Joint Review Board Minutes 2013 11-26-13
APPROVED 11/25/14
FY 2013 Annual Joint Review Board for TIF Districts
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
2:00 p.m.
Yorkville City Hall Conference Room
800 Game Farm Road, Yorkville, IL 60560
Committee Members in Attendance:
Dean Romano, Asst. Supt. for Finance & Operations – Yorkville CUSD 115
City Officials in Attendance:
Bart Olson, City Administrator – City Administrator
Rob Fredrickson, Finance Director - United City of Yorkville
Kathleen Field Orr, City Attorney – Kathleen Field Orr & Associates
Other Attendees:
No other attendees
Elect Public Member
There was no public member present so City Attorney Kathleen Field Orr stated they
would forego it.
Elect Chair Person
Mr. Olson made a motion to elect Mr. Romano as Chairperson. Mr. Romano seconded;
the motion was carried and Mr. Romano is the Chairperson.
Mr. Romano took roll and called the meeting to order. He opened the annual meeting by
asking for approval of the minutes from the last meeting (November 27, 2012). Mr.
Fredrickson made one amendment to the minutes to reflect “2012” rather than “2011.”
(Correction has been made.) No other changes were necessary; minutes approved with
correction.
Annual Report for U.S. Route 34 & Route 47 Countryside:
Mr. Romano asked Mr. Fredrickson to provide some feedback on above subject. Mr.
Fredrickson opened by referring to page 6 of the report which showed the Fund Balance
to be $1,877,872 as of May 1, 2012. During the year, there were total revenues of
$2,132; total expenditures of $307,669; resulting in an ending Fund Balance of
$1,572,335. Pages 7, 8 and 9 show a little more of the detailed expenditures.
At this point, City Attorney, Kathleen Field Orr, asked Mr. Romano if he knew the
history of it and he did not. She then offered to summarize a little history. The TIF was
established in 2005 because, at the time, Kohl’s was supposed to come to the area. There
was a condition that the City issue a bond for $3.5M, represented by the proceeds in the
report. The balance that was left as of this report is $1.8M. The City worked with the
developer; yet, the property was lost.
Then a new developer came in and made Kohl’s a better deal in a Business District (no
TIF) and Kohl’s went to that area instead. In the meantime, they have been using the
bond money to pay the debt service since there is no revenue coming in from the
property. The city has been hoping for a developer ever since and the Mr. Jim Ratos
comes in and said, “We need a cinema!” and NGC theatres open in November of 2013.
The agreement the city made with Mr. Ratos will be in next year’s packet since it wasn’t
passed until May, 2013. The agreement is he gets the balance of the bond proceeds ($2M
maximum) and the difference between $200,000 is going to be Amusement Tax
reimbursement. Ms. Field Orr thinks the city’s biggest failure has become its biggest
success! The way it was done, the base EAV still had the initial building; so, continuing
with the TIF as it is right now – she asked if they are going to ask for an extension on the
bond? Mr. Olson said it would depend on the refinancing being stretched to be
coterminous with the TIF district. The current TIF ends in 2029.
Mr. Romano asked if there was space and if it covered out buildings and Mr. Olson and
Ms. Orr confirmed it did. They are hoping if they pay off the bond sooner, it will be
gone. Mr. Olson said north/west of the theatre site there is actually a larger lot than what
the theatre is on now. It could also be sub-divided further into a lot of smaller lots;
however, the thought is they would like another larger, anchor tenant in there. Ms. Orr
said what they would have to do is, within the life of the TIF, say what is brought in
would be used to pay off the bond (even with the re-finance).
Mr. Olson stated this year’s TIF report is particularly bland because there are no expenses
and not much has been done. Within the next two years, there will be a new re-
development agreement and hopefully some revenue to actually pay off the bonds. Mr.
Olson asked if they could close out that TIF since they have reviewed all of the
appropriate materials. Ms. Orr wanted to point out one other thing on why this TIF is
where the city bears the brunt. On page 16, when the TIF was declared, the base EAV
was $1,528,166. You can see the current (before construction), so if the City had TIF’ed
it later, the school would have lost the $1.5M base that they can at least get now. Mr.
Romano said he was familiar with the concept of TIFs moving into a lower EAV
situation.
Mr. Fredrickson went to page 30, which is a summary of the activity of the downtown
TIF revenue expenses beginning with a Fund Balance of $257,953; $45,409 in Revenue;
$86,425 in expenditures for an Ending Fund Balance of $216,937.
Mr. Olson stated there was an error showing $3,506,099 in Cumulative Bond Proceeds
that matches the amount in Countryside. Ms. Orr said that should not be there. Mr.
Olson said the rest of the numbers looked fine; that number should be “0” - for the
record.
Ms. Orr said the only thing to note on the Downtown TIF is there is $216,000; $200,000
of it is committed to the Route 47 project. The other is a redevelopment agreement with
Imperial Investments as a Business District overlay. The problem is the base EAV in the
TIF is already $5.7M, so it’s only gone up $1M, since it was declared in 2006 and hasn’t
escalated very much. The problem with the Downtown TIF is that it isn’t a realistic
evaluation.
Mr. Olson said there were a couple of minor expenses throughout the year that Mr.
Fredrickson noted on pages 31-33. There were some marketing costs for conference
attendance and engineering services (FS property east alley). The city has a Brownfield
Grant (that they have been doing a study for); clean-up costs for minor repairs on the old
Post Office and some other city building down there; and the Route 47 costs they talked
about. He projected that next year’s Joint Review Board meeting will have some
increment going to Imperial for projects they have done. Mr. Romano asked if there was
a commitment to that group and Ms. Orr stated the city owes them at least $500,000 (it’s
in the report with the projects) - as of this time. What has been appended is the first re-
development agreement. Then they added more projects, property and developments.
That’s when they did the Building Development District (BDD) for the 1%, which is
subsequent to this fiscal year.
Mr. Olson said on the November 26, 2013 City Council agenda, they are considering
accelerating some decorative street lights if they approve that grant project. There are
probably a few more minor projects when they actually work on Riverfront Park. There
is a separate grant to do that. There might be some other things they choose to do down
there (aesthetic based) that would qualify for TIF expenses.
Ms. Orr said basically the TIFs are very small and very conservative. The only way it
would ever include residential property is if residences are built at Kendallwood Estates
(owned by Imperial Investments which bought a platted subdivision). It is left dormant
right now. The infrastructure is all there (they built roads, detention basins, water and
sewer), they just have not seen a market for it. Mr. Romano asked if they do develop it,
would they be able to receive the per pupil disbursement. Ms. Orr assured him they
absolutely would.
Mr. Olson asked if there was anything else TIF related and Mr. Romano said he had
nothing else; he was up-to-speed. He then moved to adjourn the meeting; Mr. Olson
seconded it. All were in favor; no one opposed and the meeting was adjourned at 2:16
p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by:
Bonnie Olsem
Administrative Secretary