By Nick Reiher

Will County Board members are considering whether to become part of a local group of communities that would work together to return dormant, non-taxpaying properties into productive opportunities for growth.

The Illinois Legislature created a statute that allows counties and municipalities to form a Land Bank, and together identify and purchase properties in their areas that may be stifling economic development, such as an abandoned or run-down property or properties that could have developers looking elsewhere.

“This is an economic development tool that enables all communities that want to join the opportunity to address problem properties,” said Doug Pryor, President and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

Pryor and Hugh O’Hara, Executive Director of the Will County Governmental League, brought the Land Bank plan to Will County officials after representatives of one local community showed interest in forming a group.

Pryor said there are other Will County communities interested, but he didn’t want to name them since their boards haven’t had a chance to vote on it.

This Land Bank, according to the CED presentation, would be controlled in and focused on Will County through intergovernmental partnerships.

It could return stagnant properties to productive use, expand long-term tax base, reduce blight and code enforcement burden, support municipalities with redevelopment challenges, improve site readiness for investment, and help address aging and underutilized properties, according to the presentation.

Properties could be acquired through donations and gifting, government transfers direct purchase, tax foreclosure/delinquency process. In most cases, the CED presentation says, these properties are already vacant, abandoned, tax delinquent, or otherwise difficult to reposition through normal market channels

Pryor said Land Banks in Illinois already include Cook County Land Bank, the Lake County Land Bank Authority, the recently formed bank in DuPage County; the Kankakee County Land Bank; the South Suburban (Cook) Land Bank; and the Northern Illinois Land Bank, which includes Boone, McHenry, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

Results in those areas have been sufficiently encouraging to recommend the concept here, Pryor said.

At various county committee meetings, some Will County Board members have been wary of the concept, wondering if it would replace local zoning laws or force housing legislation, as Gov. JB Pritzker attempted to do in the last legislative session.

Pryor told Farmers Weekly Review he is adamant municipalities retain local control in all cases, with Land Banks or otherwise. While it could help a community member with housing issues, he added, the aim is to remove impediments to development each community identifies. One member would not have control over another.

The Land Bank would be a redevelopment enabler, the CED presentation says, not a long-term property owner. Currently, municipalities and other government agencies may be tied up from redevelopment on their own because of fragmented ownership, tax/title complications and multi-jurisdiction coordination challenges.

Pryor said Will County’s participation isn’t essential to a local Land Bank, but it would be critical.

Counties are central to tax foreclosure and delinquency processes, according to the CED presentation, and thus enables efficient title and tax resolution.

If Will County votes to become a member, a draft resolution recommends members include the Will County Executive, Will County Treasurer, Board Speaker and the Executive Director of the Will County Governmental League, or any of their designees.

Since all of the above county offices are held by Democrats, Republicans said they want one of their members on the board as well.

Each member municipality would submit a member, according to the draft resolution, which could include the mayor, board member or staff member.

The resolution also calls for five expert directors, one each with specific expertise in economic development; real estate, finance, banking, planning, engineering, architecture, development; and workforce development, organized labor, community development, nonprofit leadership, commercial development, or related fields.

Pryor said the local Land Bank board would be set up similar to that of the local water commission governing the advent of Lake Michigan water to community members.

Members of the Land Bank board would elect their own chair, secretary, treasurer, etc., he said. CED would help them get organized, Pryor said, and then step back and allow them to work.

The Will County Board was to consider the Land Bank resolution at its June 18 meeting. But Board Speaker Joe Van Duyne, D-Wilmington, asked that it be removed since board members still have many questions.

He called for the issue to be discussed at a committee-of-the-whole meeting, where board members could get more information, but not take a formal vote. That meeting has yet to be scheduled.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.