rd St. TIF overspending, or the city dragging its feet on fund releases, needed information?
Truth turned out, the County changed assessment rules, so there will barely, maybe, be enough money coming into the TIF to cover the obligation for Harper Court.

TIF, Kenwood Academy has trouble getting CPS and the City to fork over the money for bleachers promised long ago (see minutes of May 2010 meeting)- principal asks what's going on! at March 14 TIF meeting. Or TIF 101 and City That Works (?) 102.

Herald, March 23, 2011. By Sam Cholke

Last May, the 53rd Street Tax Increment Financing District advisory council approved money for bleachers and a scoreboard for Kenwood Academy. The principal was grateful for the financial backing, but a the March 14 meeting she said she began to get impatient when the funds had not yet been released. "Our bleachers are really not in a condition where students should be sitting on them at all," said Elizabeth Kirby, principal of the school at 5015 S. Blackstone Ave. "Our scoreboard, you can't really tell who is winning or losing, you really have to pay attention to the game."

On May 10, the council approved giving the school $59,110, which would release a matching grant from the Chicago Public Schools for $35,000. The council is an advisory body for the 4th Ward alderman on how property tax revenue should be spent within the TIF district. the money was approved under former Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, who was succeeded by Shirley Newsome. The current alderman was not available by press time, but Mae Wilson, chief of staff for both Newsome and Preckwinkle before her, said the office was aware of the issue.

"This is a time that things don't get done -- that doesn't mean that they're not important," Wilson said. It's a "time of transition" in many city departments, she explained, adding, "People are changing at City Hall."

Staff from the Department of Housing and Economic Development said the money was never released because the TIF coffers were too depleted. "There was not enough to fund the bleachers on top of the other projects that were moving forward," said Peter Starzzabosco, a spokesman for the department. "That doesn't mean there won't be more funds in the district in the future."

Tax increment financing districts work by freezing the amount of property tax revenue going to municipal agencies adn city coffers for 23 yeas. If property values rise, increasing tax revenues, the extra funds go into the TIF account to be used to fund projects within the TIF's borders.

The city projects the 53rd Street TIF will collect more than $831,000 each year through 2012. The district recently committed $86,000 for a study on reopening Harper Avenue to through traffic, $157,000 for job training programs [CARA/CleanSlate}, $500,000 for the small business improvement fund an $150,000 for Canter Middle School. [$893,000, assuming the figures are right and all from the same annual pot, or 62 k more than annual income.] The district will soon begin committing the first chunk of a $23,4 million subsidy for the $114 million redevelopment of the Harper Court Shopping Center.

According to documents released by the city, the TIF is expected to end the year with $754,806 in available funds.

Howard Males, chair of the TIF council, said the body had asked for regular updates on all money it recommends spending. "It's not going as fast as any of us want," Males said. At the March 14 meeting, Males and the council renewed their commitment to find funding for the bleachers and scoreboard.

Kirby appeared somewhat appeased by the council's pledge. "I'm not sure what's going on downtown," she said. Kirby did not return calls asking whom she had contacted at the city when the money was not forthcoming. "I do know that patience is a virtue when it comes to government appropriations," Males said, adding that the council will continue to work on getting the money for the bleachers.

[This source was told that Mr. Males was able to make connections at the meeting to unlock the bureaucratic tie up.]

Follow up in the March 30 Herald- Ald.: Kenwood bleachers cash coming [but when; and still a question of whose being told the real story]. By Sam Cholke:

Fourth Ward Ald. Shirley Newsome reassured that Kenwood Academy would get its money for new bleachers despite the city saying the funds were not available. "It's kind of a non-issue," Newsome said. "It's going to happen whenever it happens."

After Kenwood Principal Elizabeth Kirby groused on March 14 that $59,110 promised from the 53rd Street Tax Increment Financing District in May had still not arrived, the alderman, the council overseeing the district and city officials said they would look into the delay. By the end of the week, the city's Department of Housing and Economic Development told the Herald the money was not released because the tax district was too depleted.

"I will not say that it is an inaccurate statement because they are the holders of the funds, but that is not what I have been told," Newsome responded. Newsome said she had requested updated amounts of the TIF and attributed the delay to a misunderstanding within the department.

She said the money was initially rejected because the bleachers were not considered a capital expense because they were not a permanent feature of the school at 5015 S. Blackstone Ave. City staff were convinced the spending was appropriate when it was pointed out that the bleachers are attached to the walls of the school, but the misunderstanding slowed down an already slow process, according to Newsome.

Newsome said that any government allocation is slow and is slower still when there are misunderstandings during lean times. She said the department's carefulness with tax money could be frustrating, but was appropriate during a period of transition between administrations when revenue was down. "When the money is available to us, it will be made available to Kenwood school," Newsome said.

 

City Council butting heads over housing. [To vote on strong vs toothless-- it is possible a compromise substitute could emerge for the floor? once the mayor and council are seated? Meanwhile Ald. Burnett, the leader of the drive, quit leadership of the city council black caucus over the issue.]

Hyde Park Herald, December 1, 2010. By Sam Cholke

The City Council's Joint Committee on Finance and Housing is kicking the city's biggest debate over affordable housing in nearly a decade to the full body on Dec. 8. With competing rules in two ordinances for how property tax money is used to boost housing, only one can pass.

An ordinance introduced by Ald. Walter Burnett (27th), which is supported by local aldermen, would mandate that 20 percent of all revenue collected in the city's tax increment financing districts be used for affordable housing projects. "I think it just reminds the city to be more accountable for what it does," said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), who is supporting Burnett's ordinance.

Mayor Richard M. Daley opposes the strict rules, and Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th) has introduced an ordinance that quells the objections of the administration by making the rules nonbinding goals and reducing the threshold to 10 percent of the TIF collections.

"No, we're not going to make it a goal. yes, we're going to make it an obligation," Burnett said at th e Nov. 23 committee hearing. Burnett has lined up a coalition of alderman behind him that includes alderman Pat Dowell (3rd), Toni Preckwinkle (4th) and Leslie Hairston (5th). Burnett's proposal, the Sweet Home Chicago ordinance, was crippled coming out of the hearing, when the joint committee voted down including language that was aimed at bringing hesitant aldermen on board by allowing them greater flexibility to opt out of the program.

"I think we have opt outs because we have colleagues who do not wish to have affordable housing in their wards and would not support it without that," Preckwinkle said. "I don't see why you're not wiling to hold the city to a high standard, because this is a serious issue." ...

... If the city wa a series of farm fields, TIFs would be specially designated plats where only the farmer who live there can eat any bumper crops that plat produces for 23 years. There are rules called "porting" that essentially work like the farmer handing some food over the fence to his neighbor on another special plot, but bar him from helping the guy down the road because their property lines don't touch or his plot is not a TIF plot.

The city's 165 TIF districts are expected to bring in $448 million this yer. So if the ordinance were in effect today, about $90 million in affordable housing projects would need to be identified to satisfy the mandate. State law bars 66 of those TIF districts from spending their money on housing, but their revenue is still counted towards figuring out how much the city should spend on housing. That leaves 99 districts to find $90 million in projects. Those 99 districts are expected to bring in $228 million, putting the practical threshold closer to 30 percent of TIF revenues."The obligation does not go away even if some people opt out of it and some TIF's don't allow it," said Ellen Sahli, first deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Community Development. Alderman can spread out that spending however they wish, dividing it equally amongst the TIFs or spending it all in one.

In an interview before the commission hearings, Hairston said she would support the measure, but wanted language that would incentive TIFs in affluent communities to foot most of the bill. She said the cost of subsidized affordable housing in her ward is about on part with market rate housing.

Affordable housing is figured out by looking at the average housing costs across the metropolitan area. Sixty percent of that cost is then considered affordable. For much of the South East Side, affordable housing tends to be closely equivalent to the market-rate housing because housing costs are by-and-large already lower than the metropolitan average.*

Several aldermen worried that if the ordinance passed it would be a race to see who could opt out of their obligations first. "Just as there is not scattered site housing across the city of Chicago, there will not be affordable housing across the city of Chicago," said Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th). "There will be communities labeled for 30 years as communities with a paucity of powers, just as we sought so hard to not do with public housing." Other aldermen worried that installing such a mandate would dry up any tax credits for affordable housing outside of TIF districts. "I'm going to be sitting on a building that I've promised will be 100 percent affordable that there isn't money to fund," said Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), whose affluent northern lakeside ward doesn't have any TIF districts.

Local aldermen have said they would likely accept only a small number of projects in their wards because so many properties are already designated affordable. TIFs are by law supposed to help raise up blighted neighborhoods. Teh ordinance is partially aimed at those TIFs that were established in the South Loop and other more affluent neighborhoods by bending the definition of what is blighted. The TIF-sponsored development in those neighborhoods during the housing boom contributed to the migration [of] low-income resident to South and West Side neighborhoods. The ordinance relies on political pressure to force affordable housing development in those neighborhoods, but drags the rest of the TIFs along for the ride.

If Burnett's ordinance does potentially too much, O'Connor's ordinance may do too little. The proposal makes any use of taxpayer money eligible to satisfy the goal, but the language is just that, a goal, entirely unenforceable. The bar is also set much lower at only 10 percent of TIF revenue. The administration is supporting the measure, largely because it does not expose the city to lawsuits if it does not build the affordable housing it promised to do.

The City Council only debates broad affordable housing measures about once a decade. Preckwinkle has been a force in those debates and has fiercely promoted Burnett's ordinance in hearings. She will take over as president of the Cook County Board two days before the measure is debated. A caretaker to fill out her tem has not yet been identified, and while that person will likely vote in line with Preckwinkle's impulses, it is unlikely that they will be able to match [article cut off].

 

[However, that does not tell what proportion of families in an area are in affordable housing-- can pay for and obtain that housing, especially if one accepts the measure that one is not living in affordable housing if spending more than about a third of monthly income on housing.]

 

July 7, 10 am City Hall 2nd fl Council chambers, there was a hearing on requiring 20% of TIF funds to be spent on affordable housing annually. Here are some details and one set of suggested alterations. Local groups such as Coalition for Equitable Community Development are examining the proposal. It was returned to committee. More about in Affordable Housing Information page. Read draft in pdf. It was reported out by Finance, but it is uncertain city council can pass it, whether weaknesses have been rooted out by a blue ribbon committee, and whether it can be used to buy and rehab foreclosed units.

The July 6 Sun-Times carries an editorial on the use of 20% of TIF funds for affordable housing. The editorial strongly endorses and gives reasons to recommend, but suggests a number of changes.

Note that the proposed ordinance is for 20% of total TIF money, NOT 20% in every TIF. Not said here is whether this is retroactive to all money in TIFs when it goes into effect but it appears the transfers and requirement would be annual. Not said here is whether such units would have to be inside a TIF district. It would not be just for building new housing, but could also be for preserving or rehabbing existing housing for affordable or converting foreclosed properties into affordable housing.

Recommended changes by Sun-Times:

Reporting requirements said to be weak, esp. that the developers alone would verify family eligibility.

For rental half of apartments in each development would be for families earning 50 percent or less of area median (+$38,000 for family of 54) with 40% for families earning under 23% Sun-Times fears this would derail development or lead to projects that don't enhance property values (which is a main source of increment in the first place). ST would change the percentages to 30% and a bit under 40%.

Homeownership rules: Proposed is that 50 percent of for-sale units be for families making under $60,000. But this is the group that most heavily took the now mortgages in the bubble and then lost them. It might also raise costs to the point that financing could not be obtained. S-T does not suggest an alternative.

The proposal lacks a means to prevent the city form concentrating affordable developments in certain (challenged?) neighborhoods. At least some affordable development should go into TIFs in neighborhoods that are not "challenged" (read Hyde Park 53rd and Cottage Grove TIFs?)

 

For budget of 2011, City to account for TIFs in the budget, declare $180 M from $25 TIFs surplus and send it to the taxing bodies, and to merge Housing-Zoning-Planning into one department (zoning inspectors would be under Buildings. Hearing dates set. (the following is a release from Chicago Rehab Network)

Using a variety of strategies and cost-saving measures, Mayor Daley released the $6.1 billion balanced City budget yesterday. Most notable in this document is the inclusion of a new Fund 0B21 which details TIF administrative expenses and a list of each TIF District noted with its available balance and drawdowns--a measure which CRN has repeatedly called for in the budgeting process. [See 2011 Preliminary Budget Testimony]. As a critical part of the City's finances and operations, the inclusion of TIF in the city budget makes sense and we recognize this effort by the City to further increase transparency and accountability in city government.

Mayor Daley has proposed declaring a surplus on 25 TIF districts worth $180 million to help close the budget gap. Per State law, other taxing bodies are entitled to this surplus. The City's share is $38 million with the lion's share of $90 million to go to the Chicago Public Schools. This move also releases $15 million for Cook County, $12 million for the Park District and $6 million for City Colleges.

While the large budget deficit has deemed TIF as a necessary source of funds, we hope that this is a precedent that does not continue -- pulling those dollars into the City corporate fund makes them no longer available for neighborhood housing and economic development.

Another important change is the consolidation of the Department of Zoning and the Department of Community Development as part of cost-cutting and streamlining of city functions. The merger will form the new Department of Housing and Economic Development. Zoning inspectors will be placed under the Department of Buildings.

Departmental hearings will begin on Monday, October 18th. The Department of Housing and Economic Development hearing will be held on October 25th at 9:00 am at City Council Chambers. See the full schedule here.

A public hearing is set for November 3rd at 9:00 am at City Hall and the final budget vote will be held on November 17th.

Stay tuned for CRN's Full Budget Analysis and other budget updates. Contact CRN for more information at 312-663-3936 or visit www.chicagorehab.org

The 43rd-Cottage TIF was one in the 4th ward from which the city took surplus funds. In addition, nearly 9 million were taken for Shops and Lofts at 47th and Cottage:

47th and Cottage Shops and Lofts project given a new chance at life

Based on Hyde Park Herald, June 2, 2010, By Sam Cholke. A year after being sidelined, a scaled-back Shops and Lofts at 47th and Cottage is being resuscitated. Principal is Frank Petruziello of Skilken co. More than half of the stores are committed, thanks in part to Quad Communities. The Community Builders will develop 72 rental (no longer condo) units that are to be mixed income one- and- two bedroom apartments. A third will be public housing, the majority below market rate and about a quarter market rate.

The property is still owned by the Rands, Everett and Timothy, although the city is negotiating for it- once purchased it will be turned over to the developer. Review process starts next month, with work hoped for early next year. No word as to whether the Booker building might be spared, apparently not. Developers for this site are strong funders of Ald. Preckwinkle, who also has her hq in the building across the street also owned by the developers.

Hyde Park Herald, December 1, 2010. By Sam Cholke. Project at 47th, Cottage progresses.

The city has signed off on a new Aldi and rental apartments at East 47gh Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue -- a complicated, highly subsidized project that is likely to be the format for future development on Cottage Grove Avenue and nearby areas during the downturn in the real estate market.

"It hinges on the Aldi lease. That is because in this down market, we need 60 percent of the space leased with a national credit occupant," said Frank Petruziello, of Columbus, Ohio-based developer Skilken. According to Petruziello, there are a number of factors at work inside and outside the neighborhood that make local development difficult, particularly fo the Shops and Lofts project. The neighborhood has relatively shallow lots, making it difficult to attract national retailers who are used to dropping a predesigned building on a big open lot. But a retailer with the national reputation is necessary to get creditors on board, according to Petruziello. The housing market in the neighborhood remains flush with vacant condos and unsold units at the Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Transformation sites. To get traction on a housing project it needs to be rental -- for Shops and Lofts it meant dropping all the condos from the plan and replacing them with a mixture of subsidized and market-rate rental units.

"We have all our ducks in a row to get this closed," Petruziello tod the city's Community Development Commission on Nov. 9. the last of the "ducks" that propelled Shops and Lofts forward while other Cottage Grove Avenue projects still languish is a considerable number of government subsidies.

The city bought the property where until Nov. 19 Pappy's Liquors stood and sold it to the developers for $1, a $1.7 million rebate for the developers. To pay for infrastructure upgrades, the city authorized $8.8 million from the 43rd adn Cottage Grove tax-increment financing district, a pot of the neighborhood's property tax dollars to be used to spur local development.

The rental apartments are also heavily subsidized. The Community Builders, which is in charge of the residential portion of the development, will contribute $2.5 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Progam funds it was awarded by the federal government. When the units open to tenants, 54 of the project's 72 units will have some portion of the rents paid by the government. The Chicago Housing Authority will put up the cash for 24 units and low income tax credits will help fund 30 affordable units.

Even in the booming market of a couple years ago, the project was expected to receive some TIF funding and a deal on the property, but the developers credit the added rent subsidies with getting the project back on course. "Needless to say we were close to bringing this project before (the Community Development Commission) a year ago, then the housing market collapsed," said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th). Shops and Lofts is one of the final development the alderman will shepherd through the city process before leaving next month to take her new post as president of the Cook County Board.

Petruziello said he sees the immediate future development in the neighborhood as similar to the Shops and Lofts project, focusing on basic community retail that is not well represented in the local market with a complimentary rental-housing component.

 


 

 

Small Business Improvement Fund grants out of TIF monies- several businesses have used these. them (Chant, Sit Down, Three Pillars, and Kimbark Laundry) See our SBIF page. Note that this is a 50-50 match with strict requirements, to be used only in the TIF area. Projects require aldermanic support, and recommendation of the TIF Neighborhood and Business Environment Committee (criteria to be developed, lottery used if competing proposals). TIF purpose is to increase property values for the increment for TIF purposes.The Business and Neighborhood Environment Committee continues to seek ways to bring 53rd along. Note, there have been periodic updates on the program and glowing testimonials from businesses that took advantage of it.
Now awarded RFP and guidelines for the Heart of Hyde Park/ 53rd & Harper (Theater) are were available on the SECC website--inquire of Irene Sherr--www.hydeparkchicago.org and the Guidelines part is in our Theater RFP page--with link to get full from developer-hard or CD-ROM copies. (We do have a pdf copy downloaded in the computer at our office- 39 pages plus graphics.)

To page index. Announcements.
To About Cleanslate cleaning program and recommendation
To Parking Committee recommendations and parking district recommendation
To TIFormation page for January 2008 annual TIF report to community

Quad Communities SSA #47 seeks residents of the SSA to serve on its Advisory Commission. The SSA runs from 39th to E. Hyde Park Blvd. along Cottage Grove Avenue and from the lake to 4 streets west of Cottage Grove along 47th Street. Call Lynn M. Kardasz at 773 268-7232 at 4659 S. Cottage Grove. Application due by November 14, 2008.

Next TIF Advisory Council meeting: Questions? 773 324-6926.

TIF Council generally meets the second Monday of September (1st meeting of year), November, January, March, May, and July.

Regular March 12, Monday, 7 pm at Kenwood Academy Little Theater, 5015 S. Blackstone.


The Planning and Development Committee vets developer proposals and strategic initiatives. Chairs Chuck Thurow and Mich Cohen. chuck.thurow@gmail.com. Harper Court home. SEE ABOVE, NOV. 14.


Visit Advisory Council Meetings.
January 12 2009 highlights: Susan Campbell announced that leases for remaining tenants have been extended to June. (At least one tenant says ability to relocate in that time if at all will be difficult.) The RFP call is in progress, initial extended to January 26. Alderman Preckwinkle said that the semifinal selectees will present their vision for Harper Court Area, not just the selected finalist.

Site on planning from TIF and SECC: http://www.vision53.org. Including reports on December 8 and May 3 53rd Street Vision Workshops. This site also has Guidelines for Harper Court RFQ/RFP in public comment period until June 12 (comments to ccs@ccstudioinc.com).The University has a blogsite for 53rd and Harper Court, but there is little in it: http://fiftythird.uchicago.edu

Planning and Development met June 14, 2010 on funding engineering study and drawings on reopening Harper Avenue. Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell. Approved by the full council July 12.
That meeting saw presentation and ask for $23.4 million for Harper. Approved July 26. Details see Harper homepage and TIF Adv. Council Meetings.

 

Next Accessibility (was Parking) Committee meeting will be announced. See Parking District page. Jo Ilene Reizner, Chair.

The Rehab and Repair (was Neighborhood Business and Environment Committee) Committee. Co chairs: Andre Brumfield and Jane Comiskey.


Meeting reports (last 3 years) in Advisory Council Meetings and Earlier linked there. Latest committee reports: Parking in Parking Opportunities and Parking Recommendations, Planning and Development and Streetscape in Advisory Council Meetings.

To receive e-mail notice of TIF meetings and agendas, go to www.hydeparkchicago.org or call SECC 733 324-6926 or 4th Ward Office, 773 536-8103.

The most recent and every Annual Report for the 53rd St. TIF (and the other 133 TIFs) is available 9 am-4 pm M-F at City Hall room 1003, Dept of Planning and Dev., 121 N. LaSalle. The current, and likely back, report is available and may be placed on their website, www.cityofchicago.org/dpd.

See on a sister TIF and council for Cottage Grove/Vincennes 37th -51st in the Development page.


In the till of the 53rd TIF at start of 2009: $2,498,522, should get another $900,000 spring 20100, and after expenditures. projected for $3,126,560 at the end of 2011. But this is without the first $2 million expected toward Harper Court redevelopment. (Most tifs are losing due to property value declines and spending). No new appropriations are on the horizon for the 53rd TIF but the city says the TIF will fund infrastructure work for Harper Court. (Original purpose was for parking, Canter, and other infrastructure needs in schools, parks and street in the district.)

 

Back Again- Flower Power. SECC and Chamber of Commerce have contracted with Panoramic Landscaping to install 2 seasonal planting and water and maintain all the baskets on 53rd and 55th. Cost is $26,000. The University pays half and matches additional dollars. Send checks to Flower Power at SECC, 152 E. 53rd street, 60615. 773 324-6926.

$590 all for a pair of baskets. $295 one, $150 plant material pair of baskets, $50 for one.

Here:

In an important milestone, the Village Center plan was approved unanimously by the Chicago Plan Commission August 19, 2010.

January 2010: TIF Council looks to new year of vetting Harper-53rd-Lake Park dev. project, funding in the district.
Approved $23.4 million to Harper Court July 26- find details from Harper Court homepage.

Hyde Park Herald, January 20, 2010. By Kate Hawley

Schools, job training and at least one local development project are likely to get funding during the next two years from the 53rd Street TIF, or tax-increment financing, district, said Howard Males, chair of the council that oversees the district, at its jan. 11 meeting.

His remarks came after James Wilson of the city's Department of Community Development presented budget projections for the 53rd Street TIF, the only one in Hyde Park [proper]. The district started 2009 with about $2.5 million and appropriated $157,000 for community job training [CARA/CleanSlate], $150,000 for upgrades to Canter Middle School and $511,500 for the design and construction of accessible ramps on arterial streets. An additional $20,000 was appropriated for a pre-acquisition account. "The pre-acquisition account is money that is set aside for soft costs such a appraisals, surveys and titles," wrote Ted Dygus, on behalf of the Department of Community Development, in an 3-mail. The account is not for any specific project, he added.

The balance in the TIF coffers at the end of 2010 is projected at $2,393,291. That number jumps to $3,126,560 by the end of 2011. During both of those years, the district is projected to generate $746,669 per year in property tax revenue. No expenses are listed during 2010 or 20100 except for $13,400 per year committed to administrative costs [city].

But the TI is still likely to fund local school improvements and job training through Cleanslate, a neighborhood cleanup program that helps the hard-to-employ transition to permanent, stable jobs, according to to Howard males, council chair. "Our commitment to both the jobs program in the form of Cleanslate and local schools remains constant," he said in an interview, adding that funding requests for both items will come before the council.

Males said he expects the developer of the Harper Court project will request TIF funds, given the scope and complexity of the project.... Every effort would be made to ensure that money remained in the coffers for schools and other community projects, he added.

Projections for all of the roughly 160 TIF districts in the city... are now available at the Department of Community Development's Web site.... items [are] listed as either "appropriated," meaning that the city has already approved the use of TIF funds, "committed," meaning that the city has firm plans to move ahead with TIF funding, or "pending," meaning that the use of TIF funds has been proposed....


HPKCC notes possible development impact on 53rd St. TIF budget. January 2010 Conference Reporter

Since the Chicago Community Planning and Development department has announced that the 53rd St. TIF will contributing funds to the Harper Court/53rd-Lake Park redevelopment, here is what has been in the pot and what’s projected.

The TIF became fully operational in 2002, but did not start with funds since assignment of any increased tax revenues in the district (“increment”) has a lag of at least a year and there has to be an increase to be assigned, either from increased values or tax rates or from new development. (Borders, BP, and McDonalds were the chief development generators for this TIF.) In recent years, the combined increment has been about $700,000 to $800,000 a year. Most TIFs have seen at least a decline in annual revenues lately, but this TIF’s revenues appear stable.

At the January 11, 2010 TIF meeting, Chair Howard Males said it has been the policy of the TIF council to appropriate half of the revenue each year and squirrel away the rest. Over the past three years, the Council has appropriated largest amounts for CARA/CleanSlate job training and street cleaning, Canter Middle School refurbishments, Small Business Improvement matches, and sidewalk work. The TIF cannot have administrative costs; those of the city are about $13,000 each year.

At the start of 2009, $2,498,522 was in the till and without expenditures would have a projected $3,126,560 at the end of 2011. Assuming half of the $746,660 deposited at the start of the year at the end of 2009 is spent, that would leave a balance of about $2,400,000 at the end of 2010. Males told the January meeting that the Council will be spending an undecided amount on the 53rd-Lake Park project, but certainly not the $2.4 balance. Whether the total spent this year might exceed half of $750,000 was not apparently yet decided.

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Recent

Recent years actions: funding of Canter grant, Business Improvement loans, Cleanslate; initiatives to encourage business district and retail building; streetscape such as new curb cuts abilities ramps and markers; 53rd, Harper Court visioning (see 53rd page, Harper Ct. page).

Item discontinued.

TIF gift gives Canter Middle School a makeover

Herald, May 23 2007. By Nykeya Woods

As the school year ends, Canter Middle School, 959 S. blackstone Ave., its beginning its $150,000 makeover, courtesy of funds approved at the May 14 53rd street Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Advisory Council meeting.

Principal Carolyn Epps said that she wants to create a welcoming environment for junior high school students with new doors, landscaping and and exterior cleaning of the school's two-story building. The allocation is the first for canter. "Ideally we would fix up everything but the exterior is so drab," Epps said. Epps wants to install an electrical sign to replace th e old one. "We want to look like a school you want to go to and not [like] a storage facility," E[[s said. "That is kind of what it looks like now from the the street.

During the meeting, TIF Chairman Howard Males read an e-mail about his concerns for funds to the school. "The Canter representatives have been patient. They've been gracious in waiting for redevelopment to fund a larger scale improvement to their school," Males said.

Males, along with other TIF members Virginia Vaske and Mae Wilson, formed a special committee to talk with Epps. In meetings, the group talked [about] what the school needs and how TIF. funds would be used.

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20 percent annual of citywide total TIF money proposed for affordable housing- City Council hearing July 7 2010. Raid or corrective?

July 7, 10 am City Hall 2nd fl Council chambers, hearing on requiring 20% of TIF funds to be spent on affordable housing annually. Here are some details and one set of suggested alterations. Local groups such as Coalition for Equitable Community Development are examining the proposal.

The July 6 Sun-Times carries an editorial on the use of 20% of TIF funds for affordable housing. The editorial strongly endorses and gives reasons to recommend, but suggests a number of changes.

Note that the proposed ordinance is for 20% of total TIF money, NOT 20% in every TIF. Not said here is whether this is retroactive to all money in TIFs when it goes into effect but it appears the transfers and requirement would be annual. Not said here is whether such units would have to be inside a TIF district. It would not be just for building new housing, but could also be for preserving or rehabbing existing housing for affordable or converting foreclosed properties into affordable housing.

Recommended changes by Sun-Times:

Reporting requirements said to be weak, esp. that the developers alone would verify family eligibility.

For rental half of apartments in each development would be for families earning 50 percent or less of area median (+$38,000 for family of 54) with 40% for families earning under 23% Sun-Times fears this would derail development or lead to projects that don't enhance property values (which is a main source of increment in the first place). ST would change the percentages to 30% and a bit under 40%.

Homeownership rules: Proposed is that 50 percent of for-sale units be for families making under $60,000. But this is the group that most heavily took the now mortgages in the bubble and then lost them. It might also raise costs to the point that financing could not be obtained. S-T does not suggest an alternative.

The proposal lacks a means to prevent the city form concentrating affordable developments in certain (challenged?) neighborhoods. At least some affordable development should go into TIFs in neighborhoods that are not "challenged" (read Hyde Park 53rd and Cottage Grove TIFs?)

 

Sun-Times on what happened July 7

Sun-times online July 7, 2010
Plan to set aside TIF money for affordable housing stalls
Comments
July 7, 2010

BY FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporter
A plan to set aside 20 percent of Chicago’s tax-increment-financing (TIF) funds for affordable housing stalled in a joint City Council committee on Wednesday, despite a grass roots campaign that has pressured at least 27 aldermen to sign on.

The City Council’s Finance and Housing committees took two hours of testimony but no vote on the set-aside plan championed by Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) amid a barrage of questions from supporters and opponents alike.

Aldermen demanded to know how the mandate would impact their control over TIF spending, whether there are enough interested developers to support a 20 percent edict and whether neighborhoods without TIFs would be denied sorely-needed affordable housing. They also questioned how the ordinance would be enforced.

"If procedures they’re proposing are the same as what we’ve got now, what do we need another ordinance for?” said Housing Committee Chairman Ray Suarez (31st).

Burnett countered that TIFs are now being used to subsidize clout-heavy developers and consultants and to pay the salaries of 72 city employees. "Why can’t we give the TIF back to the people who pay the taxes in our community so they can get some affordable housing?” he said. "TIF is the only resource we have that can make things happen. We have to do something about foreclosures and the lack of affordable housing. This money is sitting in a pot while people in our communities are suffering.”

Chicago has 159 TIFs that siphon tens of millions of dollars away from local taxing districts -- by freezing property taxes for 23 years and using the increment for business subsidies and infrastructure improvements within those boundaries.

Burnett’s ordinance would rein in Mayor Daley’s unbridled control over the TIF piggy bank. Twenty percent of funds generated by TIFs in the previous year—$100 million--would be used to either build or preserve affordable housing. The 20 percent would come from the citywide total—not from each TIF, as some aldermen feared.

In 1993, Daley unveiled a five-year plan for affordable housing under pressure from the City Council. Last year, he committed $2.1 billion to create 50,022 units of rental and for-sale housing by 2013.

The City Council also mandated a 20 percent affordable housing set-aside on city-subsidized projects and 10 percent on projects that involve city land, planned developments and zoning changes that increase density.

Daley has taken no public stand on the new ordinance but Burnett knows he’s fighting an uphill battle.
"It’s not that the mayor is against affordable housing. It’s just that he needs to be massaged a little bit and I think he’ll reconsider,” Burnett said.

It’s not the first time Burnett has gone toe-to-toe with Daley on the issue of affordable housing,
During the 2003 City Council debate on the first affordable housing set-aside ordinance, Burnett told Daley that people on the mayor’s own staff “have challenges with affordable housing—whether you know it or not, whether they tell you or not.”

Daley snapped, "Alderman, I know about affordable housing. You don’t have to lecture me.”

Burnett stood his ground, arguing that affordable housing was the decisive issue in the 2003 aldermanic elections.
"We all have to live with that, Mr. Mayor. We cannot be afraid to fight to give people affordable housing. We need more,” he said.
Daley countered, "No one’s afraid to to say what’s right. . . .You’ve always spoken your mind. I’ve allowed that. Never infer that I did not allow that. . . .Don’t infer that I do not listen to you."

 

What's been happening?

See 53rd Street News. Advisory Council Meetings. What's up/at stake in Dev., Preservation? Development Navigator (and pages in). Also Checkerboard Lounge/Park52. Harper Theater/Herald Bldg. Harper Court Sale page. SBIF. Cleanslate.
Lake Park/viaducts/embankment.

See accomplishments, below. Here as a base are a couple of reports on the 2006 and 2007 annual reports. Since the main focus has been on Harper Court area, Canter School, SBIF, Cleanslate, and vetting of a couple of major development proposals (stalled due to the economy, except perhaps Village Center. University purchase of the Mobil station could (esp. if former McDonalds is added) could spark a new "front" for development despite likely opposition, much as UC purchase of Harper Court then Hollywood Video sparked that development. Harper Theater remains a question mark.


Summary of the 2006 Annual Report (FY July 1 2006-June 30 2007)

By Gary Ossewaarde

"Property tax revenue for the Project was $812,183 for the year. This was an increase of 69 percent over the prior year. The change in net assets produced an increase in net assets of $825,175. The Project's net assets increased 48 percent from the prior year making available $2,545,013 of funding to be provided for purposes of future redevelopment in the Project's designated area. Revenues increased this year due to the Project's economic growth an accordingly increasing the total equalized assessed value of parcels and subsequent tax increment and related collections."

Expenditures in that year were $16,074 of which $12,352 went to city staff costs. (Significant outlays for Cleanslate, SBIF, Canter School, and Vision process will be shown in the following year.) Excess of Revenues $589,289, Fund balance change $1,283,962 to $1,873,251 (no service or encumbrances).

No property was purchased, sold or transferred. No redevelopment activities were undertaken. No agreements were entered into. No obligations were issued.

The Project did enter into an ongoing Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF). Estimated to complete $1,500,000 (private investment, no public- but $750,000 would be required to compete at 2:1 ratio.

Reports On the 2006 TIF Annual Reports

Annual Reports of any Chicago TIF can be picked up in room 703 City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St.

Hyde Park Herald, July 25, 2007. By Seth Ufheil

Last year, more than half a million dollars was generated by th 53rd Street tax Increment financing District (TIF), but none of that money went toward a significant development. Instead, funds were spent only on administrative costs to prepare an annual report on the district's financial activity.

The TIF district, which was established in 1999, is detailed in a 2006 annual report filed with the city's Department of Planning and Development and made available to the public last week.

The additional money collected last year--the majority of which came from property taxes--brings the total amount of funds generated by the TIF to more than $1.8 million. After it was established, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) told the community that money raised by the TIF district would be used to help pay for an addition to the Miriam G. Canter Middle School, 4959 S. Blackstone Ave. Another of Preckwinkle's funding priorities is a parking garage for 53rd Street.

To date, neither project has begun, although some TIF money--about $15,000--was approved earlier this year for Canter Middle School to spend on cleaning and landscaping improvements. Another $150,000 has been allocated for Cleanslate, a neighborhood beautification program. Preckwinkle, who had not yet seen the repot, said there was no timetable for the two projects to begin. "We're looking to develop the whole Harper Court city lot," she said. "We're hoping developments at 53rd [Street] and Harper [Avenue] and at the Mobil Mcdonalds site wil contribute to the fund."

The estimated mature value of the 53rd Street TIF is $22 million, but future development along the street could significantly increase the amount of available TIF money because taxes from all new developments would flow into the fund.

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About the 2007 TIF Annual Report

Hyde Park Herald August 6 2008. By Kate Hawley: TIF funds go to Cleanslate, ...rehabs in 2007

[Note: appears to include expenditures from previous or following year.]

A tax district centered on the 53rd Street commercial strip swelled its coffers by 26 percent to $3.2 million in 2007 from a year earlier, even as it dramatically increased expenditures on job training and small-business programs.

A 2007 annual report released by the city in July gives a breakdown on the finances for the 53rd Street tax increment financing, or TIF, district,... one of about 160 districts citywide. TIFs, which are meant to stimulate neighborhood development, cap property taxes for a 23-year period within the district's boundaries and funnel the excess, or increment, into a fund that can be spent on a range of local projects.

The 53rd Street TIF district spent just $16,047 in 2006. That figure jumped to $185,434 in 2007. A portion of that was set aside for administrative costs. The rest went to two programs new in the financial district that year.

Cleanslate, which received $86,875, offers job training through its neighborhood beautification service. Hyde Parkers have likely seen Cleanslate's interns, as they are called under the program, wearing fluorescent yellow shirts and scouring neighborhood sidewalks for trash.

The Small Business Improvement Fund, or SBIF, a city program that helps small-business owners spruce up their properties, received $79,759. About $34,00 of that went to Patti and Tom Kidwell, the owners of Chant, 1509 E. 53rd St., for overhaul of the restaurants' interior, according to Derek Walvoord, of SomerCor 504 Inc., the nonprofit that oversees the SBIF program. The remainder went to John Frangias of JGF Management for roof and brick work on a building he owns at 1312 E. 53rd St., Walvoord said. A cafe and sushi bar called The Sit Down is soon to occupy the space. SBIF money has also been allocated for Kimbark Laundry, 1218 E. 53rd St.; Cedars Mediterranean Kitchen, 1206 E. 53rd St.; and Three Pillars Wellness Center, 1516 E. 53rd St.; according to Walvoord.

And $350,000 in TIF money was approved last year, for improvements to Canter Middle School, 4959 S. blackstone Ave. The funds will be matched by Chicago Public Schools, said Irene Sherr, a local consultant who works with the 13-person council that oversees the district.

The council, which holds open meetings and workshops and issues regular publications, provides a level of public participation that is rare among the city's TIF districts, Sherr said. The TIF program has been criticized for its lack of transparency.

The 53rd Street TIF district is also unique in that it wasn't created in order to fund a particular development project, a practice common in other district, she said.

The next major project on tap for the district, the planned redevelopment of the Village Center mall at 1525 E. Hyde Park Blvd., won't use TIF funds, according to its developer, Eli Ungar of Antheus Capital. However, the redevelopment of the Harper Court shopping center on Harper Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets, still in the early planning stages, is a likely candidate for TIF subsidy, Sherr said.

The 53rd Street TIF was created in 2001 with an eye toward the development of parking to support future building on 53rd Street, and for securing funds to improve Canter Middle School.

In 2007, the TIF took in $808,219 in property tax revenue, a decrease of less than 1 percent from the previous year.

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Accomplished by the TIF: Streetscape improvements. New construction includes Borders, McDonalds on Lake Park, BP Connect, CVS Pharmacy, and the Hyde Park Bank remodeling, Checkerboard Lounge and Park 52. Small Business Improvement loans. Major renovations at Canter Middle School. Cleanslate program. Standards and categories/ped-friendly and transit-oriented districts tested out in the TIF creation process are in the 2004 Zoning Ordinance. Vetted major proposals, with Harper/53rd Lake Park likely to start in 2011.

Possibly to go forward soon: Village Center at Lake Park and E. Hyde Park (Antheus, vetted and approved by TIF)

Possibly to be proposed next: proposal for the Mobil/former McDonald's site north side of 53rd at Kenwood, proposal for Harper Theater/Herald Building.

Possibilities further out: Something behind the Bank 53rd or along Lake Park between Harper/53rd Lake Park and Village Center, or who knows what.

 

What is a "TIF"? And why on 53rd?

TIF means tax increment(al) funding. A district is created in which any increase in tax revenue is assigned to the district rather than to the regular taxing bodies (city, county, schools, parks, libraries, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, etc.) for a number of years, generally 23, to be spent as the district wills within tightly prescribed limits. The gain for the other taxing bodies is down the road, when the spent increment has (it is hoped) built a much bigger tax base. Stimulation of development, conserving the bounded area through guidelines, streetscape improvements, needed infrastructure such as parking garage, improvement of schools and parks within the district are some of the things spent for in a commercial area TIF and in particular 53rd TIF. This particular TIF is different in that it is not to benefit any particular developer and Alderman Preckwinkle was able to establish an advisory council to advise her despite strong opposition to that downtown. This TIF district was approved subsequent to a recommendatory Designation assessment by the S. B. Friedman firm.

TIF's have been controversial in Chicago. The best, although not unbiased, research is available from the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group. The Chicago Department of Planning and Development also has detailed guidelines and forms. (Did you know that you can register at City Hall (on line, too) with the Department of Planning as a TIF Interested Person and receive regular reports and notice of hearings on any TIF you designate?) General information which can be used in guiding the TIF is disseminated by the Metropolitan Planning Council, particularly its coalition group, Campaign for Sensible Growth. To receive their growing set of brochures on community design, call Ellen Shubart, 312 863-6009.

NCBG has tied its TIF task force to a "TIF/Neighborhood Accountable Development" agenda.

Although one could quibble as to whether 53rd Street met the letter of state law criteria for a conservation (i.e. in-trouble) area, as certified in a thorough study documenting the proposed district, 53rd has needs, including aging/deteriorating and obsolescent structures, poor use of land, and the fact that its tax base growth lags the residential sector of the neighborhood. 53rd is good example of a strong pedestrian-oriented commercial strip strategically located by transit nodes that can be improved by targeted spending of funds. A TIF seems the only way to get a garage and it can create the positive atmosphere and synergy to induce both developers and current property owners to spend for improvement and yet shape that development through community-accountable guidelines.

This advisory council also acts as a town meeting and gathering place for diverse community leaders--for example, two board members of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference currently serve on the council and other HPKCC board members are on the expanded committees (Parking, Streetscape, and Planning and Development). More neighborhoods are following ours in creating grass roots redevelopment plans leading to commercial district TIFs.

Establishment of the TIF was a long city process. It followed upon a period when solutions for 53rd languished a after a big push by the Ad Hoc Committee for 53rd Street (a part of HPKCC) for improvements. These included at one time an attempt to form a Special Assessment District. A city planning grant helped, administered by Alderman's Preckwinkle's office and the South East Chicago Commission. HPKCC members also served on the advising task force of that effort along with SECC, Chamber of Commerce and Harper Court Foundation members. Consultants distributed a report, A Vision for Hyde Park (available for examination at the Conference or SECC offices). The advising task force and Alderman Preckwinkle turned to a TIF as the most likely way to get improvements, including parking, streetscape (although this was so far funded by the city, not the TIF), guidelines, and new development. Many continue to hope that holes in our retail mix will be filled, some perhaps with larger stores, through what TIF funds can facilitate. From the Vision for Hyde Park project through formation and first actions of the TIF council, Hyde Park has paralleled the goals of the zoning reform effort.

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Link to Chicago Reader assessments of TIFs in Chicago

The following apply principally to the downtown TIF and do not distinguish out neighborhood TIFs

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/shadow-budget-tif/Content?oid=1251320

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-chicago-shadow-tif-budget/Content?oid=1218391

2009: TIFs took in about $495 million overall in Chicago.

Preckwinkle calls for local oversight of 43rd St. TIF (Cottage 39th-50th), potential role of tifs and boards (in the few that have them). Cottage Grove Corridor background, studies- see following feature.

Things were moving ahead very fast in 2007 with the coalition of Quad Cities, O-H Community Partners, Dept of Planning, Skidmore, Ald. Preckwinkle, Mahogany Ventures, Cottage Grove Development. Getting under way are a big shopping center on the southwest corner of Cottage Grove and 47th (that will tear down the Booker bldg. of the designer of Harper Theater despite calls by Quad Cities leader Bernita Johnson-Gabriel) and a whole string of new businesses and mixed development plus town houses along cottage including a beauty business that employees ex-offenders. On the table also is an arts and recreation center (including a pool) for 37th and Cottage.

In 2008, a $12 million Cottage Grove Restoration Initiative has started to provide loans to rehabilitate business facilities and get buildings ready to lease.

The newly-appointed 15 member advisory council first meets Wed., at King Community Center, 4314 S. Cottage. 773 535-8103 (4th Ward office). Expansion of the earlier TIF at 43rd was proposed by the alderman in early 2004. Apparently there was some concern about the city acquiring and bundling large amounts of vacant land without much public oversight. We wish the best to the new council in its oversight and envisionment roles. In October 2009, City Council, approved the SSA taxing district component, designated #47.

Appointed to the Commission in 2009 by Ald. Preckwinkle: Szymon Leja, Bwati Davis, Yonanda Travis, Katharyn Houke-Smith, Laura Lane, Tonya Primus, Rosalind Goodwin, Loron Pikofsky, Lamont Robinson.

More on LISC New Communities initiative: www.newcommunities.org. And Quad Cities.

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20 percent annual of citywide total TIF money proposed for affordable housing- City Council hearing July 7 2010. Raid or corrective?

July 7, 10 am City Hall 2nd fl Council chambers, hearing on requiring 20% of TIF funds to be spent on affordable housing annually. Here are some details and one set of suggested alterations. Local groups such as Coalition for Equitable Community Development are examining the proposal.

 

Sun-Times on what happened July 7

Sun-times online July 7, 2010
Plan to set aside TIF money for affordable housing stalls
Comments
July 7, 2010

BY FRAN SPIELMAN Staff Reporter
A plan to set aside 20 percent of Chicago’s tax-increment-financing (TIF) funds for affordable housing stalled in a joint City Council committee on Wednesday, despite a grass roots campaign that has pressured at least 27 aldermen to sign on.

The City Council’s Finance and Housing committees took two hours of testimony but no vote on the set-aside plan championed by Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) amid a barrage of questions from supporters and opponents alike.

Aldermen demanded to know how the mandate would impact their control over TIF spending, whether there are enough interested developers to support a 20 percent edict and whether neighborhoods without TIFs would be denied sorely-needed affordable housing. They also questioned how the ordinance would be enforced.

"If procedures they’re proposing are the same as what we’ve got now, what do we need another ordinance for?” said Housing Committee Chairman Ray Suarez (31st).

Burnett countered that TIFs are now being used to subsidize clout-heavy developers and consultants and to pay the salaries of 72 city employees. "Why can’t we give the TIF back to the people who pay the taxes in our community so they can get some affordable housing?” he said. "TIF is the only resource we have that can make things happen. We have to do something about foreclosures and the lack of affordable housing. This money is sitting in a pot while people in our communities are suffering.”

Chicago has 159 TIFs that siphon tens of millions of dollars away from local taxing districts -- by freezing property taxes for 23 years and using the increment for business subsidies and infrastructure improvements within those boundaries.

Burnett’s ordinance would rein in Mayor Daley’s unbridled control over the TIF piggy bank. Twenty percent of funds generated by TIFs in the previous year—$100 million--would be used to either build or preserve affordable housing. The 20 percent would come from the citywide total—not from each TIF, as some aldermen feared.

In 1993, Daley unveiled a five-year plan for affordable housing under pressure from the City Council. Last year, he committed $2.1 billion to create 50,022 units of rental and for-sale housing by 2013.

The City Council also mandated a 20 percent affordable housing set-aside on city-subsidized projects and 10 percent on projects that involve city land, planned developments and zoning changes that increase density.

Daley has taken no public stand on the new ordinance but Burnett knows he’s fighting an uphill battle.
"It’s not that the mayor is against affordable housing. It’s just that he needs to be massaged a little bit and I think he’ll reconsider,” Burnett said.

It’s not the first time Burnett has gone toe-to-toe with Daley on the issue of affordable housing,
During the 2003 City Council debate on the first affordable housing set-aside ordinance, Burnett told Daley that people on the mayor’s own staff “have challenges with affordable housing—whether you know it or not, whether they tell you or not.”

Daley snapped, "Alderman, I know about affordable housing. You don’t have to lecture me.”

Burnett stood his ground, arguing that affordable housing was the decisive issue in the 2003 aldermanic elections.
"We all have to live with that, Mr. Mayor. We cannot be afraid to fight to give people affordable housing. We need more,” he said.
Daley countered, "No one’s afraid to to say what’s right. . . .You’ve always spoken your mind. I’ve allowed that. Never infer that I did not allow that. . . .Don’t infer that I do not listen to you."

TIFS TO BE MODIFIED FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING? July 7, 10 am City Hall 2nd fl Council chambers, there was a hearing on requiring 20% of TIF funds to be spent on affordable housing annually. Here are some details and one set of suggested alterations. Local groups such as Coalition for Equitable Community Development are examining the proposal. It was sent back to committee.

The July 6 Sun-Times carries an editorial on the use of 20% of TIF funds for affordable housing. The editorial strongly endorses and gives reasons to recommend, but suggests a number of changes.

Note that the proposed ordinance is for 20% of total TIF money, NOT 20% in every TIF. Not said here is whether this is retroactive to all money in TIFs when it goes into effect but it appears the transfers and requirement would be annual. Not said here is whether such units would have to be inside a TIF district. It would not be just for building new housing, but could also be for preserving or rehabbing existing housing for affordable or converting foreclosed properties into affordable housing.

Recommended changes by Sun-Times:

Reporting requirements said to be weak, esp. that the developers alone would verify family eligibility.

For rental half of apartments in each development would be for families earning 50 percent or less of area median (+$38,000 for family of 54) with 40% for families earning under 23% Sun-Times fears this would derail development or lead to projects that don't enhance property values (which is a main source of increment in the first place). ST would change the percentages to 30% and a bit under 40%.

Homeownership rules: Proposed is that 50 percent of for-sale units be for families making under $60,000. But this is the group that most heavily took the now mortgages in the bubble and then lost them. It might also raise costs to the point that financing could not be obtained. S-T does not suggest an alternative.

The proposal lacks a means to prevent the city form concentrating affordable developments in certain (challenged?) neighborhoods. At least some affordable development should go into TIFs in neighborhoods that are not "challenged" (read Hyde Park 53rd and Cottage Grove TIFs?)

Herald July 21 2010- a complicated change being tweaked. Local Alds. back housing bill. By Sam Cholke

Local aldermen have joined over half o their colleagues in supporting an ordinance that would mandate more tax increment financing (TIF) money get funneled into affordable housing development. "Once every decade there's another idea about affordable housing and how we can bring more resources to the table" said Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), who co-sponsored the City Council's 1993 and 1999 ordinances that increased city spending on low-and moderate-income housing.

The current idea, the Sweet Home Chicago ordinance drafted by Ald. walter Burnett Jr. (27th) and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, would pump more TIF funding into affordable housing developments. "This ordinance is quite simple in how it would work," Julie Dworkin, director of policy for the Coalition for the Homeless, told a joint meeting of the Housing and Finance committees on July 7. Dworkin said the coalition is pursuing TIF funding to fill the gap left by dwindling state and federal funding for affordable housing.

For example, TIFs brought in about $495 million in revenue in 2009. Under the proposed ordinance, the city should then commit close to $100 million to affordable housing projects in 2010. "It doesn't take that many projects to get to $100 million," said Adam Gross, a lawyer from the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, a group that is advising aldermen on the ordinance.

The ordinance sets teh benchmark for how much should be spent; t does not specify where it should be spent. [describes TIFs, ...TIFs can bed set up to spur commercial, industrial or residential development, or as a mixture of uses. Most TIFs are mixed use. There are 16 residential TIFs in the city, 11 of which are in Bronzeville.

"We have to be careful - we have a lot of affordable housing already," said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), whose ward contains many TIFs that were set up to fund the redevelopment of public housing redevelopments. "In the 3rd Ward, I would rather used the TIFs for retail development."

Preckwinkle said there is already a tremendous amount of TIF money being committed to affordable housing in her ward. Aldermen control how TIF money is spent, and if South Side aldermen cannot find affordable housing projects to help satisfy the ordinance, the city will have to look elsewhere. Many of the TIFs on the North Side are mixed-use districts, but are set along narrow commercial strips and have built-in plans for how funds are intended to be used, rendering affordable housing projects in those district difficult, though not impossible.

teh city could look on the West side, where many TIFs cover large residential areas and are intended to spur mixed-use projects that include residential. The Midwest TIF, which covers much of North Lawndale and East Garfield Park, is one of th e largest West side TIFs. It would not likely be able to accommodated new housing projects as it is projected to end the year overextended by $6.8 million. The neighboring Pulaski Ogden TIF, which also covers portions of North Lawndale, could not likely accommodate affordable housing developments either because it has not generated any revenue since it was created last year.

the Englewood Neighborhood TIF, set to spur residential and commercial development ad currently invested heavily in retail development, could accommodated some affordable housing projects. But even if the Englewood TIF were to commit all of its yearly $4.2 million in revenue, the Sweet Home Chicago ordinance's benchmarks would still stand far from being satisfied.

The Sweet Home Chicago ordinance is still a work in progress adn aldermen are expected to hold a second round of public hearings before any action is taken. "I doubt it will be exactly what was introduced," Preckwinkle said.