Village Board to Review Draft Downtown Plan

Issues of eminent domain and tax increment financing (TIF) are likely to be the subject of discussion Tuesday, when the village board meets to review a draft plan for downtown development.

Presented by a team of consultants, the plan includes such proposals as a revitalized Meadow Plaza, a parking garage at the Metra lot and a river walk winding between Meadow and Shermer roads.

How those proposals would be implemented—and financed—has yet to be determined. Members of a downtown development steering committee established to oversee the process recently concluded their study and sent the plan to the village board for approval. Among other suggestions, the steering committee recommended that the village should consider establishing a TIF district downtown and remove a prohibition against exercising eminent domain. 

“I was approached many times by people asking, ‘When are we going to get this done?’” committee member Carolyn Ferber said at a meeting Jan. 31. “There is a sense that this is a to-do list, not a wish list.” 

It will not be the first time the board of trustees considers eminent domain, a practice by which government bodies can condemn and acquire economically blighted private properties for a public purpose.

Northbrook’s board of trustees outlawed the use of eminent domain downtown in 1999. But in 2004, former village president Mark Damisch led an effort to drop that prohibition and acquire some downtown properties via condemnation. That plan was ultimately dropped, however. 

“Residents didn’t like the idea of condemnation,” trustee and committee member James Karagianis told the steering committee at its Jan. 31 meeting. He cautioned the group against the possibility of backlash from the community if eminent domain came up a second time.

“Be careful of the unintended consequences of hurting the existing businesses,” he added.

But Ferber and others said they believed eminent domain was a tool the village would need in order to shape downtown into a thriving business district. 

“The prohibition on it now limits what our village government can do,” said Ferber.

Along with eminent domain, tax increment financing district would be another tool the village could use to exert some control downtown. Often used in the city of Chicago, TIF districts create zones where all new property tax dollars are reinvested in the same area in order to encourage development via subsidies to developers or public works projects.

Currently, Northbrook has just one TIF district set up, at the corner of Skokie Boulevard and Dundee Road. It was created for the Center of the North Shore, a failed development that would have included residences, shopping, a hotel and office space. 

Local developer Jonathan Plotkin, a member of the steering committee, spoke up in support of incentives at the most recent committee meeting. Plotkin had a hand in the redevelopment of the former Northbrook Garage, where a Caribou Coffee opened up in November, and said he has leased more than 40,000 square feet in Northbrook and Highland Park during his career. 

“The vast majority were regional, local or independent businesses who may have never had a chance in this economy if it weren’t for the incentives that landlords put on the table and fast-tracking at the community level,” he said. 

In addition to encouraging tax-increment financing and eminent domain, members of the downtown steering committee also recommended that the village board begin their efforts at downtown development with streetscape improvements and entryway design. The committee also recommended that the village board amend its zoning code to allow for taller buildings downtown that might include residential units above parking or retail. 

Members of the board of trustees will discuss the plan during a public meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Village Hall. They are convening as a committee of the whole, meaning they will take no action on the plan and will not officially vote to adopt or reject it until a future meeting.