About arlington park

The future development of Arlington Park is one of the biggest issues for our community.  With the Chicago Bears as the current owners, the village needs to engage with the Bears regardless of whether they intend to build a stadium here or not. This issue has the potential to shape the village’s future for decades to come, which makes it critically important to get this right.

The Chicago Bears are a beloved institution in Chicagoland with many fans in Arlington Heights. I welcome the Bears to our village, but it has to be under the right circumstances and not at residents’ expense.

The most important mandate for the mayor, any trustee, and in fact the village’s entire staff is to act in the best interest of the residents. This means making sure that all decisions are made with a critical eye towards whether they benefit the village and its residents.

Nobody knows at this point where this project will go. The Bears have publicly said that they now favor to remain in Chicago and build a new stadium near Soldier Field. However, the proposed financing of such an endeavor would require significant subsidies from the State of Illinois (among others), and neither the governor nor the Illinois General Assembly seem to be in favor of the current proposal.   

History has shown that the majority of stadium projects have been bad deals for the community. Most often that’s because taxpayers are stuck with an excessive share of the building cost. The Bears have made it clear that regardless of whether they build a new stadium in Chicago or in Arlington Heights, they will require financial assistance, whether it is directly for the stadium (as proposed for Chicago) or for the surrounding development (as previously proposed for Arlington Park).

Regardless of what future proposals look like, the development of Arlington Heights will undoubtedly consume a lot of time for village staff and the Board of Trustees alike. As an actuary, I am trained to look not only at the “expected” outcome, but also assess the downside risk if assumptions prove to be too optimistic.

Let’s not gamble with the village’s future!

Besides the financial implications, other aspects such as traffic and safety are valid concerns that any plan will have to address.

I would like to see any plans that involve significant public assistance to be ratified by the people of Arlington Heights. Once a plan has actually been submitted and negotiated with village staff and the Board of Trustees, it should be subject to a referendum by Arlington Heights residents.

Moreover, I would suggest that the risk should rest with the developer rather than the residents. What this means is that the payout of financial assistance should happen only after the development is complete and once well established metrics prove that the development has been a success, not at the beginning when the future outcome is uncertain.

I am confident that a good plan will be supported by a majority of the residents, much as I believe that any plan that residents don’t support should not move forward.