Public dollars generated by a special taxing district being considered by the Waukegan CIty Council would not go to the casino, Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said.
The Waukegan City Council last week approved hiring a consultant to investigate the feasibility of establishing a tax-increment financing district or another type of business district for the Northpoint Business Park and Fountain Square.
The Fountain Square shopping complex is where a proposed casino would be built should the Illinois Gaming Board give its approval to one of the three would-be developers.
“I’m going to be very clear, and I’m going to be very direct,” Mayor Sam Cunningham said at the meeting. “Our intentions, as long as I’m the mayor of this city, is not to be giving money to a casino. Period. So that’s final.”
Applications were submitted to the Illinois Gaming Board in October and are currently under investigation by gaming board staff.
The state has until Oct. 28 to “process, vet, investigate, and make a licensing determination” about which of the three applications will be awarded the Waukegan license, Joe Miller, the Illinois Gaming Board’s director of policy and special projects, has said.
If the gaming board doesn’t meet that deadline, it has to submit a written explanation to the applicants explaining why it hasn’t and when it expects to issue the license, Miller said.
Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th, said she’s heard concerns from residents who don’t want any public dollars going to a casino, something she wanted to be very clear wasn’t the council’s intent.
She said city staff suggested making that explicit in a city ordinance if a special district moves forward.
Any district the city ultimately sets up would be used to fund infrastructure improvements, in particular finishing out the Route 120 interchange at 94 so drivers can get on and off heading both north and south, Cunningham said.
While any improvements to the interchange would be an Illinois Tollway project, Cunningham has said he wants to be prepared for the possibility that the city is asked to contribute financially.
The city may also consider economic development incentives for other large businesses, but not the casino, Cunningham said.
Before the City Council can create a tax-increment financing district, the city must complete a feasibility study that looks at whether the proposed area qualifies under state law.
That is the task consultant Kane, McKenna and Associates has now been hired to do. The contract, worth up to $50,000, was approved by the council unanimously.
The Chicago-based consultant was picked from among the five “very qualified firms” that responded to the city’s request for proposals earlier this year, according to a staff memo.
The creation of a TIF district would take four to six months depending on the City Council’s meeting schedule while the establishment of a business improvement district would take three to four months, according to the timeline laid out in Kane, McKenna and Associates’ proposal.
The first two months would be dedicated to gathering data, reviewing qualification factors and developing redevelopment plans, according to the proposal. A TIF district would require more public meetings and therefore takes longer to create.
