Forest land purchase plan worries West Chicago

Forest land purchase plan worries West Chicago
City, schools fear future revenue loss

By Gary Gibula, Special to the Tribune. Tribune staff reporter Lynn Van Matre contributed to this report
Published March 10, 2004

West Chicago officials are growing increasingly concerned about DuPage Forest Preserve District plans to acquire land near the DuPage Airport.

City and school leaders are especially worried because excluding property from future development also removes millions in potential tax revenue.

Mayor Michael Fortner appeared before the Forest Preserve District Commission last week to ask why it was seeking to buy seven parcels totaling 163 acres northeast of the airport.

The Forest Preserve District has enacted four ordinances directing its staff to negotiate acquiring the land.

Fortner has sent a letter to forest preserve President Dewey Pierotti requesting a meeting to discuss questions raised by the land acquisition. None of the forest preserve ordinances states a clear purpose for buying the land, Fortner said.

Brent Manning, Forest Preserve District executive director, said Tuesday that the land could be used for wetland mitigation, among other things.

"There are fewer and fewer large tracts of land available, and this one is sizeable and ecologically valuable enough that the district should be looking at it," Manning said. "We have a lot of postage-stamp-sized areas, but you need a large habitat area in order to increase biodiversity."

Fortner described the land as "prime industrial land with frontage on state highway North Avenue, with the potential of improving the tax base for the city.

"Keeping this land on the tax rolls will lessen the burden on individual residents and also help the school system," he said.

As an example, Fortner cited recent industrial properties developed in West Chicago that have an equalized assessed valuation "somewhere around $50 million. That's roughly $220,000 of tax revenue that the city would not receive if we didn't have that development."

Officials said West Chicago's city property tax rate is about 44 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation. But with tax rates of $3.63 and $2.03, respectively, Elementary School District 33 and High School District 94 have far more to lose.

"The concern, obviously, is the more money you take off the tax rolls, the more that local residents have to pay to support the schools," said District 94 Supt. LeRoy Rieck. "We generally feel that some use of the land that would produce revenue and not increase our student population would be ideal."

District 33 Supt. Jon Mink said Monday he expects to send a letter to the Forest Preserve District opposing the land acquisition.

"We can calculate based on comparable properties," said Bob Lemon, a District 33 school board member. "The best estimates are that the school district could lose $1.2 million to $2.2 million in property tax revenue if that land is not used as light industrial or office space."

"West Chicago is an island in a sea of green," said Lemon, referring to the many forest preserves that abut the city. "They want to carve a slice out of our island to make more green space, but we're already plenty green."