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Downtown Redevelopment

Background

It has been the stated desire of our residents and a goal of several Village Boards over the past twenty years to create a physical and social center for our community. The relative youth of Lincolnshire, at forty-four years old, and its subsequent development first as a bedroom community, with the latter addition of a corporate center, has led to a typical suburban development pattern in which no real focal point, or "Main Street" evolved. Although there has been much discussion about the necessity to create this center, where the residential and business communities come together, it was not until 1989 that the Village took the first major step necessary to achieve this goal. In that year, the Village created a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, between the (then vacant) land currently occupied by Heritage Creek, and the southeast corner of Route 22 and Milwaukee Avenue. A Downtown Redevelopment Project Area was defined within this TIF District, and is generally bound by Olde Half Day Road on the north, Milwaukee Avenue to the west, the southeast corner of Route 22 and Milwaukee Avenue on the south and Indian Creek and the South Village Green on the east.

Since the creation of the TIF district, a Downtown Redevelopment Task Force (DRTF), consisting of local dedicated citizens, has spent many hours refining the basic concepts for development and studying the financial feasibility of the project, among other issues, with the task of providing recommendations to the Village Board. Since these plans came to the Village Board in the late 1990's and a developer was chosen for this Public/Private partnership, the Mayor and Board have also spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the many facets of this plan. The Board has considered these plans with the goal of providing the residents with a "Downtown" that incorporates the services we all desire in a plan reflective of the strong architectural guidelines consistent throughout Lincolnshire, while remaining a financially-viable plan that will not expose the Village to unreasonable risks. In addition, the opportunity to ensure that petroleum-contaminated soil in the immediate area of two existing and former gas stations is properly removed, provides further benefits to the Village, which may not otherwise be possible without the redevelopment project and associated TIF funds.