Notification flap leads Northfield to push back vote on TIF
Community feedback combined with a communication error has led the Village of Northfield to postpone a decision on tax increment financing.
The Northfield Village Board will vote on the creation of a TIF district no earlier than December, a multimonth change, said Village President Tracey Mendrek on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in a letter to the community and a social media post.
Mendrek told The Record that the Village “made a mistake” by not properly notifying the necessary people about a public hearing held on Aug. 25. The state of Illinois has specific notification requirements for such meetings, and Mendrek said some businesses that should have received certified mailings announcing the hearing did not.
“We made a mistake in notification, and we recognized that,” said Mendrek, who added that the notification issue plus public pleas to slow down the TIF process led the Village to change its timeline.
Prior to the change, the Village Board had between 14-90 days of the public hearing to vote on the TIF, meaning the vote could have occurred as early as this month and had to occur by November.
With a renovated timeline, Mendrek said that the Village will schedule a second public hearing, likely for November. While details are still in the works, the Village Board plans to set a date and location during its next regular meeting, Sept. 22.
During the Aug. 25 hearing in Village Board chambers, a large turnout forced residents into an overflow room. Mendrek said the Village is working on a larger space to accommodate a crowd for the next hearing.
Prior to that second public hearing, the Village reportedly will mail a notice to every household in the Village.
Also in the coming weeks, according to the video posted to her Instagram, Mendrek also said the Village will host roundtable meetings with local businesses and give residents the chance to ask questions of Village officials.
“TIF is a complex topic, and residents deserve real time to learn how it works, ask questions and reach their own informed conclusions,” Mendrek said in the letter.
She added that the Village and local public school districts, which all have expressed opposition to a Northfield TIF, continue to meet and discuss an intergovernmental agreement.
The agreement reportedly would address the districts’ concerns, which include access to property-tax revenue associated with Northfield’s potential growth.
“We’re not going to rush that work,” Mendrek wrote in the letter. “It deserves to be done carefully and in good faith, and it may take some compromise on both sides to get there.”
The board’s regularly scheduled meeting in December is Dec. 1.
A Look at TIF
The moment a TIF district is established the property taxes collected from that designated area are frozen. As more properties are developed, as is the hope, property values tend to increase. The extra property-tax dollars generated from those increased property values are the “increment” that gets kept within the district. Those funds support improvements to roads, buildings and more within the TIF district.
Northfield officials have been discussing the vitality of the town’s main business district for years. The discussions led to a momentous change to the Village’s zoning code in 2025, an update that quickly attracted developers.
As previously reported by The Record, looking to build on that momentum, Northfield officials began exploring the adoption of a TIF district in April. The Village Board voted over the summer to start the TIF review process, which included a required hearing in front of a joint review board of representatives from all taxing bodies in Northfield.
But opposition to the TIF formed quickly, with both residents and all three of Northfield’s public school districts — New Trier High School 203, Sunset Ridge D29 and Avoca D37 — coming out against the idea.
Ultimately, the Joint Review Board voted 6-2 to deny recommendation of the TIF, meaning when the TIF does come to a Village Board vote it will require a three-fifths majority to pass.
A required public hearing on the topic held Aug. 25 featured testimony from both sides, but anti-TIF speakers were in the majority. The hearing also allowed trustees time to give their opinions, which varied.
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Joe Coughlin
Joe Coughlin is a co-founder and the editor in chief of The Record. He leads investigative reporting and reports on anything else needed. Joe has been recognized for his investigative reporting and sports reporting, feature writing and photojournalism. Follow Joe on Twitter @joec2319
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