Let’s start with a summary of events. — The group now known as Preserve Our Neighborhoods (PON) was formed last spring in response to concerns that residents were not being included in DeKalb-NIU redevelopment plans that would directly affect them. — Misty Haji-Sheikh of PON received unsigned documents from an anonymous sender regarding a corporation…
Tag: TIF
South 4th Water Main Project Got Weird before It Died
This is an item from the May 27 council meeting agenda that I’ve been meaning to address. It’s about a water main project on South 4th Street. This project would have abandoned a 6” water main on the west side of Route 23 (South Fourth Street) from Lacas Street south to approximately 110 feet south…
College Town Partners Agreements are Kind of Cray, but Still Important
I’ve read the College Town Partners documents that were leaked to the Preserve Our Neighborhoods (PON) group. (Want copies? Send an email to preserveourneighborhoods@gmail.com.) The agreements, which were never signed, lay out a corporate partnership between City of DeKalb, NIU, a local developer and two banks. They strike me as kind of nuts, actually, being…
Can DeKalb Really Help Fix NIU?
The Daily Chronicle’s editorial board scolded a group of residents this week for being total NIMBYs hating on good and necessary change. [D]espite all the benefits that our communities draw from having the university here, there is resistance to ideas that could change the nearby neighborhoods, particularly the Ellwood historic and Hillcrest neighborhoods, where residents…
Chronicle on the Proposed New TIF Districts
The Daily Chronicle has come out against the proposed Sycamore Road TIF District, pointing to Mayor Rey’s recent comment that two developers are interested in one of the properties even with no incentives. So why bring tax increment financing into the equation? It certainly might give the city some more money it can spend on…
November 25 Council Agenda
The city has put up another meeting agenda for tomorrow that’s a revision of the original, so all you early birds will have to read the new one. However, keep the old one handy because they didn’t include the rest of the packet with the revision. Highlights: Item 1: Another hit to the Public Safety…
DeKalb – Firefighter Quid Pro Quo
The City of Springfield is expecting to approve a new contract with its firefighters’ union soon. Golly, I wish we had that kind of news coverage. Remember the last-minute hoop we had to jump through to find what the 2011 contract with our firefighters was about? The Springfield story reminded me that the longish closed…
Egyptian Expenditures on Next Council Meeting Agenda
What timing I have! I posted city expenditures for Egyptian Theatre projects on Tuesday and now there’s a memo dated November 6 in the agenda packet for next Monday’s meeting about this (see page marked E-3, which is p. 13 of the PDF file, my emphasis added): In March of 2013, the City Council agreed…
Spending TIF Money on the Egyptian Theatre
Last month I was going through recent City of DeKalb check registers for something or other and came across a payment out of DeKalb’s Central Area Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Fund for $189 with the description “EGYPTN THTR UNCLG BSMNT DRN.” I also found descriptions for “EGYPTN THTR STG DOORS LCKS” and “LGHT FXTR WMNS…
TIF Funds Paid for Airport Signage
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