Petition Could Put Wrench In Arlington Heights' Plans To Attract Bears

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — As the Chicago Bears continue to focus on Arlington Heights as a possible new home in coming years, a petition has begun circulating that could create an obstacle for the Bears to possibly move to the village from their current home on the Lakefront.

The petition, which was started by the organization Americans For Prosperity, seeks to limit the city’s ability to benefit financially from a possible move to the village by one of the NFL’s founding franchises. The Bears signed a $197.3 million purchase agreement for the property of the former Arlington Racetrack, which team officials have said they are eying to build a new stadium for the Bears.

Brian Costin, the Illinois state director for Americans For Prosperity, told Patch in a telephone interview on Friday that the group isn't anti-Bears. Instead, it wants taxpayers to be aware of the costs that could be associated with moving the team to the suburbs.

"Obviously, the Chicago Bears represent a really big threat based on what they've done elsewhere in Chicago but also NFL teams across the country," Costin said. "The near-term reason (for the petition) is that we're really concerned about the Village of Arlington Heights giving some sort of (incentive) package that could be hundreds of millions of dollars."

Arlington Heights has remained a focal point for the Bears as Chicago city officials scramble to keep the team from leaving. Last week, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a committee set up by the mayor to re-imagine the Lakefront Museum Campus area, which includes Soldier Field, unveiled plans for what a new and improved stadium could look like.

Plans called for improvements to Solider Field, including adding a dome, that could carry a hefty pricetag that could go up to more than $1 billion. Bears officials aren’t budging, however, telling Patch and other news outlets that they are focused primarily on Arlington Heights as a new home.

Architects for the proposed Soldier Field improvements said while the costs to improve the Bears current home would range between $900 million and more than $1 billion, building a new stadium from scratch in Arlington Heights could add anywhere from $1 billion to $1.5 billion to the costs.

But the petition started by Americans For Prosperity already has at least 300 signatures, which could force village officials to take action if enough signatures are secured, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Tribune reported that the petition seeks to have an ordinance created that would prohibit the village from offering any business or corporation financial incentives to operate within Arlington Heights.

Costin said Friday that the organization's biggest fear is that a deal between village officials and the Bears gets done behind closed doors and leaves taxpayers holding the bill. He characterized the response to the petition as being "very positive" and said many residents share the same feelings as the group.

"We're not against the Chicago Bears relocating to Arlington Heights — we just don't want to see them do it with taxpayer funds," Costin said Friday.

In an email to Patch on Friday, Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus said that the ordinance is not specific to the Bears — or any other singular corporation or organization and would impact all of the village’s economic development efforts throughout the community, he said.

In regard to the petition circulation, the village has issued a statement which says that Americans For Prosperity is trying to "cripple" the village's ability to provide economic development to Arlington Heights.

“The ordinance proposed by Americans for Prosperity aims to prevent the Village of Arlington Heights from engaging in any financial incentives, to any business, for any reason. This extreme proposition would cripple the Village’s ability to engage in economic development throughout our entire community and would have prevented many successful redevelopment and development projects from being realized if it had it been in place in the past," the statement said. "The Village’s award-winning downtown, popular restaurants, active shopping corridors, Arlington Alfresco, and many other projects simply would not be possible without engaging in the types of successful public-private partnerships that the petition aims to prevent.

It continues: “This proposed ordinance would permanently put the Village at a competitive disadvantage compared to other Chicagoland towns for any and all economic development efforts going forward. As a business-friendly community, the Village supports the success of Arlington Heights shops, restaurants, boutiques, and businesses and an ordinance of this extreme nature would put the health of our business community in jeopardy.”

Arlington Heights’ municipal code states that organizations seeking to propose a new village ordinance would need 1 percent of the village’s registered voters to have something brought before the village council. Published reports have indicated that the group would need to collect at least 546 signatures from local voters to move forward.

Costin said that the group is "100 percent confident" it can get the needed signatures and hopes to have a referendum put on the ballot next April unless the Village board decides to move ahead with an ordinance before then.

But for now, the petition remains necessary.

"We have to work now if we're going to avoid another big stadium debacle as we've seen in the past," Costin told Patch, citing other Illinois stadium projects in Chicago, Bridgeview or Hoffman Estates where he said taxpayers got "soaked."

"What we're concerned about is that if we don't act now, they'll put something together (with the Bears) and you'll hear about it a week or two before they vote on it in a really short fashion. It's really important people get the opportunity to vote on things like this. ...we want to give the people of Arlington Heights a voice."