South Suburbs for Greenspace

10/14/2025

We just learned that a new development firm was trying to have individual meetings with Hazel Crest Board members regarding a revived effort to construct a trucking facility. The firm is Ryan Companies, https://www.ryancompanies.com/.

The discussion is on the Hazel Crest Board Administrative meeting agenda for 6 p.m. tonight, Oct 14. Please come out to hear more if you can! Location is the usual Village Hall,

3601 W. 183rd Street Hazel Crest, IL 60429

From commercial real estate project conception to completion and beyond, we put our hearts into creating spaces that bring your story to life.

05/29/2025

Check out this informative letter on TIFs by SSG founding member Liz Varmecky!

https://www.hfchronicle.com/2025/05/27/letter-on-tifs-how-they-starve-schools-and-cause-taxes-to-rise/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKluhRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF4Ym9PUEtuc1JVV3F0dkpQAR7KdSD7gSB71k_-a7j3_h18I3uVsEuyhGT5b71LYicUIEINGV5MDUOe7gusgw_aem_RCPfEPCDJZEDD1AFpUwPAg

Through the course of the municipal campaign and over the last several years, many people have asked me about TIFs. What are they? How do they work?  I hope that this will serve as a condensed (as brief as possible for such a complicated financial instrument) explanation of how TIFs[Read More...]

04/03/2025

We're taking the organizational communication to discord. I hope you'll join us there!

Check out the Homewood Political Action community on Discord - hang out with 7 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

04/01/2025

03/29/2025

Four years ago, South Suburbs for Greenspace brought you TIF 101 to help the community learn about the impact of TIFs on public services and property taxes.

TLDR version:

"A TIF short-changes our public services and adds an additional tax burden to property owners outside of TIF districts.

TIF money could be used responsibly. Businesses the community needs and wants could be induced with a TIF, and they can be used to support our small, local businesses. But to know what the community needs and wants the Village must listen to the community."

-----On TIFs: How They Starve Schools and Cause Taxes to Rise-----
Through the course of the campaign and over the last several years, many people have asked me about TIFs. What are they? How do they work? I hope that this will serve as a condensed (as brief as possible for such a complicated financial instrument) explanation of how TIFs inevitably lead to rising residential property taxes and lowering the revenue for our valued public services.
I have also included a PDF linked below that has links to some of the situations that I mention in the piece.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KyrfjjBlhcVSHK-7ynnE-znfyLcu_nJe/view?usp=drive_link

Ostensibly, TIFs create a district in a blighted area that allows financing improvements in the district based on the future potential property tax revenue of the district. Sounds reasonable, right? No one wants blighted districts in their communities.

A TIF, which is an acronym for tax increment financing, is a very complicated way to do a very simple thing: take money away from the public and give it to private interests.

Here is how the TIF creation process works:

Step 1: The municipality identifies an area in the community in need of development or is approached directly by a developer asking for a TIF for a specific project. (Think the attempted Calumet Country Club TIF, or the TIF cut out of the downtown TIF for developing the Village Hall parking lot.)

Step 2: The municipality hires a TIF consultant. (The last TIF consultant hired in Homewood was $23,500.)

Step 3: The TIF consulting firm documents why the district is blighted based on the state’s definition of blight. (Empty buildings, “undeveloped parcels” like greenspace, loose fascia, etc.) The consulting firm also creates an outline of how much tax revenue the TIF will generate for its life; what the TIF funding could be used for in the district to improve the blight; and sets the timeline for the life of the TIF.

Step 4: The municipality convenes a Joint Review Board (JRB). This board is made of non-elected “representatives” of taxing bodies (public schools, public libraries, public parks, and the municipality itself) that will have their property tax revenues reduced for the life of the TIF. This JRB meeting is open to the public and is generally held at inconvenient times for working people and students: 2 pm on a Thursday.

Step 5: The JRB votes to approve the TIF. (The JRB always votes to approve the TIF.)

Step 6: The municipality’s board of trustees votes to approve the TIF now that it has the proper documentation from the consultant and the nod of approval from the taxing bodies that will lose revenue for the next 23 years through the JRB.

Step 7: The municipality can now get financing based on the projected revenue of the TIF. This financing based on hypothetical revenue can only be spent within the TIF district and for expenses allowed by the TIF. Which businesses receive the funds and how much they receive are determined at the discretion of the municipality. (In the case of Homewood, this is determined by the Economic Development Department and the President of the Board.)

Step 8: The TIF is “successful” if this plan brings about a thriving area that is a benefit to the community-- in some way or another (for example through increased sales tax, or bringing an amenity, like a grocery store, to the community.) The TIF is a failure if the development plans didn’t increase tax revenue in the district, meaning the municipality incurred debt that now needs to be paid back by the municipality. This makes the municipality a player in the real estate development game, gambling with public money and guessing winners and losers.

All this would be well and good if the municipality were just playing with its own future property tax revenues; but that’s not how the money works. The TIF takes future property tax revenue from all local taxing bodies, including the underfunded public schools, the public libraries, and the public parks; hence the need to convene the JRB described above.

Here is how the TIF money flows:

Let’s say that the property taxes for a TIF district are $1 million when the district is created, which means that public schools receive about $600,000 from that TIF district. That $600K is all that the schools will get from this district for the next 23 years, or longer if the life of the TIF is extended. The library, parks, and municipal funding are also frozen at the amount that was allocated at the time of the TIF creation. We all know that, although funding for schools and public services will remain stagnant, the costs will inevitably increase.

As the property taxes increase in the TIF, all additional money generated will be sequestered in the TIF fund, starving our public safety, parks, libraries, and schools. As costs increase through inflation and expansion, so will the budgets of the public services that have now had a portion of their funding frozen. This means that they must get revenue from other sources, like increasing the taxes on properties outside of the TIF district, or through passing referendums to increase taxes to fund schools.

A TIF short-changes our public services and adds an additional tax burden to property owners outside of TIF districts.

TIF money could be used responsibly. Businesses the community needs and wants could be induced with a TIF, and they can be used to support our small, local businesses. But to know what the community needs and wants the Village must listen to the community.

03/24/2025

South Suburbs for Greenspace (SSG) is asking the public to attend the Village of Homewood (VOH) Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, March 25, 2024, to give public comment in support of stopping the toxic pollution at the Northwest Pond of the Prairie Lakes in the Homewood Izaak Walton Preserve (HIWP) and demanding transparency from the Village to the public.

*Linked PDF in the comments provides hyperlinks to documentation.*

Recent documents received from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show the purpose of VOH contacting the IEPA after a study of water and sediment samples showed high concentrations of toxins: The VOH sought legal, not scientific guidance.

Dr. Michelle Yates, a professor who teaches in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, said, “the classification of the Prairie Lakes as a Stormwater Detention facility does not mean that it should be exempt from environmental protection. For the Village to state that it is a human-constructed space reproduces the very dangerous notion that humans and nature are separate, as if the wildlife that lives in the Prairie Lakes and the humans that visit it, are not worthy of environmental protection. Governmental regulatory agencies are supposed to protect residents from pollution, but it is not uncommon for governmental agencies to permit environmental harm.”

The purpose of the legal guidance sought was to assert that the pond (that flows into the larger Prairie Lake, which eventually flows into the Calumet River system) was built as a storm water detention area, and not as a nature preserve, lowering the water quality standard for the IEPA analysis. The VOH has been publicly asserting that the lake system is storm water detention for, at least, the last six months.

“What’s important to understand about water quality standards, which are particularly weak in the state of Illinois, is that just because certain toxins aren’t listed in the standard, doesn’t mean they aren’t toxic. And, even if single pollutants are within the standard, the mixture of dozens of pollutants is even more toxic and isn’t reflected in the weak standards for individual toxins,” explained Dr. David Zaber, an environmental toxicologist.

The IEPA’s re-evaluation of the data at the lowered water quality standard, still showed Fluoranthene was above the acute (harmful on contact) standard. The VOH again reached out to the IEPA to assist with spinning the results of the IEPA evaluation. The VOH Manager Napoleon Haney wrote on February 11, 2025: “We want to respond publicly to calm the messaging that the ‘pond is toxic,’ but now we have a substance showing up that this local Greenspace Group can use to double-down on their ‘toxic pond’ narrative.”

In response to the VOH’s second request for assistance from the IEPA, on February 27, 2025, the IEPA Community Relations Coordinator emailed to request a meeting to discuss “outreach.” After the VOH met with the IEPA communications team in early March, it released the blog post claiming that the pond is not toxic and that Fluoranthene is of only “slight concern.”

Dave Sacks, organizer and Treasurer of SSG said, “When we first reached out to the village about the pollution at Izaak Walton, we thought that they would want to address it immediately because it is such a treasured community asset. Instead, they spend their time lying about the toxic fluoranthene and take no action. The IEPA memo is clear, and they should act on it.”

Dr. Zaber brought this pollution to the village’s attention in September of 2021. No action was taken by the village at that time, though Dr. Zaber and the HIWP board requested that village perform a full screening of the discharge, pond water, and sediments.

SSG originally began working on its Clean Izaak campaign in August 2024, after the group learned the results of the water sampling study (performed in November 2023) and about the twenty-year discoloration in the Northwest Pond (seen on satellite images directly after the headquarters for Homewood Disposal was constructed). Group members reached out to the village for more information through direct communication and FOIA requests. The VOH did not produce documents that SSG knew it had, namely the water and sediment study and the communication about the same from the Director of Public Works, claiming that it had no responsive documents on September 4, 2024.

After SSG filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Office, the VOH produced the requested documents, which included an email from February 13, 2024, where the Director of Public Works wrote, “I read the report last night, my question is what would Dr. Zaber want the village to do at this point?” More than a year later the VOH has taken no action to stop the pollution.
Liz Varmecky, founder of SSG, said, “What we’ve seen is that the Village has learned the wrong lessons from their mishandling of the Calumet Country Club. They hired a full-time communications staffer after the debacle, but what we see from their own words and the data-denying statement, is that this person’s job isn’t to communicate and engage with the community, but spread the Village leadership’s talking points, whether they are factual or not. The lesson they should have learned was to listen to the community and address the community’s concerns. Their goal is now to manage the community, not to engage and work with the residents. This new set of documents highlights that reality.”

SSG encourages the community to read all of the documents obtained in our open portal, particularly the ones linked within this document. If concerned community members are unable to attend the VOH Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m., they are encouraged to email the VOH their comments and questions to [email protected]. The public can also watch, but not participate in, the Board of Trustees meeting on Zoom.

03/22/2025

The Village of Homewood maintains that the pond at Izaak Walton does not have toxic contamination, despite DATA and the acknowledgement from the IEPA that it does.

On March 11 in the Homewood Village board meeting, the Village Manager of Homewood said, “if the IEPA even had a hint that a pond was toxic, I would assume it would show up in the writing. I would assume it would show up in a report. I would assume it would show up in an email.”

It did show up in writing. It showed up in the memo where the IEPA explicitly stated that Fluoranthene was above the acute and chronic water quality standards. The IEPA reiterated this when contacted by the Southtown: “The environmental agency found that fluoranthene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, was above the acute and chronic water quality standards, Biggs (an IEPA spokesperson) said.”

Also from the Southtown piece: “’Acute means poisonous for wildlife on contact, so I don’t know why that wouldn’t be toxic,’ said Liz Varmecky, founder of the South Suburbs for Greenspace.”

AND

“The U.S. EPA has identified fluoranthene as a high-priority pollutant that can be potentially harmful to wildlife.”

Even Trustee Roman in the March 11th Village Board meeting, when referencing an anonymous third-party “expert” who “works with legislators to write legislation to protect ponds and lakes” said, “Having fluoranthene is not ideal.” But also said “there isn’t any way to fix it based on the history of this site.”

So, actually what the Village is saying is that there IS TOXIC CONTAMINATION, but it is laying the groundwork to not do anything to remediate.

This is unacceptable.

Please come out the Village board meeting (2020 Chestnut Rd in Homewood) to show them that you believe in science, that you believe in data, and that you want the toxic pollution at Izaak Walton preserve stopped. The village claims that the Prairie Lakes are only a detention area and not a nature preserve, and that somehow, this gives them the license to look the other way as toxins are discharged into an open body of water. It does not. No one told the fish, the turtles, the beavers, and the birds that the Prairie Lakes are just a detention pond, which makes toxins acceptable, nor is it even posted for humans to know that this is a detention area and they should not fish in these waters or allow their dogs to swim in them.

Homewood will seek more detailed tests of the water quality in an Izaac Walton nature preserve pond.

03/17/2025

Send a message to learn more

03/11/2025

On Monday March 10, 2025, the Village of Homewood issued a statement regarding the toxic contamination in the northwest pond of the Prairie Lakes at Homewood Izaak Walton Preserve. South Suburbs for Greenspace (SSG) through its Clean Izaak campaign has been working to stop the pollution and have the ponds remediated since late summer of 2024. SSG finds the statement to be misleading and to deliberately minimize the toxins shown in the testing data and analyzed by two different entities, including the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).

The Village of Homewood blatantly misrepresents the IEPA’s memo (memo starts on page 12) by making false and misleading claims. The Village says it was confirmed “The North Pond is NOT toxic based on the State of Illinois water quality standards.” However, the IEPA memo they cite states, “Fluoranthene was above the acute and chronic water quality standards.”

“Acute levels of a toxic chemical do immediate damage to plants and animals on contact, while chronic levels cause long-term harm to the ecosystem,” says Dr. David Zaber, Homewood resident and environmental toxicologist. The village characterizes this acute toxicity as “of slight concern” in their statement. “That’s irresponsible and plain false to put it that way,” added Dr. Zaber. Later in its statement, the Village again asserts, “The IEPA’s analysis confirms that the North Pond is not toxic.” The IEPA memo makes no such claim.


The Village then states, “the vast majority of tested contaminants posed no health risks and were well below regulatory limits.” While this is a technically true statement, there are a minority of contaminants tested that DO pose health risks and are ABOVE regulatory limits. David Sacks, South Suburbs for Greenspace Treasurer laments, “Residents want the pollution stopped. This demonstrates continued bad-faith and cynicism when we had hoped for sincere cooperation.”

In the background section, the Village notes that the Prairie Lakes are leased to Izaak Walton, “granting them the responsibility to oversee the stewardship of the property.” This piece of background seems to put the onus on the Izaak Walton Foundation for the remediation of the Prairie Lakes. However, the IEPA mandates the that Village of Homewood is responsible for monitoring and remediating toxic discharge from municipal storm drains.

The storm drain in the North Pond is the source of the contamination, confirmed by the Village’s own dye tests performed from Homewood Disposal’s sump pump pit. Finally, the memo explicitly states that the analysis in the memo “should not be construed as being inclusive of all factors that must be taken into consideration” when testing and remediating the pond.

In conclusion, not only did the IEPA’s memo not claim that the pond was “not toxic,” but it identifies at least one toxin that is above acute and chronic levels. Though SSG is pleased that the Village of Homewood is finally proceeding with the testing our group has demanded, its response has shown a lack of urgency and concern. “Their unwillingness to stop the pollution is an ongoing threat to wildlife and the community,” says Dr. Michelle Yates, a professor who teaches in Environmental and Sustainability Studies at Columbia College Chicago and is an SSG organizer.

11/09/2024

Tour the toxic discharge at
Learn what you can do to get involved and help stop the pollution!
Enjoy an afternoon in a beautiful greenspace!
Back by Popular Demand!
Join Dr. David Zaber for a tour of the pollution at Izaak Walton’s Prairie Lakes
Saturday, November 16th from 2:00 - 3:30
southern Izaak Walton Entrance
(past the baseball fields)
Wear comfortable shoes and long pants. Scan the QR code for more event info!