A longtime Glenview car dealership will  occupy half of  the redeveloped Avon Cosmetics site now that village officials have approved financial incentives for the business.

The Glenview Village Board voted last week to give McGrath Imports Inc. a 15-year sales tax rebate, $250,000 for site development costs and a waiver of building permit fees in exchange for the company keeping its Audi dealership in Glenview, officials said.

Most trustees voted to approve the agreement and spoke favorably about the village’s efforts to keep property taxes low for residents by retaining major sales tax-generating businesses like McGrath.

Trustee Deborah Karton said she supported the measure, but doing so was “not easy” due, in part, to concerns from neighbors. Trustee Paul Detlefs said that he is “not a fan of incentives,” but in a competitive market for businesses, incentives might be necessary.

Scott Britton was the only trustee to vote against the agreement, saying that a company putting $20 million into a new car dealership shouldn’t need $250,000 of taxpayer money up front. Britton said many people and small businesses in Glenview would love to receive the sort of incentives given to McGrath.

“But we don’t give it to them,” he said. “We give it to big companies that threaten to leave.”

Under the agreement, the village will rebate 25 percent of sales taxes generated by McGrath, excluding the village’s home-rule sales tax.

The 15-year rebate will kick in when the new McGrath dealership opens, verifiable yearly sales hit $40 million and the village receives $400,000 in home-rule sales taxes, according to the agreement.

Village officials declined to discuss McGrath’s sales figures at its current location, 301 Waukegan Road, saying that information was confidential to McGrath. Bernard Citron, an attorney representing McGrath, also declined to answer questions after the meeting.

Citron told the board members that because of  McGrath’s success, it received direction — but not money — from Audi to build a new dealership.

“We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t have the financial capability,” Citron said.

Britton requested to see proof of that financial capability, and a audience member David Goldberg echoed his comments.

“The way I look at this, you’re about to make a sweetheart deal with these guys and you don’t have the financial details of the company,” Goldberg said.

But other officials, including Detlefs and Village President Kerry Cummings, said they didn’t agree with Goldberg’s description of the deal. The agreement is tied to sales performance, not a financial background, they said.

Mary Bak, the village’s director of development, said the village has granted similar incentives to large companies, including Abt Electronics and Fields Auto.  She also said McGrath has “been searching for another location for a year or longer,” and village officials grew concerned they could lose a business that has been in Glenview for more than 20 years.

A couple years ago, McGrath’s Acura dealership left Glenview for neighboring Morton Grove, Bak said.

The development agreement approved Tuesday also includes specifications for lighting and tree planting, two issues that have frustrated nearby residents in the Village of Golf and the Glenview subdivision of Golf Acres.

Village officials said they worked to balance the unique lighting and landscaping needs of a car dealership with the quality of life issues neighbors hold dear.   About 230 trees on the property will be cleared, and new ones will be planted primarily toward the back of the property as a buffer, said Deputy Village Manager Don Owen.

Olga Price, a Golf resident, said she was “shocked and perplexed” that officials  would grant exceptions to the Glenview’s 2010 ordinance regulating parking lot lighting. Like other Golf residents, Price was concerned that light would spill into her community.

Traffic flow also was a major worry for Golf residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting and an earlier workshop. But Glenview officials said that the issue would be considered when the Plan Commission begins its deliberations on the project.

Oak Brook-based Regency Centers’ proposed redevelopment of the former Avon Cosmetics site at Golf and Waukegan Roads also includes a Mariano’s grocery store, which was not part of the agreement approved Tuesday.

Residents of Golf and Golf Acres were irked about the timing of Tuesday’s meeting, too. Gold resident Leslie Andren said she serves on a commission studying the impact of the proposed development on her community, but d she wasn’t aware until Friday that Glenview officials were considering a development agreement with McGrath.

She said the agreement undercuts the commission’s work, which it has yet to present.

“All the terms of this agreement are new to us,” she said.