A public information meeting and public hearing to receive comment about the formation of a Silver Lake Management District was postponed Monday after too many people showed up to safely be accommodated in Salem Lakes Village Hall due to COVID-19 protocols.
People started lining up outside for the meeting by 5:10 p.m. By shortly before the meeting was the start at 5:30 p.m., there were about 30 people outside while more people were inside setting up displays about the issue.
Village President Diann Tesar said the village will reschedule the information meeting and public hearing for a venue, such as a school, that can safely accommodate more people.
The Village Board meeting was to start at 6 p.m.with a public hearing on the Silver Lake Management District. Since the informational meeting could not be safely held Monday, the hearing also was cancelled, Tesar said.
Last October, supporters of creating the district — which would have taxing authority — presented a plan to include only proprieties adjacent to the lake in the district. An earlier effort to establish a wider district failed.
Any such district would have to be created by the Village Board.
Those targeted properties have a total assessment in excess of $64
million and pay annual real estate taxes of over $1.17 million, said a spokesman for the pro-district group last October. The lake district as proposed is estimated to cost district taxpayers about $75 per $100,000 valuation annually, or about $150-$375 per year for properties assessed at $150,000 to $500,000.
The spokesman said the district has the support of most of the property owners within the district, with 75 percent having signed a petition calling for the district formation.
