Lincoln Yards gets a cleanup, but subsidies can still reek

How about a funding idea that won’t draw money from local governments?

SHARE Lincoln Yards gets a cleanup, but subsidies can still reek
Environmental remediation at Lincoln Yards.

Environmental remediation at Lincoln Yards.

RW Collins Co.

We can start with a proposition that will drive some people nuts: Development in Lincoln Yards is a good thing.

It’s worth remembering that point as many interest groups in the city have directed attention to Lincoln Yards and the public subsidies it could command. The potential $1.3 billion is a huge number, and citizens have called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to cancel the funding mechanism for the subsidies, a tax increment financing district, or TIF.

Some people think the TIF obligation is connected to the city’s budget deficits. It’s not. Some see a sinister plot to steer investment away from black and brown communities. City Hall here just followed the developers, who go where they think they can make a buck. Who pays the subsidies, though, is worth a debate and I have a modest proposal for it.

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Opinion

But first, it pays to know that the 55-acre Lincoln Yards already has a positive spinoff. The developer, Sterling Bay, has reached a milestone in environmental cleanup, largely finishing work on the northern part of the site around Cortland Street that was Finkl Steel and other companies that left an industrial stew of polluted soil and water. Experts said there’s still work to finish on the southern part of the site, where industrial uses date from the later 1800s. Lincoln Yards runs along the north branch of the river from north of North Avenue to Dickens Avenue.

“We’re thrilled to be at this point. This work is a big plus for the community,” said Martin Wood, vice president for development services at Sterling Bay. There will be no taxpayer reimbursement.

The developer reported removing 25,000 tons of contaminated soil, treating 200 cubic yards of lead soil, removing 30 underground storage tanks and recycling 200,000 gallons of polluted water and 30,000 tons of concrete.

It’s not the Green New Deal, but it’s a Green Big Deal for neighbors in wealthy Lincoln Park and next-generation wealthy Bucktown and Wicker Park. Keith Oswald, technical director of environmental services at V3 Cos., said the remediation means the land will be certified by state officials as suitable for people to live and work on.

A Sterling Bay spokeswoman said it has spent $6.2 million on the remediation thus far and expects to spend another $3 million.

Next year, neighbors should notice foundation work starting on part of the northern portion, but details of what will be built must be cleared through city zoning, Wood said.

“Before a single high-rise is built, the community is seeing the benefit of Lincoln Yards,” said Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose Near North-based 2nd Ward includes the site. Hopkins has taken political heat for backing the project and its TIF funding, but he makes no apologies.

Ald. Brian Hopkins. | Sun-Times files

Ald. Brian Hopkins

Sun-Times files

Without a TIF, a massive mixed-used project would not be possible, he said. “It wouldn’t be anything remotely like what we consider a desirable use,” he said. “You’d get something there like light industrial or storage, but it wouldn’t produce the tax revenue.”

A TIF captures the increased property taxes within a district and assigns the money to a special purpose. For the Lincoln Yards TIF, it’s supposed to be public improvements the growth will necessitate, such as road and bridge construction, a new Metra station, an extended 606 greenway and a new Armitage-Ashland intersection. But that means the money doesn’t go to schools, libraries, or public works in some other community.

Chicagoans have gotten sensitive about that. Those sensitivities figured in Lightfoot’s election, with her emphasis on getting poor communities a bigger share of private investment. But she also has a pro-business mindset.

So for Lincoln Yards, why not end or scale back the TIF, and try a solution the city has hiding in plain sight? Make the area a Special Service Area. The city counts 53 active SSAs in all sorts of neighborhoods. Many cover businesses that have chosen to tax themselves extra for street cleaning, beautification, marketing or security. They spend the money on a targeted use, but aren’t cutting in line to grab tax revenue that all local governments should share.

Hopkins isn’t sure an SSA could fund something as big as Lincoln Yards. They usually are pay-as-you-go.

He still sees enormous benefit to taxpayers from the Lincoln Yards TIF because Sterling Bay and its partners are funding the public improvements upfront.

Can that still happen with an SSA or a similar public-private structure? It’s not just a policy-geek issue; it’s a question of fairness. Lightfoot should direct her staff to consider ways to support Lincoln Yards that won’t beggar other city neighborhoods for years.

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