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Save Glenview from higher taxes and over development.

As you read this the village of Glenview is planning to raise your taxes while spending millions of your money to get into the real estate development business in the downtown. Is this what you want ?

Do you support the village's plans to increase our population by up to 25 % ?

Are you in favor of the village's plan to line Glenview and Waukegan Roads with 4 and 5 story condos ?

Are you aware that the village plans to raise your taxes yet continues to spend at levels well above the village's population growth ?

At the end of this letter we are going to ask to act and voice your opinion. The time to act is now. One of the most important things you can do is forward this message on to others in Glenview. Waiting will insure that your answer the above questions would be yes and that you support the overdevelopment and over taxing of village for years to come.

Published reports tell us that the village is planning to raise property taxes every year for the next four years, raise the village's share of sales tax and possibly introduce a real estate transfer tax (this you would have to vote on). They are doing this at the worst possible time in light of the threatened state and county tax increases. On top of all of this we are looking at an uncertain economy, rising utility costs and increasing costs for our everyday life. Now is not the time for village government to be taking money out your pocket and putting in the hands of politicians who want to play developer.

A fair question would be : Does Glenview really need you to pay higher taxes and do they have the money to enter into speculative real estate ventures ? An analysis of the village's finances does would indicate that they do not. From 2000 to 2006 the village's
population grew by 6.3% yet villages expenses for providing services (fire,police, village departments) grew from $22 million in 2000 to $56 million in 2006.That is a 56% increase in spending or 9.5 times the rate of population growth.

During the 2000-06 timeframe the village increased its debt by a substantial amount. Since 2000 the villages total debt obligation has gone from $65 million to $157 million . This is an increase of 140% over the past seven years and this does not include the Glen. To put this in context - Glenview's total debt is greater than the debts of Morton Grove, Northbrook, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Glencoe, Winnetka and Mount Prospect combined.

While the village is planning to raise your taxes to support their spending and debt - the village board is about to decide at their November 6th that they should purchase the vacant Dominick's at the corner of Glenview and Waukegan Roads for $ 6,500,000.

This purchase is being defended by the village as critical to their downtown development plan. This plan was approved by the board in December of 2006 and it called for the private interests to drive the process with about $6 million in village expenses for infrastructure. Now the village is saying the opposite and they with this single transaction spending over 100% more than they said they would. If you not familiar with the village's plans to fill the downtown area with 4 and 5 story condos you can see a copy of their plans on the village website - www.glenview.il.us

Write to the Board of Trustees ( mailing list link ) - tell them what you think. Forward this message on to others in Glenview. Come out to the Board of Trustees meeting on November 6th at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall to be heard on this issue.

Thank you for your time an consideration.

Post your comments - learn more at http://saveglenview.blogspot.com/
Send us note at saveglenview@gmail.com

Map of the Downtown Development

More Development & Higher Taxes

For current taxpayers ,according to the 10/1/07 issue of the Glenview Watch which said “The village may also increase its home rule sales tax from one-half of one percent to three-quarters of one percent, and the trustees may vote to raise property taxes by 4 percent per year for five years.” ,we are looking at steep increases.

On the development side the village is pursuing plans to develop more land at the Glen, the Downtown, the Milwaukee Ave. Corridor and adding new land west of the tollway (Culligan).

The village wants to do all this without adding a burden to the schools so they are pushing "development light" strategies that add condominiums and townhouses which they believe will be inhabited by empty nesters and families with little or no children

Glenview buys downtown property

At 10/2 village board meeting the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan to purchase the vacant Dominicks at the corner of Waukegan and Lake for $6,500,000. This purchase is being justified by the village because other(private) parties had expressed an interest in developing this property. The village contends that these other parties would pursue development that was not in line with their plans for the downtown area.

Since this area runs east from the library to Glenview Road then north on Waukegan to Lake Street village residents should be concerned. Why wouldn’t other landowners start similar rumors about their land so the village would step in and buy them them out ? Why is the village setting the market price for downtown land well in excess of what their consultants said it was worth?

The Downtown Plan’s Catch-22

For the past few years the village and its consultants have been working on a plan to “revitalize” the downtown area. This plan advocates among other things four story condominiums along Glenview Road.
All the downtown plans are driven by the economic models developed by the village's consultants. Each block of the downtown has a preferred use based on these models.
In these plans the consultants state that the Dominick's parcel was "the subject of a significant amount of and analysis during the planning process” . The economic model for the Dominick's parcel has an estimated acquisition cost of $ 4.489 million dollars.  The village is now paying $6.5 million (they have an appraisal for $9.4 million ) for the property. The bottom line is not what the village is paying for the property but that the economic models used to drive the downtown process might, in light of this transaction, be wrong. If that is the case then the downtown development will need more density than it already has

Board of Trustees E-mail Addresses

Here are the e-mail addresses for the Board of TrusteesPresident

Kerry Cummings (4/09)
(847) 729-6809
cummingsvillage@ameritech.net


Trustees (Term Expires)

Scott R. Britton (4/11)
(847) 832-1305
sbritton@brennerlawfirm.com

Pat Cuisinier (4/09)
(312) 201-8880 * patcuisinier@hartiganlaw.com

Paul Detlefs (4/09)
(877) 822-8090 * paulvillage@comcast.net

Deborah Karton (4/09)
(847) 998-9144 * debbyvillage@comcast.net

James Patterson (4/11)
(847) 724-6599 * jimpattersonjr@pattersonco.com

Philip O'C. White (4/11)
(847) 832-0068 * pwhitevillage@comcast.net

Welcome

Save Glenview is not a political party it is a grassroots advocacy group that is concerned about the village of Glenview's development and financial issues.