Aureliano Hernandez lives with his wife and three children on nearly an acre on Hawthorne Avenue in unincorporated Will County.
His property is a mixture of old and new, with a large chicken coop, a flourishing flower garden and his father’s boat in the backyard along with solar panels on the roof.
Just as it is with other residents on the street, his home is a mere stone’s throw away from the southwest boundary of Park Forest.
That nearness to the village is the problem he and 21 of his neighbors’ face as the village will vote Nov. 2 whether to incorporate 22 homes around Hawthorne Avenue and Monee Road, and one at which the affected homeowners will make their final pleas.
None of the affected residents like the idea of being involuntarily shoehorned into town, and all 22 showed up at the last board meeting to protest, with both voice and signs, that they prefer the freedom of making their own choice of where to live.
If it were only that simple.
The village claims that police and fire service, as well as a new water line, will improve the lot of unwilling homeowners. That is not good enough reasons for the 22 who say they will be faced with having to pay village property taxes, which are among the highest in the state.
Hernandez says he and his wife deliberately chose where to live.
“We wanted privacy, independence and a place where we could plant roots, raise our growing family and build a future” he told the board.
“These are not just 22 parcels on an annexation map,” he said. “
Hernandez said the homeowners deserve more than the tree minutes alloted to each speaker at Village Board meetings to make their case.
Along with the loss of independence, the overriding concern among protestors is the size of Park Forest’s property taxes, which are among the highest in the state. To combat that, Park Forest is offering the uncooperative 22 a rebate on property taxes for three years, sliding from 75% in the first year to 50% the year after that and finally to 25% in the third year.
In the fourth year, however, the 22 homeowners will pay the going rate.
It must be noted that these 22 homes are in Will County, and not subject to the extreme variations of Cook County.
What complicates the property tax issue in Park Forest are the 954 co-op apartment units in the village. Property assessments in Illinois are based on resale and market value. Because these co-op units usually have lower resale value than single-family homes or condominium units, property taxes assessments for co-ops were a fraction of what homeowners pay and in years past, some co-op sites did not pay any property tax.
Although co-op residents often work with village officials in reducing costs, the Cook County portion is structured completely differently than all other counties in Illinois. Former Park Forest Mayor John Ostenburg notes the high number of exemptions including seniors, veterans and homeowners “causes a particular burden in communities of modest income such as Park Forest.”
In his written statement, John Smith, one of the 22 protesters who owns a 1.75-acre property on Monee Road, echoed Hernandez’s concerns.
“This isn’t just about property taxes.” he writes. “it’s about property rights. Our community did not ask for this annexation. We do not want it.”
Not all trustees are in lock step with the annexation. Randall White, who is seeking to become the village mayor in the April election, says he will oppose any annexation. But as of now, he is the only member of the board who has come out against the annexation.
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The Hawthorne Avenue homes are the second in a series of planned annexations by the village. The first, for four properties on Monee Road, was painless. But as of now, Park Forest plans to annex more adjacent areas served by the village.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.