Orland Park trustees are moving forward on a road expansion project that’s been discussed for more than a decade, and it’s Amazon that’s making it possible.
The village board voted Monday to pursue a Tax Increment Financing district for the Ravinia Avenue extension, a $12 million infrastructure project designed to ease traffic congestion at one of the area’s most clogged intersections. The financing mechanism would allow the village to recover its costs if the TIF is eventually established, using tax revenue generated by Amazon’s new $70 million retail development.
The Ravinia extension has been on the village’s wish list since at least 2015, but without a dedicated funding source, it never moved beyond the planning stage. The arrival of Amazon — which agreed not to ask for direct village incentives — changed the equation. Now the village has a revenue stream to pay for infrastructure improvements that will benefit the entire area, from residents to businesses like Costco…