Priorities

Prior to 1996, Lincolnwood had no comprehensive infrastructure capital construction or maintenance plan in place. 

Over the last two plus decades, we are proud to have transitioned to a more proactive approach to infrastructure management to ensure our residents have smooth travels, access to safe drinking water, and protection against stormwater flooding. To make sure that we never find ourselves in that position again, we developed and adopted long-range infrastructure management plans and have worked diligently to stay on course. This was reinforced with the creation of the Ad-Hoc Infrastructure Committee in 2017 to provide direction on capital improvements. Recommendations made by the committee, and currently being implemented by the Village Board and staff, include:

–  Resurfacing of all local roads over a 12-year period, with a long-term goal of resurfacing all roads  on a continual rotating basis every 20 years;

–  Replacement of our sewers rates as in poor condition with maintenance and repair of all sewers to insure proper operation 

–  Replacement of our water mains, originally installed in the 1920s, which are currently rated in poor or fair condition

The Alliance Party supported the first major storm water management plan in the Village’s history, using a surface storage system; thereby achieving greater benefits at a lower cost. The Alliance Party will continue to prioritize updating our infrastructure throughout the Village, including but not limited to our roads, sewers, lead water service line replacement and stormwater management.

Our recent project successes include:

–  A $13M transmission main project  – In 2019 the Village’s   water source was switched from the City of Chicago to the City of Evanston. This change ensures Lincolnwood residents have a reliable water supply and at a lower cost and utilizes cost savings to fund water infrastructure updates throughout the Village;

–  $25M+ in road and water main improvements –  Since 2019 this initiative has replaced aging roadways and watermains; and

–  Completion  of the  Street Storage Program – This program greatly  reduces the risk of flooding within the Village. 

We understand the importance of urban connectivity. Our residents need easy access within the Village and to the larger metropolitan area. This applies to all aspects of our life, whether work or play. Many of us enjoy walking to our local places of worship, parks, trail systems or coffee shops. We want easy access to the Edens Expressway and to downtown. Municipalities with good connectivity are more vibrant, accessible, productive, and enjoyable.

The Alliance has supported the long-needed development of a pedestrian bridge over the North Shore Channel at Pratt Avenue. This connection will provide our residents with bike and pedestrian access to West Ridge. We were able to pay for a large portion of the preliminary engineering efforts with a $70,000 Invest in Cook grant from Cook County.

The Pratt Avenue pedestrian bridge couples with our investment to improve Pratt Avenue with protected bike lanes to provide a safe and continuous bike path between the lakefront and the popular pedestrian/cycling paths west of Lincolnwood.

We are proud that we are now able to maintain pedestrian access year-round to our trail system, major business corridors and sidewalks along Pratt Avenue. This comes with the purchase of the Village’s first sidewalk snow vehicle. 

The Alliance Party Board Members brought Lincolnwood into a fiscally responsible and successful position over the previous 24 years, 

Lincolnwood has been an ever-changing Village with the ebbs and flows of tax revenues supported by its residences and businesses.  In good years we have seen property valuations increase and smaller houses being replaced with larger houses.  We have seen larger businesses and car dealerships change ownership or move out of the Village.  We also endured the tax strain caused by the disruption of COVID.  Economic ebbs and flows are often caused by outside and less controllable economic factors.  It is with this understanding, the Alliance Party takes on the stewardship of being fiscally responsible given whatever the current budget supports.  

In that light, with careful planning and management we were able to secure the financing necessary to initiate the first 2 phases of the 10-year infrastructure improvement program with zero property tax increases. Despite the difficult financial constraints, the Alliance Party efforts have made it possible to continue the implementation of the plan and achieve savings due to the favorable financing and construction climates.

On a broader perspective, the Alliance Party diligently reviews every expenditure of the Village to provide oversight  that our tax dollars are used wisely and effectively.

We believe in professional management and responsible budgeting. The budget process instituted under the Alliance Party is comprehensive  leaving no stone unturned. Historically,  we typically received awards for excellence and with the Village enjoying  an excellent credit rating. As reference r prior to our administration, the Village’s  credit rating was unfortunately downgraded  We  worked diligently to restore our favorable status and are poised to maintain our credit standing and for future growth.

The Village has recently transitioned to a new Village Finance Director, who has brought strong leadership and institutional experience that is invaluable to managing the budget process.

Our candidates are business owners with degrees in Public Administration, Civil Engineering and Public Policy, with general business, accounting, finance, real estate and construction experience, and first hand knowledge of our Village budget and processes.

In additional to our candidates educational qualifications,  their professional experiences and in their service to the Village, our candidates  also bring a wealth of hands-on knowledge  in the areas of public policy, public infrastructure, public finance (such as grants and TIFs), bidding and contract negotiations, and organizational management. They are ready to do the work of the Village with fiscal responsibility front and center.

Under the leadership of the Alliance Party, staff has been able to secure many federal and state grants to improve the Village. We are always looking to secure outside funding to supplement our revenues  and have recently secured over $2 million for the repaving of Pratt Ave. along with the installation of a bicycle lane  from physical obstructions.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) shows that after personnel, the biggest expense for the Village is capital improvements to infrastructure and equipment. Roads, sidewalks, water mains, sewers, streetlights, fire trucks, snowplows all require maintenance, repair and replacement on a constant and ongoing basis. The Alliance Board Members established long-range planning of capital improvements (Capital Improvement Plan) and, because of this effective planning, Village staff have been able to manage myriad projects using existing revenues together with bonds and grants without having to raise residents’ property taxes above the consumer price index.

We have led the Village to pay off all general fund debt and have a credit rating of AA2 as a result of our careful management of resources.  This has positioned us to be able to utilize debt to fund the planned infrastructure improvements we will make over the next 10 years.

The Village has benefited greatly from a culture of planning which has been instilled and supported by The Alliance Party for more than 20 years. We invested a significant amount of Village Board and Staff time in 2021 and 2022 to update the Village’s  Strategic Plan, our roadmap for the utilization of our resources for the next decade.  As we move forward, we will engage in an update to the Comprehensive Plan, a once per decade effort which utilizes the input of the Board, Staff, and the Public.   

This effort led to the direction to create a new Park Master Plan as well as a Facilities Master Plan. Both will ensure that our aging facilities are brought into modern standards to serve the Lincolnwood’s diverse community. These plans will also assist us in seeking and obtaining financial assistance, such as grants, enabling us to leverage our spending to maximize the benefits we receive.

The Alliance Party understands the importance of maintaining and improving our excellent park system in the Village. We all appreciate our greatest park asset, Proesel Park and its Family Aquatic Center, which has served as the foundation to our park system. We are proud to have 12 other parks to serve our residents spread across each sector of the Village.

The Alliance Party strives to keep our parks and trails in great condition and state-of-the-art. This year we completed the reconstruction of Flowers Park which included improving the tennis and basketball courts, replacing the playground structure,  a new Gaga Ball Court, new shelter, and a restroom facility. This is the first neighborhood park to have a bathroom facility. We intend for it to be the standard moving forward, when feasible. We are proud that we were able to obtain a grant to support funding  this project for $400,000 as part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’s Open Space Land and Development Grant Application Process.

At our beloved Proesel park, we have successfully worked to resurface the inline hockey rink, basketball, and tennis courts for maximum safety and enjoyment. During this process, we heard our residents’ desires and added pickleball lines to our existing tennis courts to enhance the use of our existing facilities. While you are at Proesel, you will notice that Munchies II, our concession stand vendor, is working hard to provide residents a quick bite. This year, Munchies II will be the first concession vendor to work year round and provide our Parks department with an additional source of revenue and another tasty food service to our Village.

We are also grateful to receive a gift of $1,000,000 (over 10 years) from a very generous donor to support enhancements to our park facilities and camp offerings. These improvements will focus on improving ADA accessibility, including installation of soft surfaces and splash pads at playgrounds.

The Alliance Trustees have approved the Park Master Plan to address long-term improvements to our parks which are needed and to create a plan to budget for these improvements. From this Master Plan, we have approved the creation of multiple dog parks within the Village for our furry friends.

In the coming months, using our Master Plan as a guide to success, we will  continue to work on a feasibility study to determine the creation of a state of the art community center and pool. The Alliance Party is committed to providing healthy and enjoyable facilities for all of our residents while ensuring projects and programs stay within budget.

Public safety is the most important responsibility of the local government.  The Alliance Party work closely with and support our police department wholeheartedly. We have secured a grant to add an additional police officer to enhance our ability to protect our residents and businesses and their property. Providing additional protection to both the residents and the officers that serve our community, we are pleased to have received a grant to obtain body cameras for every police officer..  Our Fire Department facilities, equipment, and operations have recently been upgraded for improved service and efficiency while facing the highest need for service that the Village has ever experienced.   

The Alliance Board Members continue to encourage the Village to increase funding to the pension fund to minimize the shortfall that we inherited from previous administrations. 

Our Alliance candidates:

• Support safe paths to school and police department staffing for school crossings. The Alliance Board Members’ previous pushed to install red light cameras at Touhy and Lincoln which has resulted in substantial reduction in crashes at this very heavily traveled intersection. 
• Advocate for and implemented the addition of miles of new sidewalks and street lights along McCormick, Touhy, and Devon where they never existed before.  
• Support bicycle safety and have worked to install several miles of bikeways throughout the Village.  We continue to work towards more bicycle safety with the upcoming Pratt Ave. bike lane and planned pedestrian bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River at Pratt Ave. and McCormick Blvd.   
• Support proven common sense crime prevention: lock your doors, install and use outside lights and visible cameras, and other tools for crime prevention.
• Encourage residents to start up neighborhood watches on their blocks and we support subsidizing street lamps installed by homeowners to improve visibility at night.

Sales taxes are the biggest source of revenue for Lincolnwood and, unlike property taxes, they are largely paid by non-residents.

Managing our Sales Tax rates to keep pace with our neighbors as well as instituting new Use Taxes, such as the food and beverage tax, have allowed us to maintain service levels without raising property taxes above the consumer price index.

Retaining existing high volume sales tax producers like Loeber, Zeigler, Binny’s.and Food For Thought, while attracting and accommodating new businesses like Fat Rosie’s,FatPour, Francesca’s, Marriott (Fairfield and SpringHill), and Carr’s Honda is key to long-term stability. With new businesses like the new restaurants and Hotel at 1860 (Touhy and Lincoln), we will greatly enhance our revenue stream, allowing for provision of Village services, improve overall infrastructure, and most important to our residents, help keep our property tax levy as low as possible.

District 1860, formerly the location of the Purple Hyatt, represents a culmination of efforts of The Lincolnwood Alliance Party members in their service to the Village. From the institution of a Hotel Sales Tax, to the creation of a TIF District, and most importantly, to the development and adoption of the concept plan showing multi-story, multi-family, mixed-use development, the Alliance members have been the driving force behind the creation of Lincolnwood’s first mixed-use development in its history.

The site, totaling more than 8- acres, will be the home to includes an Amazon Fresh Grocery store, a 150+ room dual-branded Marriott Hotel, 50,000 square feet of restaurant and retail uses, and 299 luxury residential units featuring a one-acre amenity deck.

This development will generate substantial new tax revenue for the Village and will prove to be the impetus for the reshaping of the Touhy Ave. commercial corridor, one of the strongest in the region. Learn more about District 1860 here: District 1860 Project Background | Lincolnwood Village, IL. 

True success comes from a mix of supporting renovation and expansion of existing businesses along with new development opportunities. The Alliance Party brings unique first-hand expertise marketing and implementing developments in the Chicagoland area.

We support public-private partnership utilizing sales tax sharing, TIF districts, and property improvement grants such as PEP and GIFT.

We created retail zoning overlays in industrial districts on Devon Avenue and Touhy Avenue to allow more desirable uses to locate in these areas while allowing existing uses to remain and flourish. This change brought new construction and new occupancy to both zones. 

Most of the new construction development in Lincolnwood in the last 15 years has been a direct result of The Alliance Party efforts and initiatives. Foresight and planning have been key to new development in Lincolnwood. The creation of the Touhy-Lincoln TIF allowed for the assembly of lots that comprised the former purple hotel site.

The creation and adoption of concept plans showing high density multi-family mid-rise residential development at the District 1860 site is certainly what attracted the  developer to the site. We have utilized the same concept planning efforts in support of our on-going redevelopment efforts for the Lincolnwood Town Center.

We strive to interact with the community, both residents and businesses, to ascertain needs and concerns which allows us to meet those needs and concerns.  Many of the recent changes were  the direct result of resident outreach and interaction. Just a few recent examples include increasing allowable building area for single family homes, revising the fence code to permit more modern styles and materials, and the allowance for temporary structures.

We understand the importance of urban connectivity. Our residents need easy access within the Village and to the larger metropolitan area. This applies to all aspects of our life, whether work or play. Many of us enjoy walking to our local places of worship, parks, trail systems or coffee shops. We want easy access to the Edens Expressway and to downtown. Municipalities with good connectivity are more vibrant, accessible, productive, and enjoyable.

The Alliance Party has supported the long-needed development of a pedestrian bridge over the North Shore Channel at Pratt Ave.. This connection will provide our residents with bike and pedestrian access to West Ridge. We were able to pay for a large portion of the preliminary engineering efforts with a $70,000 Invest in Cook grant from Cook County.

The Pratt Ave. pedestrian bridge couples with our investment to improve Pratt Ave. with protected bike lanes to provide a safe and continuous bike path between the lakefront and the popular pedestrian/cycling paths west of Lincolnwood.

We are proud that we are now able to maintain pedestrian access year-round to our trail system, major business corridors and sidewalks along Pratt Ave.. This comes with the purchase of the Village’s first sidewalk snow vehicle.