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School officials and residents urge transparency, safeguards over Ivanhoe Village development
Summary
Multiple public commenters, including school board members, told the Mundelein Village Board the Ivanhoe Village annexation and development process has lacked transparency and that the village must work with District 79 and District 120 on funding, enrollment projections and enforceable phasing guarantees.
Several Fremont school-district officials and local residents used the public-comment period at the March 24 Mundelein Village Board meeting to press the village for more transparency and binding protections related to the Ivanhoe Village development and its potential impacts on school enrollment and taxes.
Sean Kolatki, who identified himself as a 20-year Mundelein resident and board secretary for District 79, said he resigned from the Mundelein Historical Commission in protest over the village’s handling of annexation and negotiations. "You disappointed me," Kolatki said, repeating the line when addressing the mayor and the board.
Aga Matsoff, who identified herself as a member of Fremont School District 79 and an educator, told trustees she and other district officials were not consulted before the village annexed the land in December 2022 and that the districts have been left without the data needed to evaluate fiscal and enrollment impacts. "When we requested additional data from developers to make informed decisions, we were criticized by the mayor for not making a formal financial request in our very first negotiating meeting," Matsoff said.
Several speakers, including Lauren Ordman and a number of residents, asked the village to make public the specific data it used that contradicts the districts’ projections, to codify phasing and milestone guarantees in a written agreement, and to slow down the process until a transparent financial plan is available. "You can easily restore trust by disclosing this data," Ordman said.
What trustees and staff said at the meeting: a village representative acknowledged there are differences in student-projection formulas and said the village has been working with the developer and intends to phase the development agreement in chunks while continuing negotiations. The representative said one meeting used a revised formula that produced substantially lower district-student estimates and that the districts had not yet received the revised formula used by the developer.
Key discussion points raised during public comment included the methodology behind the Johnson Research Group and SV Friedman reports, whether 1996-based multipliers remain appropriate given declining birth rates, and whether a large, phased development will bring families with children or primarily childless households. One commenter said the developer’s low-end student estimate — described at the meeting as roughly 627 students from a 3,595-unit buildout over 25 years — was difficult to reconcile with local growth the districts have already seen.
No formal action was taken during public comment. Trustees and staff reiterated they are continuing negotiations with the developer and that the village is preparing a development-agreement process that will include staged elements; staff said some items will come back to the board in phases for review and approval.
