Kiwanis Park will host youth soccer games for decades to come. The DeKalb CUSD #428 Board of Education sold the 41.68-acre park at Fairview and South Fourth streets to the DeKalb Park District for $625,000. District 428 purchased the land to expand school facilities during Dr. Brian Ali’s tenure as Superintendent for $1.4 million cash.
The Board’s vision then was to purchase the land necessary to meet future expansion plans for the high school. But voters rejected three referendums on those expansion plans.
A new Board’s vision was approved by voters without a final site selection. After the $110 million referendum passed the new high school was built at its Dresser Road location and the old high school is now Huntley Middle School.
The land siting the new high school was purchased by the school district from Macom Development Corporation after the referendum. Instead of paying $40,000 in cash per acre for the land the district and Macom Development agreed to a lower cash deal in exchange for an impact fee credit. The two parties then agreed that if the land was not at some level of development by 2013 the district would then pay for the $1.05 million credit at a rate of 4 percent ($42,000) per year starting in 2013. When ShoDeen bought the Irongates property from Macom the credits came with it.
Someone got the idea to swap Kiwanis Park to Shodeen for land around the new high school for later if needed expansion. The land swap proposal would have eliminated the $1.05 million impact fee credit District 428 had with Shodeen.
Beginning this year, the district has to pay Shodeen $42,000 annually for interest on the impact fee credit. Shodeen WOULD owe the school district $654,000 for the improvements the district made around DeKalb High School IF the developer can get the land annexed and PUD approved by the City of DeKalb.
That’s a really big WOULD and IF. The Irongate subdivision proposal is not likely to get city council approval. Annexation requires a super-majority vote. Two sitting council members have openly stated they will vote against the proposal (Kristen Lash – 3rd ward and Monica O’Leary – 7th ward). To get approved all other city council members and newly elected Mayor John Rey must vote in favor of the annexation. Bill Finucane (2nd ward elect) and Bob Snow (4th ward elect) expressed reservations on the project during their campaigns.
The $625,000 the DeKalb Park District agreed to pay for Kiwanis Park will come from its capital fund reserves in one payment. Those funds were earmarked for maintenance needed at the Sports and Recreation Center, Hopkins Park Community Center, some parking lots and pathways. The park district has $1.5 million in its capital fund reserves and recently postponed replacing to Hopkins Park swimming pool.
Here’s a math quiz for DeKalb taxpayers. If your school district paid $1.4 million cash for property needed for the high school in 2002 plus borrowed $1.05 million for high school land in 2008 and then your park district bought some of that land in 2013 how much did taxpayers pay for land that school and park district officials agree is fairly valued at $15,000 per acre? For bonus points: If your $110 million school construction mortgage payments (property tax) are based on $20 million worth of new construction EAV coming into the community and only one residential new construction building permit has been issued in almost two years how much does your school debt obligation rate increase?
Kudos to the park district for stepping up but don’t be surprised when they ask taxpayers for more money for needed maintenance. But the Kiwanis Park land swap is much more than a feel good story. At least as far as its fiscal impact on taxpayers.
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