ELMHURST, Ill. (September 10, 2024) – The Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Board of Directors voted to endorse the $89.95 million Elmhurst Park District Referendum during today’s monthly meeting held in the second-floor Hammersmith Community Room at Community Bank of Elmhurst (330 West Butterfield Road).
The endorsement came after Board discussion—including a question-and-answer session with EPD Executive Director Jim Rogers—as recommended by the Governmental Affairs Committee.
“This endorsement is an example of business leaders understanding the importance of one of Elmhurst’s property taxing bodies reinvesting in the public facilities used by so many of our residents,” stated John R. Quigley, ECCI’s President and CEO since 1999. “In essence, the referendum projects are part of a major economic development package.”
On the November 5 Presidential Election ballot, the 25-year bond will fund replacement of the Joanne B. Wagner Community Center with a state-of-the-art facility ($84,950,000) four times as large, bandshell installation at Wilder Park ($2M), new turf field installation at Helmut Berens Park ($1M) and construction of heated restrooms at three parks (Crestview, Eldridge and Wilder) and along the Illinois Prairie Path ($500,000 per location).
The referendum projects are designed to address the Park District’s most aged facility (the Wagner Center was built in the 1950s as an elementary school), participation overflow (5,600 residents went unserved in 2022), space to meet specific needs and funding shortage (due to Illinois’ 1990s tax cap of the lesser of five percent or the Consumer Price Index).
According to Rogers, a sample survey of registered voters showed 59 percent of property taxpayers in favor of the referendum, which is the Park District’s first referendum since 1971. The survey results for a pre-Coronavirus Pandemic $105M referendum were the complete reverse with 59 percent in opposition.
Elmhurst currently has one of the lowest park district property tax rates in DuPage County, generating only five cents out of every $1 of property taxes paid in Elmhurst or $1,000 on a $20,000 property tax bill, with the referendum projected to add from $250 to $650 in additional property taxes for homeowners.
According to Quigley, some 2,000 commercial properties contribute as much in property taxes to Elmhurst as do some 15,000 residential properties.
As part of EPD’s public information efforts, Rogers and Park Board President Kevin Graf made a presentation at the Governmental Affairs Committee’s August 22 meeting.
The Elmhurst Chamber endorsed Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 referendum of March 2000 for $79 million to rebuild York Community High School during Quigley’s first year as ECCI’s President and CEO, and then the November 2018 referendum for $168.5 million to replace two elementary schools and upgrade school buildings across the district.
Established in 1918, the Chamber’s mission is to promote an environment that creates success for local businesses and our community.