Lake Township taxpayers had two opportunities last week to make second chance property tax appeals thanks to Ald. Silvana Tabares and Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas.
On Jan. 6 and 7, Tabares and Cardenas co-hosted the property tax appeal events at the alderman’s 23rd Ward offices.
“Upon learning the Cook County Board of Review’s District One was reopening the Lake Township property tax appeals, I contacted the office of Commissioner George Cardenas to arrange for representatives to provide services more accessible to residents by providing assistance at my office locations closer to their homes,” Tabares said.
There are three agencies that can hear property tax appeals for single-family residential properties including two and three flats or any property that is not a large commercial property; they include the Assessor’s office, Board of Review and the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.
When tax bills are received in the mail, homeowners who feel their property tax is too high can file an appeal with the Assessor’s office.
If the property owner does not feel they’ve received proper relief from the Assessor’s office, a second appeal can be filed with the Cook County Board of Review.
Cardenas has been concerned that the Board of Review’s appeal process is not better known, specifically by minority homeowners.
“It is frustrating that we’re not getting the word out to people,” Cardenas said. “Communication is a big gap we have at the county level. Resources are key to tell [homeowners’] property stories. We email announcements and work on appeals via the aldermen.”
Contributing factors driving fewer non-commercial appeals being filed with the Board of Review could be busy work schedules, not hearing about the second chance appeal process or an inability to take time off to seek in-person Board of Review assistance at ward events, he said.
Still, last year during the city’s reassessment, Cardenas conducted 50 town halls that accepted 7,400 appeals.
23rd Ward resident John Delponte came to the event hoping to reduce his property taxes.
“I just came because my property taxes went up $2,500 on this last bill,” he said. “I got a flyer in the mailbox saying to come down and hear information to appeal and that’s what I did. My taxes have almost doubled in the six years since I’ve owned the house.”
During the 2025 re-opening of the tax appeal process, 15,000 property owners came forward and most of those were homeowners, according to Cardenas’ office.
An estimated 90 to 100 people showed up to the Jan. 6 and 7 appeal events at the 23rd Ward offices.
“In the property tax bill you receive two times a year, it’s a good time at that moment to remember to appeal taxes,” Cardenas said. “People can pre-appeal (called a pre-registration) and we’ll take it from there. It will be in our system and once we open up the individual townships, we can go ahead and process the appeal.”
The Board of Review property review takes a deeper look into not only commercial property taxes due but residential property taxes as well, he said.
Homeowners wanting to appeal property taxes with the Board of Review can do so by clicking “Submit an Appeal” on the top right of the website landing page.
To determine the dates a resident’s township opens and closes for appeal opportunities click “dates,” then “historical dates.”
To see all current and upcoming public events for appeal assistance, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “View All Public Outreach Events” button.
Another way of getting the appeal process due dates and information includes following Commissioner Cardenas’ Instagram or Facebook accounts.
Cardenas disagreed with Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s assertion in his December 2025 Sun Times story that blamed the Board of Review’s assessment of large commercial properties for homeowner property tax increases.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. “We have different methodologies. We have our differences and need to bridge them. It’s no secret we load the capitalization rates and we use income and expenses to get to a proper review of the appeal. It isn’t just the big guys that get proper review, everybody does. That’s due process and what the statute calls for.”
Non-commercial property taxes skyrocketed because of Chicago’s pandemic-related commercial vacancy rate, which increased due to people who are still working remotely, causing commercial property values to fall which resulted in less property tax collected from these buildings, he said.
Chicago’s commercial vacancy rate was 28% in last year’s third quarter compared to New York City’s 13.6% during the same time period, according to an October 2025 Illinois Policy story.
Cardenas cited three national standard approaches to commercial property valuation; “ … cost, meaning rebuilding a building, income, the most current accurate measurement of valuation, meaning income potential from leases including the cost of rents and sales, and what other buildings sell for,” he said.
“We are affected by having direct evidence, which we are supposed to have by statute, making a huge difference in methodologies,” Cardenas said. “You have to have these additional pieces go into the [valuation] formula because these are large commercial properties. Single-family residences don’t typically run a large number of businesses out of their homes. There are 1,000,008 properties in Cook County making it logistically impossible to value them based on income.”
Hypothetically, let’s say there are two identical buildings on LaSalle Street, one with 50% of its offices occupied and the other is at 100%, he said.
“You can’t tell me that they have the same value when they go to sell,” Cardenas said. “If I’ve got 100% of my space occupied with guaranteed leases, I’m going to be able to sell that for much higher value and that’s what we consider.”
Studies have also shown that gentrification is another factor causing higher residential home values on the South Side.