Brookfield’s gravel alleys are the “number one” issue local officials hear about from residents, officials said at a June 22 meeting. Now, if voters are supportive of a referendum this November, the village could undertake a plan to create a 100-year alley paving program as a basis to finding increased funding that could bring that number down.
Officials admit a 100-year fix sounds “somewhat absurd” but promise they’d find ways to speed up that process with outside funding. As Village Manager Tim Wiberg said at the meeting, “You got to start. If you don’t start, you’re never going to finish.”
If the referendum is approved, the village will be able to capture an additional $2 million annually from property tax payments to put toward improving streets and alleys without changing the village’s portion of the amount that taxpayers owe each year.
While the exact wording of the referendum is yet to be finalized, its passage would allow Brookfield to issue an increase on the limiting rate for property taxes for one year past the amount dictated by the state’s Property Tax Extension Law Limit, or PTELL.
Due to the cumulative nature of property taxes year over year, this one-time increase would establish a permanent tax base for Brookfield to dedicate to repaving streets and improving alleyways over time.
The referendum’s impact, if passed, would go into effect at the same time that preexisting bond debt is fully paid off. Of the village’s portion of property tax bills, the amount that is now going toward paying off that debt will instead stay in the village’s coffers. The village will avoid paying the attorney’s costs and other fees associated with issuing bonds for what Wiberg called “an essential village service” and parlay those funds directly into a 25-year road program and a new alley program.
“For our community, as I understand, from years past, [maintaining roads] was a challenge, and the roads fell into disrepair,” Wiberg said. “We’re trying not to have that happen again. If we have a successful referendum in November, we can achieve a much better and more consistent process for maintaining roads.”
Wiberg said more than $5 million out of bond debt totaling about $22 million — nearly 25% of the funds — went toward paying off extraneous costs rather than into Brookfield’s roads.
Because the bonds were issued over time in 2016, 2018 and 2020, Brookfield will not be able to capture the full $2 million each year until 2030, Finance Director Doug Cooper said. In 2027, 2028 and 2029, a portion of those funds will still go toward paying off the remaining bond debt before it is set to expire 10 years after it was issued.
“The first year of the referendum, if it passes, we would get $1 million for the road program. The second year, we would get $1 million, and then it would jump to $1.9 million [in the third year], and then we would get the full $2 million [after that],” Cooper said.
By allowing the debt to fall off, the village will also free up its bonding capacity for any other large projects in the future, as any municipality can only issue debt up to a cap. Cooper said Brookfield’s debt ceiling is between $35 million and $40 million.
The process is reminiscent of a referendum that Riverside voters narrowly approved in 2024, allowing the village to similarly move away from issuing bond debt to improve streets.
“I think it’s remarkable that you found a way to effectively keep residents’ village tax bills the same while responsibly maintaining our streets and doing exactly what half the town has been asking for forever, which is beginning to pave those alleys,” Trustee Jennifer Hendricks said.
The move would also allow Brookfield to begin systematically paving its alleys with permeable pavers, which officials called the “leading issue” that village staff hear complaints about from day to day.
In the past, when residents have banded together on their blocks to fundraise to repave their own alleys, the village has covered engineering and legal fees, about 20% of the total cost, said Dan O’Malley, a project manager at Hancock.
In total to pave all 22 miles of alleyways in Brookfield, it would cost $114 million from just the village or $133 million if residents get involved due to the existing special assessment process, which incurs additional legal fees and other administrative costs, according to agenda documents from the meeting.
If only Brookfield pays the costs to repave alleys, it could put up at least $1,150,000 per year, officials said. The majority, $800,000 would come from the new streets fund that the referendum would enable officials to create. $100,000 would come from funding raised by the village’s tax increment financing, or TIF, districts, accounting for the portion of alleys that fall into such a district. $250,000 would come from grant funding from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago due to the proposed green alleys’ ability to hold stormwater.
In that case, Brookfield’s alley program would operate on a 99-year cycle, Wiberg said, though he emphasized that staffers would seek grant funding year after year in an effort to pave more alleys more quickly.
“We’d find other money sources, but the bottom line is, once you have a program, that helps to get additional money,” Wiberg said. “Once you have a program, that helps to get additional money. This is the worst-case scenario, 100 years. We’re hoping that it would be decades less than that.”
The village is also weighing whether it should ask residents to pony up half of the costs, matching the $1,150,000 it would pay each year. Even with the additional $19 million in costs due to the special assessment process, such a move would cut the time to replace the alleys down to 58 years to start.
Trustee Katie Kaluzny raised the issue of where to start with alley improvements.
“As a resident, I would want to know, is mine in the 99th year or year one? Would it be a similar situation where we’d be rating them like we rate roads?” she asked.
O’Malley said the village could conduct an alley study to determine which alleys need improvement the most, though the village board agreed to continue discussing the issue as filing deadlines for the referendum loom in the coming months.
“It’s really obvious that a 99-year, 100-year process sounds somewhat absurd, but if we do nothing, some future board’s going to [have to deal with it],” Village President Michael Garvey said. “Now, [the cost] is $114 million, and if we wait another 10 years, it’s going to be higher than that. It’s starting it.”
