Winfield candidates say commercial development needed

During previous elections, Winfield village trustee candidates often debated whether there should be commercial development along Roosevelt Road.

But now candidates seeking election on April 7 to three seats on the village board appear to agree that developing Roosevelt is key to raising much-needed revenue for the town.

"I have been the canary in the mine talking about the large financial challenges that we face in the village," said candidate Carl Sorgatz, who serves in the nonelected position of village treasurer. "We need to seek new revenue. Development is going to be key and essential in this village going forward. Sales tax revenue is really the driver that we need to be out looking for."

The seven other candidates in the race are Robert Greer, Dennis Hogan, Bob Borsodi, Rob Hanlon, incumbent Jim Hughes, incumbent Tony Reyes and Jay Olson, who is a former trustee.

Reyes and Olson, who are running on a slate with Hanlon, have long been calling for commercial development along Roosevelt to create a larger tax revenue base for the village.

"We are really hurting at the village fund level," Reyes said. "And the only way to (boost the town's finances) without raising taxes is to commercialize major thoroughfares."

Two years ago, Olson was part of a voting bloc with Reyes and Hughes that rezoned a stretch of Roosevelt to encourage commercial development and create a larger tax revenue base for the village.

"There's 18 homeowners in that area that petitioned to be rezoned commercial," Reyes said. "I was on that board that listened to those people. We rezoned that area properly and legally to bring in commercialization."

But then Olson lost his seat in April 2013 when voters picked candidates backed by Winfield United for a Better Community. The trustees that gained control of the board repealed the rezoning.

"It (the rezoning) was undone by the current administration," Reyes said. "They were able to gain the seats necessary to take control of the board, reversed all the actions we took, and thus set us back another three to five years."

However, the two trustee candidates Winfield United is supporting in this race - Greer and Hogan - say they want to see more development.

"The biggest issue Winfield has," Hogan said, "is we need to increase our tax revenues. We need commercial development in a neighborhood-friendly way."

Greer said the portion of Roosevelt from Winfield to Wynwood roads is "positioned to be able to grow" after the town last year adopted a new comprehensive plan, which is a document that will help guide development in the village.

As part of its recommendations, the comprehensive plan is calling for a commercial focus with some higher density housing along Roosevelt.

Coupled with new design guidelines, Greer said, "We now are able to show developers exactly what we want in the village."

Hogan stressed it's important that the village doesn't "jump at anything that comes along" when it comes to developing Roosevelt.

"This is our last shot at quality, high-scale, high-tax producing commercial development in our village," Hogan said. "So we're going to have an opportunity here to do something right.

"We want to have smart development there that is going to provide sustainable revenues," he said.

Hughes said it's "interesting" to hear where Hogan and Greer stand on the issue of development.

"I remember four years ago taking a pounding on being proactive to want development," he said. "Even a riverwalk was challenging for some because of the feeling it would bring development to our village."

If everyone now agrees development is needed, Hughes said it's up to village officials to make it happen. "We have new design guidelines," he said. "We have to use them."