Zion approves redevelopment deal, police prevention partnership and multiple routine measures

The Zion City Council on Feb. 18 approved a redevelopment agreement with Orion Asset Management LLC and Plano Pharmaceuticals Inc., authorized the city to join a Lake County behavioral threat-assessment pilot, and voted unanimously on a set of other ordinances and contracts, officials said.

The council’s actions included formal approval of a redevelopment agreement for about 21.7 acres in Trumpet Park; authorization to participate in “Protect Lake County,” a behavioral threat-assessment and management (BTAM) initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; a contract for groundwater monitoring at the city’s closed landfill; a right-of-way vacation requested by the Zion Park District; a routine tax-abatement ordinance tied to a 2017 general obligation refunding bond; and approval of several internal personnel promotions in the fire department.

Why it matters: The redevelopment deal is intended to attract a manufacturing and distribution operation to Zion that city staff said could create 40 to 50 jobs in an initial phase and scale to as many as 300 over 10 to 15 years. The BTAM partnership is a prevention-focused public-safety initiative that the police chief said carries no direct cost to the city under the current grant. Several of the other items—landfill monitoring, right-of-way vacation and tax abatement—were presented as routine governance or long-term liability-management matters.

Redevelopment agreement: Administrator Nabel told the council that Lake County Partners connected the…