Riverside’s village board is set to decide in January whether the village could join a statewide program that would allow some resident homeowners to freeze the valuation of their property taxes for about eight years as an incentive for home improvements.
Village Planner Anne Cyran on Aug. 21 told trustees that, come January, they would have to approve an ordinance opting Riverside out of the Property Tax Assessment Freeze Program, or the village would be entered into the program by default. While trustees seemed split on whether to opt out of the program, they agreed to direct village staff to draft such an ordinance so the village can have its choice when the time comes to make a decision.
The program, operated by the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, allows residents of historic, owner-occupied homes to freeze the assessment of their property taxes for the next eight years while they make home improvements over the course of two years that are worth at least 25% of the home’s initial assessed value, Cyran said.
At the end of the eighth year, the home’s value is reassessed, and the difference from the frozen value is added in equal increments over four more years, meaning the owner does not pay the full property tax on their improved home until their 12th year in the program, a full decade after the improvements were completed.
For example, a home worth $400,000 would need at least $100,000 worth of improvements after two years, Cyran said. The home, now worth $500,000, would still be taxed on the value of $400,000 until the ninth year, at which point the evaluation would increase by $25,000 each year until it reaches the full $500,000 in the 12th year.
But there’s one important caveat: the state operates the program, meaning any resident whose property qualifies can seek to freeze their tax assessment, but each taxing body must individually opt out of the program, and the freeze is only applied to the portion of the property tax that is levied by taxing bodies that did not opt out.
“The village’s levy is approximately 15% of the property tax bill. If the village participates in the program, 15% of the property’s tax assessment will be frozen,” Cyran said.
For taxing bodies that opt out of the program, the corresponding portion of the tax bill increases every year as the property’s value is reassessed.
“The schools and Triton College make up, I think, 73% of a tax bill, so that’s a pretty significant amount. I didn’t hear back from Triton College about whether they opt out,” Cyran said. “If, collectively, the schools and the college opt out of the program, that’s a large chunk of the property tax bill that wouldn’t be frozen.”
Cook County, which does participate, accounts for about 4% of the tax bill, she said.
To qualify for the program, a home “is generally more than 50 years old, and it is not significantly altered from how it was designed” both internally and externally, Cyran said. In the course of the improvements, existing historical features must be maintained or replaced as necessary with the same materials.
The home must also fall into a National Historic Landmark District, which all of Riverside has since the end of 2023.
The village board last discussed the program in 2017 and 2018, Cyran said, when the cost of newly constructed additions and garages did not count toward the investment requirement of 25% of the pre-assessed value. Now, they do count toward the expenditure requirement, she said.
Riverside has opted out of the program since 1999. The potential change comes after the village’s preservation commission unanimously recommended Riverside participate in the program on Aug. 14, as the village could collect more taxes from improved homes after their freeze ends, and the cost to other residents is minimal.
Riverside did not opt out of the program from 1986-1998, Cyran said, after doing so from the program’s creation in 1980 through 1985.
According to village documents, one home in Riverside received a freeze in 2020. Before that, the most recent freeze was approved in 2009. Only 13 residences in town have ever received a freeze, and eight of them entered the program from 1992-1995.
