* Fran Tobin Battles Loyola TIF

Chi-Town Daily News
By Julie Segraves

A group of residents opposed to an economic development plan for the area surrounding Loyola University is fighting the school with an e-mail campaign and a referendum that will appear on the ballot during next week's local elections.

At the heart of the dispute is a tax incentive fund, or TIF, approved by voters in the neighborhood. The Devon-Sheridan TIF directs a portion of tax revenue from Rogers Park properties to economic development projects in the neighborhood for the next 23 years.

Loyola, a private Jesuit university, funded a feasibility study for the TIF and will reap significant benefits from the tax money.
Among the projects that will receive TIF monies are redevelopment of Sheridan Road near Loyola’s Lakeshore Campus, expanded parking on and near campus, residence-hall upgrades and improvements to the Red Line “El” stop adjacent to the campus.

Loyola also wants to use TIF revenue to fund part of the renovation of the Mundelein Center, a university building owned by Loyola and not open for public use.

Though state law allows TIFs to use tax money for projects that benefit private business interests, the situation has rankled some in the neighborhood. They note that Loyola, as a non-profit organization, pays no taxes. And they say the TIF falls short on meeting requirements for community benefit.

Further, they argue that state law requires TIF funds be directed solely to projects that would not have been built without tax contributions. Loyola, they allege, was already planning most of the campus improvements before the TIF was created.

“It doesn’t encourage economic development and it doesn’t address the ‘blighting factors’ that made this area eligible for the TIF in the first place,” said Fran Tobin, who works with the Rogers Park Community Action Network, a group backing the ballot initiative.

The group secured a spot on next week’s election ballot for an initiative that would force TIFs to give local residents first crack at jobs, pay all employees and contractors a living wage, and adhere to worker safety standards.

RPCAN is also waging an e-mail campaign targeting people involved in the TIF’s management, like Loyola president Michal Garanzini, Ald. Joe Moore (49th Ward), and others.

The e-mail urges recipients to abandon the TIF and “work with the community on plans that honor our values of diversity, affordability, sustainability and justice.” Jennifer Clark, Loyola's Director of Community Relations, said the university is aware of the e-mail campaign.

“We are very pleased to see that the emails, letters of support and phone calls from our immediate neighbors are far more positive and optimistic then they are negative,” she said.

“Loyola makes every effort to work with our neighbors in planning for the future of the campus-community and we will continue to do so as this and other redevelopment projects take shape."

The TIF is funded by freezing the amount of tax property owners in the area pay to local government agencies like the city and county. For the next 23 years, any additional revenue created from rising property values in the area will go to the TIF.

Though RPCAN was successful in battling the Morse-Clark TIF several years ago, Tobin has little hope that his efforts will derail the Loyola taxing district.

But he hopes the campaign will get the city and Loyola to “rethink what they’re doing,” he said. “If they took a full poll of the community they would find out most people are not in favor of it.”