The subject came up for informational discussion at Thursday night’s Grayslake High School District 127′s board of education meeting at Grayslake Central High School. The board took no specific action at this time. The Central Range, a 900-acre, $218 million project was first proposed by the village of Grayslake in January 2002. It envisions a variety of commercial businesses, some light industry and a minimum of upscale non-family residential housing for vacant land in the southwest corner of Grayslake.
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Three plans were presented for discussion, with the most extensive and expensive being a 50 percent tax abatement plan over 10 years provided to any new business that moves into the development. Since school taxes take up a large majority of the property tax bill, the abatement impact would fall most heavily on their shoulders.

Jill Rohrer, who attended the district board meeting and is a trustee of Grayslake Elementary District 46, said from her district’s standpoint they are being asked to give up $200,000 each year for a 10-year period. No such abatement figures were mentioned for either Fremont District 79 or Grayslake High School District 127, but they were expected to be much more.
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District Board President Russ Hager stressed the proposal was just for discussion at this point. While trustees asked several questions, such as “would the business come to Grayslake anyway without tax abatements,” none seemed particularly enthusiastic about sacrificing millions of tax dollars in operating funds over a span of 10 years to invest in a chancy long-term future. Yet, the trustees left the door open for further discussion with both village and Lake County Partners officials.

Under it, the village, school districts, the park district and others who collect property taxes in Grayslake would agree to give breaks to potential new businesses based on how many jobs they create, revenue they generate and other factors.

The goal: Put a jolt into the commercial development of Grayslake so it doesn’t lose new businesses to surrounding counties and southern Wisconsin, where many communities already offer breaks of some kind, said Grayslake Mayor Tim Perry.

The mayor and his staff want to know by the end of June if everyone is on board with the concept so they can begin dealing with specifics.
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Grayslake High School District 127 board President Russ Hager said the plan raises questions that need to be answered. Chief among them: “Do we have to?”