Business View Magazine | January 2020

313 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 THE V I LLAGE OF LEMONT , I LL INOI S going to help support our downtown businesses, to help make sure that they can survive seven days a week.” Another part of Lemont’s economic plan concerns the use of TIFs – Tax Increment Finance Districts. “In the ‘90s and 2000s, we had a couple of TIFs in place as an incentive tool,” says Village Administrator, George Schafer. “They were used, primarily, to bring our infrastructure up to snuff - a lot of new water mains, sewer mains, and storm sewers – underground utilities. Now we’re at a point where we’re utilizing TIFs for vertical development.” “We have several TIFs,” adds Egofske. “There’s the TOD, another one that we just implemented downtown, and they’ve been an incredible tool to drive continued and new economic growth. And it’s just not in the downtown; we’re using it in the northeast part of town, as well. We have two TIFs located out there in what was considered a highly industrial area 40 or 50 St. James Academy Stonecutters Mural