Before Johnsburg Village Board members agree to create a tax-increment finance district for the proposed Hidden Harbor development, they want more information on how the plan could benefit the village.

Developer Mike Oliver “needs to convince me ... whatever the dollar amounts are ... to approve it. What I care about tonight is to understand the TIF and justifying the money for the TIF. He is asking us and the next generations to invest in Hidden Harbor,” Trustee Keith Von Allmen said.

A TIF district is a tax subsidy that allows the new, higher property taxes generated by redevelopment within the district to be channeled back into the property rather than distributed to property tax-collecting bodies like school districts for up to 23 years. Excess monies in the TIF can be used for public improvements, including demolition of existing structures. TIFs can also be renewed once for an additional 11 years, according to state law.

Oliver first brought the Hidden Harbor concept to the village a year ago. Proposed for Chapel Hill Road at the Fox River, the development calls for motor condos and drive-up boat storage with an expanded marina. A restaurant, riverwalk and a water feature would also be open to the public on the 22-acre site.

For the past several months, Oliver has been working with both the McHenry County Division of Transportation on access to the site and with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on the development’s seawall on the Fox River.

The seawall, he said, has violated state regulations for the past 36 years. Oliver has since come to an agreement with the IDNR to solve the issue and with McDOT on access to Chapel Hill.

Until those issues were worked through, it made no sense to come to the village with his TIF ask, he said.

“I wanted to do this a year ago, but I didn’t know what McDOT or IDNR was going to say,” Oliver said.

According to data provided by his consultants, Oliver believes the development would create $21.4 million in TIF increment money over a 23-year time span – and is asking for 100% of the TIF to go back into the project.

Some Village Board members expressed skepticism about that ask and whether Johnsburg would get enough public benefit to make it worthwhile.

According to a term sheet presented to the village before Tuesday’s meeting, those public benefits would include realigning Charnbrook Drive at Hidden Harbor’s main entrance, drainage improvements for Salem Avenue and repairing and patching Linden Avenue where the new sanitary sewer will go through.

Other touted public benefits would be a publicly accessible riverwalk and shared-use paths, shoreline stabilization, expansion of the harbor and the extension of the city’s sanitary sewer from the Village’s lift station to the northeast corner of the property.

The overall project cost is $43.2 million, according to Oliver’s documentation.

Tim Hartnett, the village engineer, reminded the board that if Oliver’s project does not create the increment, he does not get the money.

“It was a great idea for him to come tonight,” Hartnett added, to make sure the board agreed with the concept of TIF funding. But it is still very early in the process.

“This is the first couple of baby steps,” Hartnett said. “This is a long lead item to get done.”

As Oliver’s presentation was only listed as an update on the meeting agenda, no formal vote was taken. Village President Ed Hettermann asked for a consensus on whether Oliver should return with both the TIF and a redevelopment proposal that would need votes.

Oliver said he’d be ready to come back at the next meeting, set for April 21, with a breakout of the public benefit portions of the project and the estimated costs associated with them.