As Winfield moves ahead with plaza design, school officials raise concerns with site
Winfield trustees have moved one step closer to a downtown beautification project, despite an ongoing legal fight over how to pay for that and other developments in the village’s Town Center.
The board recently hired landscape architects to prepare preliminary designs for a public plaza on part of the site currently occupied by village hall, which also houses Winfield’s police station.
Village leaders say a plaza could create an outdoor gathering place and venue for downtown events. Officials also have discussed the possibility of moving a farmers market from the Prairie Trail strip mall to the downtown area, “which would bring more people into Town Center to support our businesses,” Village President Carl Sorgatz said.
However, it’s unclear when the village could move ahead with the plaza’s construction.
The village wants to tear down the municipal center — Sorgatz said it’s “totally outdated” — and build a new one at another site to free up space for development near the Metra station. But funding for such a project would come from revenue generated by a special taxing district at the heart of a legal dispute with local school districts.
Since 2021, the village, Winfield Elementary District 34 and West Chicago Community High School District 94 have been locked in a lawsuit over the legality of a second tax increment financing district downtown. In a TIF district, as redevelopment boosts property values, the extra tax revenue that otherwise would go to taxing bodies such as schools and parks can be used to pay for improvements within its boundaries.
“District 34 appreciates and supports the Village’s desire to develop a community space in the town center but believes that the Village’s current plans are premature given the legal challenges concerning the $2 million funding for the plaza’s development,” the district said in a written statement before the village board hired Hitchcock Design Group to help flesh out the plaza concept.
“Further, District 34 has concerns regarding the plaza’s location as it is close to the train tracks and the location could create a potential risk for younger residents, including its students.”
District 34 school board member Dave Hempe said last month the village was “getting way ahead of the game.” School officials also see an “inconsistency” in the plan.
“The village has repeatedly told the school districts and the public that it needs to move the village hall at the cost of $16 million because the village hall is sitting on ‘prime real estate’ that could be used for commercial development to increase the tax base, yet the Village’s current plan places a non-tax producing plaza on that same ‘prime real estate,’” the District 34 statement read.
Sorgatz countered that several communities have the same kind of plaza near or adjacent to a rail facility. A plaza in Cary, for instance, is “right next door” to their train station, he noted at a recent board meeting.
“It’s been in our plans, and we believe it’s a good time to start the planning process for what that plaza would include, what kind of amenities, what kinds of uses, we could anticipate there,” Village Manager Curt Barrett said.
Under the terms of a Town Center development agreement with Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, the village and the health system would jointly fund the construction of the plaza.
The agreement also calls for two stand-alone buildings for retail, restaurant or commercial use to be built on property bounded by Winfield Road to the west, Jewell Road to the north, Church Street to the east and Metra right of way to the south. Sorgatz said the plaza would, at most, total 12,000 square feet.
“That’s maybe one-third of that entire space, so two-thirds of that would then become back on the tax rolls,” Sorgatz said.
Hitchcock Design Group is tasked with gathering public input for the plaza’s design.