Former industrial site in Lake Forest ripe with “TIF hope” for funding a 10-acre residential development in downtown.
The unanimous approval of the first reading of the creation of a tax district in Downtown Lake Forest was recently highlighted in a January 6th Chicago Tribune article.
Lee Brown, President of Teska Associates and long-time consultant to the City of Lake Forest, explained that creating a TIF “is a way of making sure those revenues are collected to pay for the public improvements.”
TIF funds would be used to remediate the currently blighted site for redevelopment by removing old buildings and cleaning the soil.
Lake Forest gives first OK to downtown tax district
Article in the Chicago Tribune | January 6th, 2015
“Lake Forest leaders took the first step Monday in creating a special taxing district that they hope would help pay for a new, 10-acre housing development near downtown on land that once served largely as an industrial site.
Aldermen on the Lake Forest City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the creation of a tax increment financing district to help pay for the preparation of land for the housing development. Eventually the land could hold up to 175 new residences, apartments or single-family homes, on the northwest corner of Laurel and Western avenues, according to city reports.”