When I used to have more time on more hands (or more energy for my time) I did some blogging about eminent domain issues. One of those blog entries received a comment a few days ago that I wanted to address:

I appreciated your article on the TIF struggle in Des Planes. In Newton, IL, the mayor and his rubber stamp council (seven of eight) are making plans to establish a TIF district. I do not think that it can be legally done, but need help.

I'd love to help, but for a legal fight, you're going to need help from a lawyer with experience fighting TIFs. I'll get back to this.

I have read that the first prerequisite for a TIF is that it must occupy an area that, by statute, is blighted. The proposed district includes a strip of territory a block or more wide on either side of our two main streets (the business district); the public square and adjacent territory; and the "Pale Jumbo" Industrial Park (which has never had an occupant). There is no possible way that this, or any area our little country town of about 3,100 population, contains five of the necessary conditions to be, by statutory definition, blighted.

You'd think, and you'd hope, but it's not so straightforward. The TIF act requires five factors out of a possible 13, and it's not that hard to meet them. Cities hire law firms and consultants who are experts at putting together arguments in favor of TIFs. They're really good at it. Take a look at the presentation from the consultants who put together the Des Plaines TIF. (Related documents are also available on the Des Plaines web site.)

Some of the 13 factors are vague and not that hard to establish. The easiest is probably Lack of Community Planning. In other words, if the town government has never interfered in an area before, that automatically gives them one of the five factors needed to interfere with it now.

Another factor is Excessive Vacancies. The unused industrial park alone probably meets this qualification. Heck, the International Plaza shopping mall in Arlington Heights was over 90% occupied, and it was still grabbed for a TIF.

The town government has two big advantages in declaring an area blighted. First of all, they can influence some of these factors in their favor. For example, they can refuse to allow curb cuts and zoning variances, and then they can argue that the property has a Deleterious Layout that's not good for anything. Also, just by attempting to declare a TIF, they can discourage tenants from moving in, and they can discourage property owners from maintaining their property, leading to Excessive Vacancies and Deterioration.

The second advantage the town has is that they get to define the TIF district. So, for example, they can meet the requirements for lower-than-average property values (already true by definition for half the town) by choosing properties carefully. Combine a thriving corner restaurant with the empty building next door, and they get to take them both.

The proposed district also includes twelve acres adjacent to the city that the mayor proposes to purchase. This acreage was a bean field last season, and though it is slow to drain it is not chronically flooded; I feel certain that it can not be considered blighted. Are these fact alone sufficient to defeat the proposition? What should I do?

The town doesn't have to prove that every single property meets the five-factor test, just all the properties combined. So, one polluted property, one dilapidated property, one obsolete property...

If you have any literature, suggestions or tips that you can let me have, I will certainly appreciate it. Also, if you know of anyone who is knowledgeable on the subject and who lives in the vicinity of Newton and would speak on behalf of the opposition at a hearing, please give me his name and address.

So far, I'm just trying to scare you into action. Now you want actual help?

The number one resource for all things eminent domain is The Castle Coalition, which is part of the Institute for Justice, the public-interest law firm that fought the Kelo case into the Supreme Court. They probably can't give you legal help---there are too many cases and too few lawyers at the IJ---but their survival guide explains how to find lawyers and mount a public offensive against eminent domain abuse.

It's important to keep in mind that although the main action is the legal battle, the war against an eminent domain abuse takes place on a much larger front. You need to try to win the battle for people's hearts and minds, to put pressure on the town government.

Even more important, you need to try to shut off the money. In many cases, the town already has investors lined up to receive the property, often because the investors are pushing for the eminent domain action for their own benefit. You need to try to drum up bad publicity against the investors and subject the project to long delays to encourage them to do something else with their money.

Finding a way to get the developer out of the picture will often end the active eminent domain effort, even if you can't win the legal battle. I know of a couple of cases where the prospect of delay and public ill-will caused the money to back out of the deal. The TIF districts are still there, and some actions are still pending in court, but without the money, nobody is actually pushing for the eminent domain action to continue.

So, start with the Castle Coalition Survival Guide and let me know what happens.

Arg! I totally forgot to mention that today is Kelo Day!

Susette Kelo and the Institute for Justice are trying to moneybomb the eminent domain abuse issue by getting 10,000 people to donate a few bucks each today.

Make your donations here. Or at least go read what it's all about.

Right on the south edge of the central triangle in the Des Plaines Five Corners/River-Rand TIF zone is a small group of odd buildings.

Larger ImageOdd Group of Buildings

This is the only part of the inner triangle (and the only part of the TIF district I've shown you) that looks like a common-sense definition of blighted, especially when seen from behind:

Larger ImageRear of Run-Down Buildings

Really, that does look a bit run down. But it looks like the sort of thing that could be fixed with a few hundred thousand dollars worth of construction, not a $120 million TIF district.

The lack of maintenance is not the only thing that bothers TIF advocates, however. They also seem to hate mixed-use land. That is, they want buffer zones between commercial and residential properties. I have to admit it's a little odd finding this home surrounded by restaurants and landscaping contractors, transmission shops and plumbing stores:

Larger ImageResidence

It would probably be pretty odd having a home in the middle of a commercial district like this, but isn't it up to the homeowners to make that kind of decision?

Right next to that home is Rosario Cassata Landscaping & Cement Contractor.

Larger ImageRosario Cassata Landscaping & Cement Contractor

And next to that is Northwest Kennels & Doggie Day Care. (See the dog in the window?) This is probably the most run-down of the buildings.

Larger ImageNorthwest Kennels & Doggie Day Care

Note that the utility service—gas meters and power lines—all come from the front of the buildings, as would be typical in rural areas. These are obviously not the fine buildings you typically find in a modern suburban commercial district.

In some ways, this is classic so-called "blight" that TIF proponents are always trying to get rid of: Older buildings that aren't very flashy, containing small businesses that aren't well-known names.

Politicians are always selling themselves, and they all love to say they run the kind of town that brings in a Target or a Circuit City or even a Potbelly's. I guess very few of them see the value in running the kind of town where Rosario Cassata decided to setup his small landscaping business, or where Bob and Trish decided to run their well-cared-for little bar.

Larger ImageBob and Trish's New Beginnings

Larger ImageBob and Trish's New Beginnings

The ladder and other stuff is out there because I took this picture late last year while someone (Bob, I'm guessing) was putting up Christmas lights.

Larger ImageChristmas at Bob and Trish's

"Target has realized, I think, with the passage of time, increased costs and the pending lawsuits, it doesn't make economic sense for them to proceed under our own redevelopment agreement," Village Atty. Jack Siegel said before the board meeting Monday night.

Target representative Brie Heath said the decision was based on economics.

"While we continue to be interested in an additional Target store in Arlington Heights, we have mutually agreed with the village to withdraw our project," Heath said.

The village of Arlington Heights hasn't actually cancelled the TIF district, but this hurts them a lot because they don't have a buyer standing by for the property. I've seen other eminent domain projects fall apart when the money went away.

Ron Popp, an owner of Arlin-Golf Plaza, said the shadow of the TIF hanging over the area has kept his center nearly vacant.

He's not kidding:

Larger ImageArlin-Golf Plaza

"When they hear about a TIF, they back away," he said of potential owners and tenants.

Popp has long disputed the designation of his property as blighted.

"Our [center] was completely rehabbed," he said. "It's kind of sad that they have to starve you out. I bet I could clear out Woodfield [shopping center] with the same tactics."

Probably, once all the stores look like this Arlin-Golf vacancy:

Larger ImageVacant Storefront

Part of the village's justification for the TIF is the lack of tax revenue from the property. How much revenue have they lost due to the vacancies they helped create? How much did they spend to do the TIF study? How high is their legal bill?

Village sources said total project costs, including those related to the bond sale and legal expenses, have not been tabulated.

Yeah, that would probably be embarassing.

In response to complaints from tax district tenants and owners about a lack of concern for their future, village officials said they have worked with businesses in four other tax districts, helping them remain in a new development or relocate within the village.

God, the arrogance. The village helped businesses "remain in a new development." Would that be a new development on the property the village had just taken from them? The property they had been using for years already before the village got involved?

Anyway, International Plaza remains standing for now.

Larger ImageInternational Plaza

Larger Image

The Des Plaines TIF is so huge that I've got to start posting more pictures or I'll never get done. So here's a few pictures from Jimmy's Restaurant, another property threatened by eminent domain in the Des Plaines Five Corners/River-Rand TIF District.

Larger ImageJimmy's Restaurant

As you can see, Jimmy has been pretty active in the TIF opposition effort.

There may be some actual blight in the Des Plaines TIF zone, but you won't find any of it at Jimmy's. The owner spent a lot remodeling the interior. I couldn't take too many pictures with all the customers there, but check out the interior:

Larger ImageDining Area

Larger ImageBar

Even the back of the building is well-maintained:

Larger ImageClean In Back

I've been a little too busy to blog much about eminent domain issues, so take a look at what the Sam Adams Alliance has to say about International Plaza.

In July of 2002, the Village of Arlington Heights, Illinois handed down a bogus “blighted” designation to the International Plaza, a local shopping center, in order to bulldoze it and put up a Super Target store. This move would boost the Village's tax revenue considerably. It would also trample personal freedoms, private property rights, and many of these business owners’ livelihoods.

The article includes contact information for Target and a sample letter.

Here's another property threatened by eminent domain in the Des Plaines Five Corners/River-Rand TIF District. The last two businesses I blogged about, the Geiser-Berner plumbing shop and the corner BP Gas Station are both inside what I'm calling the Inner Triangle, the region bounded on the east by River Road, on the southwest by Rand Road, and on the north by the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Directly between those two properties is the Suburban Transmission building.

Larger ImageSuburban Transmission

Judging by the number of cars (and the number of signs) this is a thriving business. Actually, if you take a close look at the next photo (click through to the larger image), you can see that this building is an auto repair mini-mall containing Suburban Transmissions, Fair Muffler Shops, and ReNew Auto Body.

Larger ImageIt's an Auto Repair Mini-Mall

Wait, look at this picture:

Larger ImageAJ's Auto Repairs

I can make out signs for AJ's Auto Repairs, so that's four businesses that face major disruptions if this property is condemned. How blighted can this property be if four businesses thought it was a good idea to squeeze themselves into it?

I wish I'd paid more attention to this when I was there. I'd like to talk to the owners and make sure this is really four businesses. It could just be a bunch of different services provided by the same company, kind of like those KFC-Taco Bell places.

Larger Image

I'm guessing that an auto-repair business puts a lot of thought and effort into adapting the building to its needs. It's probably fascinating. I'd like to get inside to take pictures.

(Visit the previous Des Plaines entry.)

This BP gas station is another of the businesses that the Des Plaines City Council is calling "blighted." Located on the northwest corner of the intersections of Rand and River roads, it's very nearly at the center of the TIF district.

Larger ImageCorner BP Gas Station

(Visit the previous Des Plaines entry .)[Update: Visit the next Des Plaines entry.]

Larger ImageProtest Signs

I've got hundreds of photos from the Des Plaines River-Rand TIF, and it's about time I posted a few of them. I'll start with this batch from Geiser-Berner Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning. Its owners, Robert Janczak, Ed Lehman, and Scott Olson are among the more outspoken opponents of the TIF.

Larger ImageGeiser-Berner

Their shop is a standalone building with a somewhat out-of-date look. In these photos you can see that it's not particularly run down, but you wouldn't confuse it with a new building. Still, it's hard to see it as "blighted."

Larger ImageCanopy

I glanced into the showroom when I visited and took a couple of shots. You can see that they're putting some money into making it look nice. Depending how the TIF turns out, they may be sorry they did that.

Larger ImageRemodeled Showroom

The decision to remodel a showroom can be analyzed like any other business decision: What's the return on the investment? If it costs $10,000 to remodel, and the new design is expected to be in use for 10 years, then the remodeled showroom had better produce an increase in net income sufficient to pay back the cost, plus a discount for the fact that you have to spend the $10,000 now, but the payback is spread out over a decade (kind of like interest on a loan). If the discount rate is 10%, a $10,000 remodeling job has to earn roughly an extra $1,600 per year to be worth it.

However, if the property will be seized in three years, that $1600 per year amounts to only about $4800, less than half the remodeling cost.

For Geiser-Berner, it's too late. The remodeling price has already been paid...for this remodel. Future remodeling jobs and future repairs to the building, will have to be judged against the shorter time period enforced by the pending eminent domain seizure. This will have the effect of discouraging remodeling and repairs, bringing about some of the blight that the City of Des Plaines is so worried about.

Larger ImageShowroom Under Construction

Note: I'm not an expert in either corporate finance or valuation of condemned properties, so I've done violence to both in my explanation above. For one thing, eminent domain seizure of the property is not a certain thing, so it would be treated as just one of several risk factors affecting the decision to remodel. For another, remodeling that increases the value of the building should result in a higher payment for the property (reducing the loss from the short period of use) but the rules for such calculations are complex beyond my understanding.

[Update: Visit the next Des Plaines entry.]

A bunch of folks showed up at the International Plaza shopping mall yesterday to distribute fliers and conduct a survey as part of the effort to save the plaza and a few neighboring properties from eminent domain abuse.

Larger ImagePicking Up a Survey Packet

(The young lady at right is a reporter who showed up to cover the effort.)

The village of Arlington Heights is trying to use a TIF district to take over the mall property so Target can build a store there. Not only will the village be saving Target from the effort of assembling the land, but the village has also promised to rebate some of the property taxes back to Target in the form of a sales tax reduction, according to TIF opponents.

Larger ImageScott Bludorn Instructs the Troops

The survey effort was lead by Scott Bludorn, a local activist and occasional office-seeker who is familiar with running political operations. I was amazed by how well prepared he was, with maps and lists of likely voters for everyone who showed up to help. He also had practical instructions for approaching people, taking the surveys, and handing out fliers.

Larger ImageSurvey Materials

(The most important rule of distributing fliers, by the way, is never leave them in or on a mailbox. Only the U.S. Post Office is allowed to deliver stuff to mailboxes and they get pretty upset when someone else does it.)

The survey and flier operation continues today, and may be repeated again in the near future.

While the legal battles for International Plaza are slowly grinding forward, the public relations battle is picking up steam. Sheila Ahern of the Daily Herald has a nice summary of what's going on:

In the past few months, the plaza’s owners have held two rallies, phoned residents and started a Web site to try to save their shopping center from eminent domain condemnation.

On Saturday and Sunday they’re looking for volunteers to help go door-to-door to persuade Arlington Heights residents to speak up to save the plaza at Arlington Heights and Golf roads.

“We can’t lollygag around,” said Stephen Bachtell, general manager of Studio Salons in the International Plaza. “We go to (village board) meetings and no one says anything, but people are listening to us. This is getting bigger

If you're interest in helping out, here's how:

International Plaza owners are looking for volunteers to help canvass Arlington Heights neighborhoods on behalf of their cause. Volunteers should meet between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Oak Furniture Creations, 214 E. Golf Road at the International Plaza.

Actually, the meeting is not at Oak Creations but at the vacant storefront the used to house Oak Creations.

Larger ImageOak Creations (vacant)

According to International Plaza owner Su-Chuan Hsu, Oak Creations left the mall because of the looming condemnation.

Update: The web site mentioned in the article is probably isthisblighted.com.

Update: Here's a copy of the canvassing flyer they'll be distributing: (low-res) (print-quality)

Larger ImagePesche's Flowers at Christmas

This is Pesche's Flowers, one of the many businesses in Des Plaines, Illinois, that the city claims is "blighted" so they can abuse their eminent domain power to replace it with something they like better.

The city's materials justifying the TIF show some of the worst views of some of the uglier properties, so I thought I'd break with my usual documentary style to show you one of the prettier views in the TIF.

(Unfortunately, even on Christmas Eve, the parking lot lights were set to come on at sunset. It would have been a nicer image without them.)

Cal Skinner just sent me an email pointing out a PAC called Des Plaines Residents for Responsible Taxation. Its officers are Scott Olson and Barbara VanSlambrouck, co-owners respectively of Geiser-Berner and Chromatech, both of which are threatened by the Five-Corners TIF in Des Plaines.

I spoke to another Geiser-Berner co-owner, Robert Janczak, a while back and he told me that the non-profit they formed earlier to fight the TIF was not allowed to oppose the referendum for the TIF because of campaign finance regulations so they had to form another organization. I guess this PAC was it.

That people have to hire lawyers to jump through hoops like this is one more bit of evidence that a lot of so-called "campaign finance reform" is just another way for incumbent politicians to say "don't bother us."

Larger ImageView Toward Arlin-Golf Plaza

In my previous post, I was exploring some of International Plaza's neighbors that are also part of the TIF district and in danger of condemnation. In the photo above, the building in the background is the Arlin-Golf Plaza strip mall.

Larger ImageSign for Arlin-Golf Plaza

As I walked around to take more pictures, the sign promised a small but thriving mall. I've driven by here a lot in the past, and that's certainly what I was expecting. The reality was somewhat different:

Larger ImageArlin-Golf Plaza

Seen from the other side, there was one storefront showing signs of life:

Larger ImageSalon Colláge

That's Salon Colláge, owned by Judith Cervantes. (I think. I'm terrible at getting and remembering names, but I spent a few minutes searching databases and that's the name I came up with.)

Larger ImageJudith Cervantes

Like most salon owners, Cervantes has done a lot of work to customize the storefront to her needs:

Larger Image

Larger Image

Larger Image

Most of the rest of the storefronts in the Arlin-Golf Plaza appeared vacant...

Larger ImageVacancy

...or nearly vacant...

Larger ImageClosing Business

The only other storefront that looked like it might be open was something called Starmakers.

Larger ImageStarmakers Sign

I peeked in the window and saw this:

Larger ImageStarmakers

That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? In a mall that's threatened by eminent domain, where someone with even a long-term lease could get kicked out at any moment, you're only going to get businesses that don't need a huge investment in remodeling. Thus, tables and chairs.

So, what's the reason why this property is blighted? According to Hsu, it's this:

Larger ImageOne Way

You see, you can only turn right when leaving the parking lot, which is a poor traffic pattern. So this whole property's got to go.

That leaves only the residences tucked into the west side of International Plaza, just northeast of Arlin-Golf Plaza:

Larger ImageResidence

They've got to go because, well, they're residences, and it's bad to have residences right next to commercial property...even if the people who live there don't mind.

Larger ImageEntrance To International Plaza

There was a rally for International Plaza a few weeks ago, but I had errands to run that morning, and by the time I got to the Plaza, all the excitement was over. There were just a few stragglers, including a newspaper reporter and Leo Plotkin who owns Unigma Camera.

Larger ImageLeo Plotkin

Plotkin told me that he put about $100,000 into remodeling the property he leases for his camera store. I don't understand the rules for compensating leaseholders for condemnation, so I'm not sure how much of that he could expect to get back. Judging by his work to protest the seizure of the mall, I don't think he's expecting much.

Ironically, Plotkin emigrated here from Russia, I guess because he heard we were the land of the free.

The rally was held in a vacant store that used to be Oak Creations:

Larger ImageOak Creations/Rally Location

The owner of International Plaza, Su-Chuan Hsu, was at the rally, and she told me that Oak Creations had decided not to renew their lease, giving the potential condemnation of the property as the reason.

On the other hand, despite the threat of eminent domain, the Nari Sushi House has opened. (Apparently it hadn't actually opened last time I photographed it.)

Larger ImageNari Sushi House

Also new is the Shandong Garden Chinese Restaurant, which filled a vacancy.

Larger ImageShandong Garden Chinese Restaurant

Hsu was nice enough to answer a bunch of my questions. For one thing, she explained which properties besides International Plaza were slated to be condemned, so I can now present a more accurate map:

Hsu explained that the village was claiming International Plaza was blighted because it had a lot of vacancies, but she claims it was about 97% occupied at the time. She says occupancy has been declining since the TIF because tenants are reluctant to remodel storefronts that they may not get to keep for the full term of their lease.

Even if the occupancy figures were as low as the village claims, isn't that her problem? Given that she loses a fortune in rental income for every vacancy, I think she's in a much better position than anyone on the board to know how many vacancies are acceptable. (It's not that she wants the vacancies, but she's willing to suffer a few vacancies in order to achieve some other business goal, such as finding tenants willing to pay higher rates or avoiding troublesome tenants.)

Hsu also explained the reasons why each of the other properties was blighted.

Larger ImageKitakata Japanese Restaurant

The Kitakata Japanese Restaurant is located just to the east of International Plaza, and the village of Arlington Heights claims it is blighted because it doesn't have enough parking spaces, according to Hsu.

Again, that would seem to be the owner's problem. If the restaurant has enough parking spaces to make its owner a profit, then why should anyone care what the Arlington Heights village board thinks?

It might be different in an area where there's parking on the street because restaurant patrons who can't find space in the parking lot might use up too much of the public street parking. But this is a busy suburban intersection, with no street parking as far as the eye can see.

Besides, remember I said that Kitakata was right next to International Plaza? Surely they can work out some sort of shared parking arrangement, right? In fact, from the looks of this plowed path, I think they already have:

Larger ImagePath From Kitakata to the Plaza

The next property is as close an example as we will ever see of genuine blight in the Arlington-Golf TIF district: An abandoned gas station.

Larger ImageAbandoned Gas Station

Of course, once a property is declared "blighted" it becomes a self-fulfilling designation. Who, after all, would want to develop a blighted property which could be snapped up by the government at any time?

Larger ImageAbandoned Gas Station

According to Hsu, someone wanted to develop the site, but the village rejected their plan because it didn't have enough parking.

Larger ImageView Toward Arlin-Golf Plaza

The building in the background in that shot is the Arlin-Golf Plaza strip mall. I'll show you what's back there in another post.

Last night, tipped off by Cal Skinner's post, I went to cover a protest staged by the Coalition to Save International Plaza outside an Arlington Heights village board meeting at the Senior Center at 1801 W. Central Road.

Larger ImageProtesting Eminent Domain

Larger ImageAddressing the Village Board

I was surprised how many people showed up, many of them protesting on the abstract issue of eminent domain abuse, and not just because they owned a threatened business. There's something reassuring about so many people who weren't just in it for themselves. (Not that being in it for yourself is necessarily a bad thing.)

Larger ImageVigil for International Plaza

Larger ImageProtester

Larger ImageVigil

I was also surprised by the level of organization, including a sign-in sheet for protesters and the inevitable giant puppets (well, actually a fan-inflated balloon). The folks who stage things like the anti-globalization protests have got nothing to worry about, but this was a remarkable effort for some people trying to save something as mundane as shopping mall.

Larger ImageSigning In

Larger ImageThe Inevitable Giant Puppet

Also present was Su-Chuan Hsu, who owns International Plaza.

Larger ImageSu-Chuan Hsu (in green), Owner of International Plaza

The protest started around 6:30 pm, and the village board met at 8 pm (preceded by a closed committee-of-the-whole meeting).

I'm a cynic when it comes to government, but when the board meeting opened with a Pledge of Allegiance led by a scout troop, I was a little impressed. Here we all were, involving the next generation in our democracy, warts and all. I think it also served as a reminder of the need to be civil.

Larger ImageOpened With the Pledge

One of the first items on the agenda was a chance for Arlington Heights residents to speak to the board. This is what brought everyone here. The first few speakers addressed issues unrelated to International Plaza. Each speaker had 3 minutes to say their piece. Amusingly, those who ran over were put on notice when the clerk held up a Stop sign.

Larger ImageTime Has Run Out

Then it was time for three people to speak to the board about the TIF, eminent domain, and International Plaza. I don't have notes on what they said, but I got a few pictures. Phil Walters spoke on behalf of mall owner Su-Chuan Hsu (which makes me suspect she is not a resident). Walters is also running for the board in the spring election, with property rights as one of his main issues.

Larger ImagePhil Walters

Next up was Stephen Bachtell, the manager of Studio Salons, which had spent a lot of money remodeling their location and a lot of time finding customers.

Larger ImageStephen Bachtell, Manager of Studio Salons

Last up was Leo Plotkin, owner of Unigma Camera, who spoke about all the hard work involved in setting up his camera store.

Larger ImageLeo Plotkin, Owner of Unigma Camera

I doubt that the board was much swayed by this opposition—if they could be swayed that easily, the TIF never would have gotten this far—but I imagine that every little bit helps. Change a few minds in the audience, make a few board members worry about their electability, and pretty soon the pressure to do the right thing starts to add up.

Resources:

• Photo archive of the protest.
• Photo archive of International Plaza businesses.

[Update: I am sadly lacking in the journalist's skill for remembering and recording names, so I had incorrectly identified Phil Walters as John Philbin. This post has been corrected.]

I emailed Leo Plotkin about this coming Saturday's rally to save International Plaza. He answered a few of my questions:

Who else is involved in organizing the rally?

All of the owners of the small businesses located at International Plaza will be attending the rally.

What businesses do they run at the Plaza?

The types of businesses in International Plaza consist of food restaurants (Japanese, Italian, etc.), beauty salons, workout gym, clothing store, resale shop, video rental (Blockbuster), currency exchange, gift shop, dentist, accupuncturist, tai chi business, cleaners, pro golf shop, Korean market, consumer electronics repair business, etc. There is a great variety of businesses in International Plaza and this list signifies the different types.

Why have the rally now? Did something happen to provoke a response from you?

There is a pending lawsuit between XSport Gym and the Village of Arlington Heights. If XSport Gym was to lose the lawsuit, International Plaza will be condemned as Eminent Domain.

What do you hope to accomplish with a rally? Press attention?

Yes, we would love to provoke media attention and to place pressure on the board to change their mind in regards to Eminent Domain.

From Christina Walsh at the IJ:

This Saturday, December 2, a new organization called Save International Plaza is holding a rally at 10am in Arlington Heights. The Village is considering seizing all of the businesses in International Plaza through eminent domain to replace them with a SuperTarget. These folks need your support, and we encourage you to attend and bring your family and friends!

RALLY to Save International Plaza
Saturday, December 2
10am
214 E. Golf Road (International Plaza)
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Free coffee and donuts will be provided. If you have any questions, contact Leo Plotkin at unicamserv@aol.com. We hope you can make it!

I plan to be there taking pictures.

The contact person, Leo Plotkin, runs Unigma Camera which I photographed a year ago when I first wrote abote International Plaza. I didn't use the pictue because it wasn't very good, but here it is:

Larger ImageUnigma Camera

The Des Plaines TIF referendum was rejected by voters 7,531 to 2,235.

[Update: With 56 of 59 precincts counted, it's now 10,792 (78%) against the TIF with only 3,083 (22%) supporting it.]

Not that it matters. The Des Plaines City Council had already voted to create the TIF district the day before the election.

Mayor Tony Arredia was able to keep opponents of the TIF out of the meeting on the dubious grounds that city ordinance prohibits discussion of election issues that close to an election. Apparently, however, they could still vote on it...just not bring outsiders in to discuss it.

Yesterday was election day, and many people were wondering if the Republicans would be able to keep the Senate. In Des Plaines, Illinois, however, a bunch of people were wondering if they'd be able to keep their property. The city has a referendum on the ballot for the Rand/River Five Corners TIF district that could result in a lot of buildings being taken by eminent domain.

Larger ImageNO TIF Signs

TIF stands for Tax Increment Financing. In principle, a TIF is a legal mechanism by which local governments can fund public works projects using future property tax revenue.

For example, if a town wants to rebuild a road, it can issue bonds which it pays back by declaring a TIF district for the areas served by the road. When the road is rebuilt, it will presumably raise property values in the area, which will increase the amount of property tax paid by land owners. The original amount of property tax—the amount that would have been paid if the road repairs had not raised property values—will continue to be used for the usual purposes, but any increment above that will be used to pay off the loans used to build the road or to fund further improvements.

At least that's the theory. In practice, there seem to be a lot of ways to abuse TIFs. For some examples, see Ben Joravsky's articles in the Chicago Reader about TIF abuse in Chicago, where it appears that private property is a legal fiction, and all land use is subject to the whims of politicians and the people connected to them. The more I read about TIFs, the more they horrify me.

However, the many ways to abuse TIFs are a subject for another day.

Larger ImageGeiser-Berner

What concerns me right now, is that the Five Corners TIF in Des Plaines will be used to finance the eminent domain purchase of a lot of private property (such as the Geiser-Berner plumbing, heating, and air conditioning business pictured above), which will then be turned over to developers. The justification is that the developers will do something with the land that increases its value, thus increasing tax revenues for Des Plaines.

The Five Corners TIF (also known as the River/Rand TIF) is the fourth project in my photo-essay series on eminent domain. Until now, I've only been photographing relatively small sites such as the Sportif bike shop in Chicago or the five small multi-unit dwellings at the Hartung Quarry Landfill. The largest site I photographed was International Plaza in Arlington Heights, which was a mid-size shopping mall.

By comparison, the Five Corners TIF is stunning in its size and scope. Here's a satellite shot via Google Earth:

The red areas are parts of the TIF that are on the acquisition map, meaning they would be bought up for the project. (Technically, the TIF proposal says the properties are just under consideration for acquisition, but they won't necessarily be condemned as blighted.) The blue areas are areas that won't be acquired (no eminent domain) but which are still part of the proposed TIF district.

It's hard to grasp the size of this area from the small image above, so you might want to click through to a larger image, or view it on Google Maps. The best option is to view it using Google Earth if you have it.

(I created all my maps by looking carefully at the maps in Des Plaines' online materials about the Five Corners TIF and trying my best to match them to features visible in the satellite images. Please don't rely on the accuracy of my maps for anything important.)

Larger ImageNO TIF Signs

The TIF battle in Des Plaines has been going on for about a year. The Castle Coalition has a summary of it in the Illinois chapter of Opening the Floodgates. From what I can tell, this has accomplished two things. First, Des Plaines has backed off from acquiring the residential properties, including a trailer park. Second, the opposition gathered 3000 signatures to get yesterday's TIF referendum on the ballot. As I write this, I don't know if the referendum has passed or failed.

Larger ImageSympathizers

Sadly, even though the TIF opposition has picked up a lot of support (as evidenced by these signs in front of people's houses more than a mile and a half outside the TIF district) it probably doesn't matter whether the referendom passes because it's non-binding. The city of Des Plaines can ignore the results of the vote and proceed with the TIF anyway. In fact, the City Council has already announced its intent to do exactly that.

That doesn't mean the fight is over. There's almost certainly going to be a court battle.

Larger Image

These are not the last pictures I'll be taking of the area, either. The Five Corners TIF is so huge that it's going to take me weeks or months to really explore the area and get pictures of all the properties affected. I'll be posting a multi-part series showing photos of some of best and worst of the area, and probably everything in between.

I'll also be explaining my theory about why the area has the problems it has...and why the proposed TIF isn't a solution.

Larger Image

It's been a long time since I took any pictures for my Eminent Domain photo essay series, but my contact with the IJ a few months ago got me energized to do some more shooting. I was up in Wisconsin around that time, and while I was there I stopped by Hartung Quarry, which is the site of an emerging eminent domain story.

Here's one picture I didn't take, courtesy of Google Earth, to set the scene:

Actually, "quarry" is deceptive. This place used to be a quarry, but whatever they took out of there, they finished decades ago. Then they started filling it with trash. It's really the Hartung Quarry Landfill, like the sign says:

Larger ImageSigns

That's down at the south end by the entrance. Here's an establishing shot:

Larger ImageLandfill Entrance

As you can see, it's not a big hole in the ground. That's because the landfill is almost full. By January 2007, there won't be any more room. At that point, the City of Milwaukee will convert it to a park.

In fact, the city has been pretty smart about all this. They've been planning the park since Hartung opened as a landfill, so they've been careful to dump only clean waste. There's no need for a clay cap and monitoring of fumes. They can just cover it with soil, lay some grass over it, and it's a park.

That's not the eminent domain issue. The city already owns the land. Besides, landfills and parks are ordinary public uses for eminent domain. The city plan does include a few lots to be developed, and I wouldn't be shocked if that involved some behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing, but since the land has seen public use for decades, it seems unlikely that it's all been a cover for a private land grab.

The motivation for the eminent domain buyout comes instead from local residents. According to a December 27, 2005 account in the Milwaukee Daily Reporter (not available free online):

The city-owned landfill is completely surrounded by a classic suburban single-family neighborhood. The Hartung Park Neighborhood Association wants the city to convert the landfill into a public park, but first it wants the city to acquire and rip down the neighborhood's five remaining apartment buildings, located on North 99th Street. It also wants to see a cul-de-sac of owner-occupied houses built in their place.

They're talking about a group of buildings on the northeast corner of the quarry. I've marked them here in this Google Earth image:

As I was planning my trip, I was half expecting to find some goofy bit of low-income housing with towering apartment buildings in the middle of a peaceful neighborhood. Instead, I found this:

Larger Image3450 N 99th St

Not a single-family home, but not a bad looking place. Well-maintained, with sculpted bushes and a smooth well-maintained driveway.

To be fair, that's probably the best looking of the five properties. I think this is probably the worst looking one:

Larger Image3473, 3475, 3477, and 3479 N 99th St

Here's a closer look at the worst of the damage.

Larger ImageClose-up of 3473, 3475, 3477, and 3479 N 99th St

So some of the buildings are a bit unsightly, but a few maintenance problems are hardly cause for eminent domain action are they? Nope. This is something else.

"We know there's all this crap going on up there," said Margaret Silkey, president of the roughly 45-member association. "We just want to keep the neighborhood a decent, viable place and not have it become a run-down area."

Whatever she's talking about, it's not the buildings themselves.

Larger Image3457, 3459, 3461, and 3463 N 99th St

There's really not a lot to see here. I mean, take a look at this place:

Larger Image3465, 3467, 3469, and 3471 N 99th St

Yes, it looks unsightly because they've got all that trash piled out front. But when you step around that and take a look at the building, you see neatly trimmed lawns, a well-maintained facade, and sculpted bushes and trees.

Larger Image3465, 3467, 3469, and 3471 N 99th St

Or take a look at the rear of one of the other houses:

Larger Image3473, 3475, 3477, and 3479 N 99th St

Again, I've chosen an unflattering angle. The grass around the storage shed is a little unkempt, and there's a box that didn't fit in the trash cans.. On the other hand, the storage shed itself is well-maintained. Here's a reverse angle to show how nice the place is kept.

Larger Image3473, 3475, 3477, and 3479 N 99th St

There just isn't much to see here. Even the eminent domain threat is mostly theoretical:

The local alderman, Jim Bohl, is sponsoring a resolution to order the Department of City Development to plan for a tax incremental financing district to pay for the new park. The plan includes acquiring the five, four-family apartment buildings around the landfill and redeveloping the lots.

Although the resolution orders DCD to make a "good-faith effort" to do that without using eminent domain, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said he doesn't want to touch the idea of acquiring the properties for redevelopment.

And that's it. I took these pictures months ago and just sat on them, because I thought I'd try to go back to Milwaukee and get a better story, but I haven't had the time and probably won't. So, for now, it's just some people living in rental apartments, and the remarkably unsympathetic Ms. Silkey's desire to get rid of them.

I could show you the rear of some of the other buildings...

Larger Image3473, 3475, 3477, and 3479 N 99th St

...or show you another smooth driveway...

Larger Image3457 N 99th St

But what would be the point? (Other than posting them just because I've got them, and I've already done enough of that, don't you think?)

I figured I had the pictures so I might as well post them. There are a lot more pictures of the Hartung Quarry Landfill eminent domain area if anybody wants to use them.

Radley Balko says this:

In Tacoma, Washington, the "Sound Transit," a government agency, offered a landowner $439,000 for a piece of property in 2004. Finding the offer low, the landowner sued, and eventually lost in the State Supreme Court. Now, the Sound Transit is offering just $240,000, citing a "reassessment" of the property's value. That's about half what the same agency paid for an adjacent piece of land (perhaps the value of the land declined because it's now known that it's targeted for eminent domain!).

Of course, for property tax purposes, the government has assessed the land at $303,400.

Funny how the value of the land changes, depending on what the government wants to do with it.

Of course, the value of land does change depending on what you want to do with it. That's the problem with determining the price of land for purposes of eminent domain: Everybody has a different idea of what the land is worth.

If you and I are both looking at a piece of land, we probably have different plans for it. Maybe you want to farm it, and I want to build an amusement park. So how do we decide which of us gets it? How do we reconcile your subjective estimate of the value of the land for farming with my subjective estimate of it's value for entertainment?

In most cases, it's actually very simple. The free market tells us. If I think the land will be worth more to me than you think it will be worth to you, I'll be willing to offer more money for it than you.

Note that the free market works even if one of us owns the land instead of a third party: If you own the land, you can decide if my offer is more than the value of the land to you. If it is, you sell. If not, not. Conversely, I get to decide if your asking price is higher than the value I place on the land. If it is, I pass on by. If not, I buy the land.

Sure, we may negotiate over the final price, but on the whole this is a very fair and efficient system that has some attractive features: Every party to the transaction is a willing participant, and every party has to put their money where their mouth is. In particular, if the buyer makes an offer that's less than the value of the property to the seller, the buyer doesn't get the property. The risk of offering too little money is that the buyer will not get what he wants.

None of this is true about an eminent domain seizure. The property owner is involved unwillingly, and the government isn't taking a risk that the offer might be turned down. And if there's no risk to a low offering price, there's no reason not to offer less than the property is worth. Also, since the government doesn't have to show a profit, the governments's willingness to make an offer has nothing to do with the value of the property to the government and everything to do with the influence of powerful special interests.

One year ago today, the U.S. Supreme court ruled on the Kelo decision, confirming that governments could use their eminent domain powers to take private property and hand it over to private developers for private use. All that was needed was the thinnest of public use justifications, such as that the new owners would use the property in a way which generated greater tax revenue.

In just the past year, more than 5,700 properties nationwide have been threatened by or taken with eminent domain for private development--a figure that compares with more than 10,000 examples over a five-year period preceding the Kelo argument[.]

That's from an announcement about four new reports just issued by the Institute for Justice and the Castle Coalition.

I'm particularly interested in Opening the Floodgates: Eminent Domain Abuse in the Post-Kelo World which compiles information about a bunch of properties threatened by eminent domain for private use, including a few right here in Illinois. The first one, on page 36, discusses the International Plaza shopping center, which I blogged about last fall.

Best of all, it includes this picture of the mall:

Larger ImageInternational Plaza

I took that picture for my blog entry—I can even see where my car is parked—and an intern at the the Institute for Justice emailed me a couple of weeks ago asking me if they could use it.

That's just cool.

(Get all the reports from http://www.castlecoalition.org/kelo/index.html, but be warned that they are huge PDF files.)

Thanks to Marathon Pundit for linking again to my eminent domain articles.

Meanwhile, Brian Nadig is reporting in Chicago's Northwest Side Press that Chicago's Department of Planning and Development is revising the plan for development around the Sportif Importer bike shop. Instead of one big condo building, they're talking about two smaller buildings on either side of the shop. Oh the other hand, Sportif owner Don Zordani has apparently expressed interest in moving to a nearby property owned by the developer of the projext. ("City to detail new plans for Lawrence Ave. site." Not online.)

A few weeks ago, I started what I hope will be a continuing series of photoessays on eminent domain abuse. You might want to check out my first essay on the Sportif bike shop in Chicago, Illinois.

Another local target of post-Kelo eminent domain abuse (and also pre-Kelo eminent domain abuse, I might add) is the International Plaza shopping mall in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Larger ImageInternational Plaza

By my rough estimate, the whole mall covers about 12 acres, including the service areas. If you check out this Google Map of International Plaza you'll see the main mall surrounding the parking lot in the center, with a little strip mall wing on its west side.

Larger ImageThe Attached Strip Mall

This all seems a bit unusual, doesn't it? I would have thought a shopping mall much more likely to be the cause of eminent domain abuse rather than the victim. How did things turn out this way?

A very nicely done Chicago Sun-Times article by Abdon M. Pallasch, David Roeder and Eric Herman gives a bit of the story:

The village of Arlington Heights wants to acquire International Plaza, a complex at 120 Golf Road, and replace it and neighboring parcels with a SuperTarget. With more than 40 stores and few vacancies, the plaza is mostly leased to businesses owned by Korean families. The village has reasoned it can draw more tax revenue from a SuperTarget, but has found the plaza's owner, Su-Chuan Hsu, unwilling to sell.

A tenant at the plaza, Gary Mednicov, owner of Garibaldi's pizza, said he believes the village will try to force the sale once it completes a contract for a SuperTarget.

"I feel I have no choice, but I think what Arlington Heights is doing is wrong," he said. "Some of the people started the businesses there from nothing."

International Plaza isn't the nicest mall in Arlington Heights, but it's managed to attract a number of national chain stores, including Blockbuster Video, Tuesday Morning, and an Eileen Fisher Outlet Store.

Larger ImageEileen Fisher

Other stores include the Garibaldi's Restaurant mentioned in the quote above, Oak Creations, an XSport Gym, and an Elly's Pancake House:

Larger ImageXsport Gym

Larger ImageElly's Pancake House

(By the way, most of my pictures were taken on a cloudy morning about half an hour after the mall opened, so don't make too much of the empty parking lot.)

To be fair, I should mention that about a half dozen of the storefronts appear empty, including a large internet cafe and a corner clothing store.

Larger ImageClosed Internet Cafe

Larger ImageClosed Suit Store

On the other hand, here's a salon that just opened:

Larger ImageXotic Skin & Nail

Unfortunately, I don't think this newly-opened Xotic Skin & Nail salon will help the mall avoid the "blighted" designation. From what I've been reading, when it comes to eminent domain and urban renewal, these types of businesses just don't count. They're not the right types of businesses.

Larger ImageAngela's Hair Salon

You see a lot of this in urban renewal. The powers-that-be will brag about how they brought a new big-box store to the city, or created a revitalize city center with a movie theater, a Borders books, a Starbucks, and 25 luxury condominiums. They won't mention all the low-volume little businesses that were driven out by the renewal.

Larger ImageCreative Nails

If this was a city neighborhood that was targeted for renewal, you'd expect to see muffler shops, laundries, and appliance repair stores. A suburban mall like International Plaza doesn't have those kinds of places, but it's still got the nail salons, hair stylists, video stores, travel agencies, and currency exchanges so prevalent in areas slated for redevelopment:

Larger ImageCurrency Exchange

Larger ImageTravel Agency and Video Store

In the calculus of eminent domain and urban renewal, businesses like these simply don't count. They're the wrong kind of business, so their loss is considered unimportant. In part, this is just the normal human failure to give due consideration to circumstances of others.

Larger ImageNari Sushi House

This failure is always more pronounced when the others come from a different culture or are from a different race. I think it's no coincidence that International Plaza and many of its shops are owned by Asians.

Larger ImageOriental Food

The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has an archived copy of a nice Chicago Daily Herald article by Corrie Cutrer about International Plaza.

I also have a much larger collection of photographs of International Plaza.

I'd like to thank Doug at dougpetch.com and John Ruberry at Marathon Pundit for linking to my first photo essay on eminent domain abuse regarding Sportif Importer Ltd of Chicago.

The latter lead me to this Free Republic article about Sportif, which has this gem of a quote from the developer:

[Sportif owner] Don Zordani acknowledges that he would sell for the right price. Everybody, he says, has a number.

The developer who wants to put up the condo, Demetrius Kozonis says Zordani's number is way out of whack—several million dollars too high—that they've offered to keep the bike shop in the neighborhood, but that Zordani is stubborn and unreasonable.

What a bizarre argument.

Buying an entire bike shop is way out of my price range, but I might want to buy one of his bikes. However, if when we start negotiating the price I can't get him to come down as much as I'd like, should I have the option of just dropping my money on the counter and stealing the bike?

Of course not. But that doesn't mean I'm powerless against Zordani's greed. The free market gives me one strong move to combat greedy merchants: The power to walk away. I can spend my money someplace else.

The developer who wants to buy the entire store can do the exact same thing. There's $480,000 on the table, and Zordani won't get a dime of it if the developer buys his land someplace else. That's a pretty strong incentive for him to be reasonable.

And maybe he already is.

Ever since the Supreme Court decided against private property owners in Kelo v. City of New London, local governments all over the United States have returned to the task of taking properties from their current owners and giving them to developers and corporations, under the supposed justification that the new owners will do something with the property that is better for the community.

Here in Chicago, one target of eminent domain abuse is the Sportif Importer Limited bike shop at 5225 W Lawrence Avenue.

Larger ImageSportif Importer Ltd

According to a recent Sun-Times article by Abdon M. Pallasch, the shop is a thriving business that has been operating in the Jefferson Park business district for 35 years.

That hasn't stopped the city from trying to take the land. In order to keep up appearances with regard to the "just compensation" part of the Fifth Amendment, the city has offered owner Donald Zordani the grand sum of $480,000. A quick search on realtor.com finds 32 single-family homes in the same zip code that are listed for more than half a million dollars. You'd think a large lot in the business district would be worth more than a single-family home on a side street, wouldn't you?

Larger ImageSurrounding Vacant Lots

The city's official explanation is that the little local business district is "blighted," allowing the city to condemn the property so it can be used for something else. It almost looks blighted too, judging by the vacant lots surrounding the store. Of course, the reason they're vacant is because the developer is holding them empty until he can tear down the bike shop. Then he's going to build a seven-story condominium.

Here's a view across the east lot from the rear:

Larger ImageCopernicus Center

The red brick building on the right is the Copernicus Center in the historic Gateway Theater, which is the largest theater on Chicago's northwest side. Among other things, they hold the "Taste of Polonia" festival every year. Vice President Dick Chaney was at the festival a few years ago, and the elder President Bush visited in 1992.

The tall building visible over the top of the Sportif building is the office complex at Veteran's square, built just a few years ago. And only about 200 feet west of Sportif is this brand new CVS Pharmacy:

Larger ImageCVS Pharmacy

I'm not saying there isn't any blight of any kind. For example, just west of the Copernicus Center is this strip of stores, one or two of which are clearly not in use:

Larger ImageBlight?

On the other hand, at that same intersection—about a minute's walk from Sportif—is Hoyne Savings, which has been there forever.

Larger ImageHoyne Savings

And just south of that is this vibrant stretch of stores:

Larger ImageStores

On the north side is this mix of old and new construction:

Larger ImageMixed Construction

Further down that road is the cluster of businesses around the Jefferson Park CTA station for buses and trains. Glance down a side street and you'll see a pleasant residential district. I'm just not seeing the blight.

Larger ImageNearby Residential Street

Understand, I have nothing against new construction, and unlike some of the local activists, I'm not too concerned if the seven-story condo planned for Sportif's location doesn't "fit in" to the neighborhood. I've seen some of the buildings going up and I'll admit I don't like them much.

Larger ImageUgly New Building

I think this building is pretty ugly, and if I had a say in the matter, it would never have gone up. The thing is, I don't have a say, because it's not my damned property.

To tell the truth, if Sportif Importer is bulldozed and a seven-story condo is built there, I won't miss it a bit. I don't think I've ever been inside until I stopped in to ask if I could take pictures inside and the guy behind the counter (who must have been Zordani himself) told me I couldn't. That's why I have no pictures of the inside, because I respected his right to control his property.

Too bad everybody doesn't have that respect.

[More pictures of the threatened property here.]