Politics & Government

Hinsdale Holds Public Hearing For Woodlands SSA

Residents sounded off on poor road conditions while at the same time expressing concerns with elements of the special taxing district.

Woodlands neighborhood resident Gail Brandys said she thinks it's sad that she can’t drive her 1957 Nash Metropolitan in Hinsdale because going over the village’s potholes would aggravate her bad back.

“I traveled all over the country to suburbs that were affluent and those that were not, and I cannot say that I’ve seen roads anywhere as awful as I have seen in Hinsdale in the last five years,” Brandys said. “I love to drive my little old car, but I drive it anywhere but Hinsdale.”

Brandys and her family, who live in the 600 block of Harding Road, attended Tuesday night’s Board of Trustees meeting with other Woodlands residents to voice opinion on the Woodlands road and drainage improvements project () during a public hearing regarding the establishment of a Special Service Area (SSA) that would fund part of the project.

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The Board of Trustees in September that includes the SSA, which would accumulate no more than $2.1 million in additional property tax revenue from Woodlands homeowners to pay for 40 percent of the project's road improvements.  

Tuesday’s public hearing was a mandated step in the SSA establishment process, according to Village President Tom Cauley.

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While the majority of speakers agreed with Brandys that the Woodlands roads are in a state of disrepair, some expressed concern over how the SSA obligation would be broken up among the neighborhood’s residents and wondered if residents would be able to offset some of their tax increase by getting in on the purchase of the SSA bonds.    

EAV worries

The additional tax dollars each Woodlands homeowner would pay to fund the SSA will be based on the Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) of their home, according to assistant village manager Darrell Langlois. A homeowner with a higher EAV, as determined by Cook County, will pay more than a homeowner with a lower EAV.

Donna Cook, who lives in the 800 block of Cleveland Road, said her home’s EAV according to the county’s last assessment was $2.3 million, but its current market value is $1.79 million. Because of the discrepancy, which has been negated after extensive legal work, Cook was worried some over-assessed homeowners would be paying more into the SSA than they should.

“It’s one thing to be fighting Cook County real estate taxes because they’re inflated,” she said.  “It’s another thing for the village to be taxing homes based on the inflated Cook County real estate taxes.”

Langlois said that the village can’t do anything about inflated county assessments, which for most Woodlands home were last calculated in 2008. But if every Woodlands homeowner is in the same boat as Cook was, according to Langlois, the phenomenon shouldn’t have much of an affect.

“The unfairness would only comes if you’re over-assessed more than your neighbors,” Langlois said. “If everybody’s over-assessed equally, proportionally everybody’s going to pay [a logical rate].”

Brandys asked why rates were based on EAV instead of being based on the number of linear feet each lot contains along the road. Cauley said some homes’ locations on corners and near intersections of multiple roads makes the footage-based payment system complex.

“It’s a lot easier to manage when you do it through the property tax based on assessed value,” Cauley said.

Residents bond investments

Bob Brandys, Gail’s husband, said Woodlands residents should be allowed to invest in the SSA bonds so that they can offset some of the new tax dollars with interest payments the village will make on the bonds.

Brandys also said he thinks the seven-percent interest rate on the bond that the village has discussed is excessive.

“If you’re going to be paying that kind of money on the bonds, we should have the right to those bonds,” he said.

Langlois said the seven-percent number is a maximum rate and he expects a five- or six-percent rate when the village actually issues the bonds in the spring. The assistant village manager said the village can look into resident investments as suggested by Brandys, but that would likely raise the interest rate.

“The more you deviate from a traditional deal, it could potentially impact the interest rate everybody pays,” Langlois said.

Trustee Doug Geoga said with a bond the size of the Woodlands’, a single investor is typical.

Cash and Sheila McDiarmid, who live on Taft Road, were the only Woodlands residents who spoke against the Woodlands project as a whole Tuesday night, saying they like the rustic nature of the neighborhood's roads.

Cash asked if the establishment of the SSA is a done deal, and village manager Dave Cook said the SSA will go into effect unless a petition opposing the plan contains the names of 51 percent of Woodlands homeowners and is presented within 60 days of Tuesday’s public hearing. 

Residents interested in pre-paying their SSA obligation in full have until Dec. 1 to discuss that option with village staff.


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