Orland Park trustees on Tuesday approved a process that opens the door for homeowners associations to transfer facilities to the village and unincorporated subdivisions to annex, responding to growing requests from residents.
The move comes as the village has received multiple inquiries from HOAs struggling with aging infrastructure and rising costs, and from subdivisions outside the village limits seeking municipal services, officials said
At Tuesdays village board meeting, village officials said Orland Park has fielded multiple inquiries about annexation and HOA transfers, with developers and subdivision owners increasingly recognizing the benefits of joining the city.
Under the new annexation program, homeowners associations can petition the village to take over maintenance of roads, ponds, and other facilities.
The process requires:
- A two-thirds vote from HOA members to ensure broad consensus.
- An evaluation by village public works officials to assess current conditions and repair costs.
- A financial analysis by the village’s Finance Department. Funding through a Special Service Area (SSA) tax, which spreads costs among residents who benefit.
- A formal agreement between the HOA and the village.
- Village board approval.
The village requires broad consensus within an HOA before approving a transfer and specifies how the funding mechanism would work. Existing residents will not bear the cost of HOA transfers or upgrades; the SSA tax applies only to HOA residents who requested the transfer, officials said.
Two subdivisions are currently in discussion with the village.
One, located north of Orland Park, has substandard roads and lacks water and sewer service on private streets. The other, Brittany Glen, already receives water and sewer from the village and has streets meeting village standards, though the final pavement layer has not been applied.
The annexation process requires the village to assess the current condition of roads and utilities, then determine what upgrades are needed.
Residents who annex will pay for initial upgrades and the first level of maintenance, since they have not been paying village taxes. After that first maintenance cycle, they will be treated like regular village residents and will share costs equally.
Residents seeking annexation cited multiple reasons, including access to the village library, police and fire services, and road maintenance standards.
Trustees directed staff to prepare land development code amendments and administrative procedures to formalize both programs.
Mayor Jim Dodge said the framework will provide clarity and consistency.
“We’ve had a number of requests from homeowners associations to take over part or all of some of their responsibilities,” he said. “And it was always on a case by case basis. And so this is the first step, or it’s an attempt to kind of make that a solid framework that we could execute.”
