By: Mark Draughn

Mark Draughn — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:31:38 +0000

My answer to your comment got kind of long, so I posted my reply here.

By: Dr. Howard Riley

Dr. Howard Riley — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:23:42 +0000

Mr. Mark Draughn
Sir:
I appreciated your article on the TIF struggle in Des Planes. In Newton, IL, the mayor and his rubber stamp council (seven of eight) are making plans to establish a TIF district. I do not think that it can be legally done, but need help.
I have read that the first prerequisite for a TIF is that it must occupy an area that, by statute, is blighted. The proposed district includes a strip of territory a block or more wide on either side of our two main streets (the business district); the public square and adjacent territory; and the “Pale Jumbo” Industrial Park (which has never had an occupant). There is no possible way that this, or any area our little country town of about 3,100 population, contains five of the necessary conditions to be, by statutory definition, blighted.
The proposed district also includes twelve acres adjacent to the city that the mayor proposes to purchase. This acreage was a bean field last season, and though it is slow to drain it is not chronically flooded; I feel certain that it can not be considered blighted. Are these fact alone sufficient to defeat the proposition? What should I do?
If you have any literature, suggestions or tips that you can let me have, I will certainly appreciate it. Also, if you know of anyone who is knowledgeable on the subject and who lives in the vicinity of Newton and would speak on behalf of the opposition at a hearing, please give me his name and address.
I hope that this request will not be an inconvenience, and I thank you.
Dr. Howard B. Riley
110 W. Reynolds
Newton, IL 62448

Comments on: Des Plaines TIF: Geiser-Berner

By: Mark Draughn

By: Dr. Howard Riley